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UEB Decisions Since the General Assembly, 2004

(through July 2007)

 

Listed below are the decisions that have been finalized since the General Assembly of ICEB in 2004.  They are in the hands of the Rules Working Group whose task it is to write the transcriber rules for the concepts cited in these decisions.  The wording in the decisions is given out of the discussion context and thus should not be relied upon as the rule.    

 

Symbols

1. The symbols for diphthong are removed.  The ligature symbol (dots 45, 235) is to be used instead.

 

2. The symbols for copyright, trademark and registered trademark are changed to dots 4-5c, 4-5r and 4-5t for copyright, registered trademark and trademark respectively. (These are used by the Braille Authority of the United Kingdom (BAUK) and were proposed for use by the Braille Authority of North America (BANA.)

Indicators
1. The typeform and/or capital indicators are to be placed at the beginning of each consecutive paragraph or text element in that typeform and/or in full capitals, but the typeform and/or capital terminator is to be placed at the close of the last paragraph only.

 

2. The length of passage is changed from two to three “words” for capitalization, typeform and grade 1 mode.

3. The rule for transcribers titled Capitalization and dated March 3, 2006 is approved.

 

 

 

 

 

Contractions

1.  Generally contractions are to be used more liberally including the bridging of syllables. The UEB Rules Working Group is using the rules of British Braille as the main reference for the drafting of the UEB contraction rules, keeping in mind the directives given in resolution 7 of the ICEB General Assembly 2004:

● rule simplification

● reduction of exceptions to rules

● maximizing consistencies in braille usage across English-speaking countries which include: common usage of contractions, bridging syllables, diphthongs, and rules dependent on pronunciation.     

 

2. In general, contractions which bridge a prefix and the remainder of a word are allowed.  In particular, the contractions ed, en, er, of and st are permissible.

 

3. In general, contractions which bridge a word and its suffix are allowed unless the suffix begins with an aspirated h.

 

4. The contraction for here is used when the letters it represents are pronounced as one syllable.

      

5.  The contraction for ence is used before the letters d or r.

6. The contraction for ever is used when the stress is on the first e and the letter group is not preceded by an e or i.  

 

7.  The contraction for word is used wherever the letters it represents occur.

 

8.  In general, the ea contraction is used whenever ea occurs within a word.

 

 

 

Shortforms:

1. The shortform word o’clock is deleted.

2.  Simple Shortforms: Shortforms generally are used wherever they occur as whole words standing alone, regardless of meaning and whether they are used as ordinary words or as proper names.
Examples: good news; Chicken Little; Louis Braille

3.  Shortforms within Ordinary Words: Shortforms are used within longer ordinary words (that is, words that have meaning other than use as proper names) standing alone, provided (a) there is no interference in spelling and (b) an original meaning of the basic shortform word is retained.
 
Examples: mustn’t, musty, mustard (must is used in all three instances because some meaning of the word “must” is retained) but mustang, muster, mustache, musteline; afterglow but rafter; unfriendly; newsletter, letterman, letterhead, subletter and bloodletter; shoulder; rebrailled.
 
4.  Ordinary Words used as Names: When an ordinary word is used as a proper name, it is contracted in the same way as the ordinary word.
 
Examples: “We had lunch at Friendly’s Restaurant”; “Oddly enough, our roofer is George Rafter”; “We call our sailboat ‘The Turnabout‘”.
 
5.  Shortforms within Proper Names: Certain shortforms are used within longer “pure” proper names (those that are not ordinary words) standing alone, according to the following provisions:
 
5.1.  Braille is used anywhere within a pure proper name.
 
Examples: “We visited the town of Marcillat-en-Combraille.“
Versabraille, Braillex

5.2.  Any one of the shortforms blind, children, first, friend, good, great, letter, little or quick are used at the beginning of a pure proper name, provided it is not followed by a vowel or y.
 
Examples: Firstbank; Goodhumor man but Goodyear, Hapgood; Letterkenny but Linkletter

 
5.3.  Shortforms other than those listed in 5.1 and 5.2 are not used within longer pure proper names. 
Examples: Magaina; Aboutfishing
 
6.  Overriding Limitations on Shortforms within Longer Words:
Notwithstanding any of the above rules 2 through 5, shortforms are not used in any of the following circumstances:
 
6.1.  The shortforms for after, blind, or friend are not  used before a vowel or y.
 
Examples: blinding; friendy
 
6.2.  The shortforms beginning with be and con are not  used after the beginning of a longer word.
 
Example: hereinbelow
 
6.3.  A shortform is not used if the result could be mistaken for another word.
 
Example: abouts (“about” is not used as “abs” is a word now in general usage).
 

 

7. Resolution of Ambiguity: When a pure proper name or other string of letters, standing alone, could be mistaken for a shortform or word containing a shortform according to the foregoing rules the ambiguity is removed as follows:
 
7.1.  If the string of letters could be read as a simple (unextended) shortform:
 
(a)  If the shortform contains an internal contraction, then the internal contraction is not used.
 
Example: mch (spell out, not using the “ch” contraction).
 
(b)  If the shortform comprises only letters, a grade 1 symbol indicator precedes the word.
 
Examples: BRL (;,,brl); Al (;,al); Ab (;,ab).
 
7.2.  Otherwise, i.e. if the string of letters could be read as a longer word containing a shortform:
 
(a)  If there are any groups of letters only (not including internal contractions) that could be mistaken for shortforms and that are not at the very beginning of the complete word, a grade 1 word indicator precedes the word and the entire word is brailled uncontracted.
 
Examples: hereinabv; ozbrl (the name of an Australian email list) (;;ozbrl); unfrly (;;unfrly); Dobrljin (town in Bosnia and Herzegovina) (;;,dobrljin).
 
(b)  In all other cases, any group of braille symbols that could be mistaken for a shortform is treated as in 7. (a) above, that is spelled out if it contains an internal contraction, or is prefixed by a single grade 1 symbol indicator at the beginning of the word.
 
Examples: frly (;frly); abvboard (;abvbo>d); inasmch (9asmch); Llhuyd (place name) (;,llhuyd); Llwyn (;,llwyn).
 

8.  Hyphenation: Shortforms are not divided onto two braille lines, but a line division may occur on either side provided the overall appearance of the word in braille is not otherwise affected.
 
Example: “immediate-
ly” 

9.  List of Ordinary Words Containing Shortforms: A list of the complete ordinary words wherein shortforms are used according to rules 3 and 6 above is maintained and published by the UEB committee, and revised from time to time to reflect changes in English usage.  This list is considered secondary to, that is derived from, rules 3 and 6.  It is definitive for purposes of professional and automatic transcription, and illustrative for other purposes, such as private correspondence.

Lower Contractions:
1.  The lower contractions for be his was were in enough are used when preceded by a typeform indicator and when followed by a typeform terminator.

2.  The lower contractions for be his was were in enough are used only with braille punctuation marks which contain an upper dot (all the brackets and double and Italian quotes).

3.  It is permissible to use the lower contractions be his was  were in enough with the braille grouping signs (opening dots 1-2-6, closing dots 3-4-5). 

 

Phonetics

Phoneticsare to be dealt with separately from UEB itself.

 

 

 

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