--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Don Osborn" <dzo@...> wrote:

>
> Thanks Suzanne and Jonathan for the informative and interesting
> replies. By chance there is an RFI on Linguist list that perhaps

some

> may be able to reply to.
>
> It leads to another question as to how well braille now supports
> languages written with extended Latin scripts (those for which the
> extended characters used to represent sounds not represented by

the

> standard Western alphabet are in the IPA and other extended Latin
> ranges)...
>

Hi Don,

There is a study about differential segmental awareness in children
learning to read in the alphasyllabic Kannada writing system and
blind children learning to read in the alphabetic Kannada Braille.

It seems from this description that Braille, when adapted to Indic
scripts, is an alphabet and does not attempt to recreate the
syllabic structure of the Indic writing system. I would guess that
it acts like a transliteration of Kannada into the roamn alphabet
and does not necessarily have additional characters but I don't know
that.

Padakannaya, P. Syllabic and phonemic awareness in children
acquiring literacy in a semisyllabic script, Dept. of Psychology, U.
of Mysore. quoted in a paper by R. Sproat at this link.

http://compling.ai.uiuc.edu/rws/newindex/indic.pdf

On another note, I accidently said earlier that the Moon system was
*also* British - a slip. Of course, Braille is French. The original
system for the blind was invented by Valentin Hauy in 18th century
France. The Moon system is British.

Suzanne