Ronan, I think this is a valuable opportunity to achieve a good standard of Braille in Irish and I congratulate INBAF on the work being done. I have been looking into the problem of expressing letters with long accent signs (fadas). I don't like the current practice of using the English signs "and, for, of, the, with" as "á, é, í, ó, ú" in Irish. This seems to be an easy solution but not an obvious choice of representation. There is a suggestion that we might use a two character system of employing a dot-4 before each of the vowels to show their modified state. This seems more logical but is, I agree, adding length to the word and so runs counter to the aim of grade II Braille to reduce the length of words. I admire the logical structure of Braille which makes it easy to learn the a-z alphabet in English - even though the "w" does not fit in. I would like to find a solution that brings Irish into a similarly intuitive solution. In Irish we have ten vowels effectively, while English only has five. This is our difficulty. In Irish the characters "j, k, q, v, w, x, y, z" are not used. Likewise, the contractions for English " wh, ou, ow, of, the, with" are all available. Could we find a reason to pick any five of these to logically represent the fada? All the best, Cearbhall T: +353 (0)1 2864623 m: 08333 23487 E: omeadhrac@xxxxxxx -----Original Message----- From: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ronan McGuirk Sent: 10 April 2013 17:44 To: irelandvipnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; vicsireland Subject: [vicsireland] We need your views on Irish Braille! Hello all, We need your views on Irish Braille! I am writing to you on behalf of the INBAF Irish Braille Working Group. This working group is charged with the revision of the Braille code used for the Irish language (Gaeilge). The current Irish Braille code is described by the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Braille Pat Farrell, a member of the working group, took the initiative of suggesting comprehensive Irish Braille code revision which has been discussed by the group over the last year. We now have a full draft version of a suggested new Irish Braille code which is available in braille and print and in electronic format (please contact Pat on patfarrell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx for a copy). We are especially interested in everyone's views on the suggested new Irish wordsigns and the two different options for expressing letters with long accent signs (fadas). The objective is to agree on a new code, preserving appropriate elements of the existing code and developing where needed. In revising the code, the working group will take into account readability and ease of learning. It is really important that all those with an interest inIrish Braille express their views. If you are a reader of Irish in Braille, or would like to read Irish in Braille, whether in book format or on a Braille display, your views are important. Can you please contact us with your views. Proposed new drafts for trial will be circulated in due course when agreed by the working group. Can you please reply to this mail on the llist with your thoughts, or email Pat Farrell at the above address with your comments and for a copy of the new draft. Can you please pass this mail on to anyone you know who may have an interest in Irish in Braille who is not on this list. Many thanks Ronan McGuirk, on behalf of INBAF Irish Braille Working Group =========================================================== The vicsireland mailing list To unsubscribe at any time send a mail to: vicsireland-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe", without the quotes in the subject of the message. To contact the moderator send mail to: tim.j.culhane@xxxxxxxxx For mor information on the Visually Impaired Computer Society visit: http://www.vicsireland.org