Signs:
Math Comma “,”
⠂
Dot 2
Colon “:”
⠐⠂
Dots 2-5
Hyphen “-”
⠤⠤
Dots 36-36
Explanation
Braille dots representing punctuation signs in normal text content are the same dots as those signs when used in mathematical content. The punctuation signs that appear in mathematical content in a plain font are the same as the signs used in literal text content. Braille punctuation signs follow the normal font in terms of order and spaces.
Math Comma
The comma used in mathematics is the same as the English comma and its braille symbol is a cell containing the second dot.
Important note: You can’t type the English comma in the text content using the Arabic table, either the module 1 or 2 tables, because it conflicts with the diacritical sign “Fatha”, but it will be able to be read. You can only type the English comma in math content specifically if you are in number mode, i.e., you can only type it after a number, in such case what will be written on the computer is the mathematical comma and not the “Fatha”.
The mathematical comma is used to separate long numbers or to indicate the boundaries in a list. It follows the same normal writing rules in usage and spaces.
When you put the mathematical comma after a number, the number mode remains activated and is not terminated. This means that the number that is written after the comma must be written without the number sign. But if space is kept after the comma as in the list, the number mode is terminated, so, if you want to write a number after that space, it should be preceded by the number sign.
Example1:
2,700
⠼⠃⠂⠛⠚⠚ #######Example 2: 23, 25, 27
⠼⠃⠉⠂⠀⠼⠃⠑⠂⠀⠼⠃⠛
Colon:
The colon is written in two cells. The fifth dot in the first cell and the second dot in the second cell.
For example, the colon is used to separate hours and minutes when writing the time. It is also used when writing ratios.
The colon ends the number mode, so you must type the number sign before the number that follows the colon.
######Example 3
5:30
⠼⠑⠐⠂⠼⠉⠚
Hyphen
The hyphen in braille consists of two cells, 36-36.
The hyphen is commonly used to link two connected elements.
It may be difficult to distinguish the hyphen from the minus sign in the normal font, but they are two separate signs in braille. In the normal font, the minus sign is usually slightly longer than the hyphen.
The hyphen ends the number mode, which means that if we want to write a number immediately after the hyphen, the number sign must be placed before that number.
######Example 4
15-10-2020
⠼⠁⠑⠤⠤⠼⠁⠚⠤⠤⠼⠃⠚⠃⠚
Other punctuation signs
For other punctuation signs that can appear after numbers, such as a comma or semicolon, they are written in braille immediately after the number as in the regular font, you should not leave a space between the number and the punctuation sign.
########Example5:
Grades: Ahmed 8, Mohammed 9, Khalid 7.
⠁⠇⠙⠗⠚⠁⠞⠐⠂⠀⠌⠱⠍⠙⠀⠼⠓⠐⠀⠺⠍⠱⠍⠙⠀⠼⠊⠐⠀⠺⠭⠁⠇⠙⠀⠼⠛⠲
As previously mentioned, the number mode is terminated by adding a space or any punctuation sign except for the mathematical comma and the dot, so, the number sign must be used after any number that is written immediately after any punctuation sign other than these two signs.
Note: The full stop and the decimal resume the number mode. This will be addressed in a separate lesson.