# ⠈

| ⠈ | U+2808, &#10248; BRAILLE PATTERN DOTS-4 |
| ← ⠇ [U+2807] | Braille Patterns | ⠉ → [U+2809] |

## Translingual

A character of the braille script, originally used as a symbol prefix. Some alphabets use it for a variant of a because it is a reflection of the braille letter ⠁ a.

### Etymology

Invented by Louis Braille, braille cells were arranged in numerical order and assigned to the letters of the French alphabet. Most braille alphabets follow this assignment for the 26 letters of the basic Latin alphabet or, in non-Latin scripts, for the transliterations of those letters. In such alphabets, the first ten braille letters (the first decade: ⠁⠃⠉⠙⠑⠋⠛⠓⠊⠚) are assigned to the Latin letters A to J and to the digits 1 to 9 and 0. (Apart from '2', the even digits all have three dots: ⠃⠙⠋⠓⠚.)
The letters of the first decade are those cells with at least one dot in the top row and at least one in the left column, but none in the bottom row. The next decade repeat the pattern with the addition of a dot at the lower left, the third decade with two dots in the bottom row, and the fourth with a dot on the bottom right. The fifth decade is like the first, but shifted downward one row. The first decade is supplemented by the two characters with dots in the right column and none in the bottom row, and that supplement is propagated to the other decades using the generation rules above. Finally, there are four characters with no dots in the top two rows. Many languages that use braille letters beyond the 26 of the basic Latin alphabet follow an approximation of the English or French values for additional letters.

### Symbol

* (IPA Braille) superscript mark [as in French Braille]
* (International Greek Braille) the acute accent (oxia)
* (music) 1st octave.

### Letter

* (Hungarian Braille) á
* (Slovak Braille) ä
       Non-Latin transliteration
* (Bharati Braille) the virama/halant, ् [cancels the inherent a vowel]
* (Urdu Braille) the shadda, ◌ّ◌
* (Cantonese Braille) Tone 3

### Punctuation mark

* (Czech Braille) the apostrophe, '

### See also

    ⠈⠝ ñ (Philippins Braille)
* Braille eight-dot extensions from ⟨⠈⟩: ⡈ ⢈ ⣈

## English
### Prefix

* indicates the following letter bears a diacritic.
* marks a variant of a Greek letter, such as final sigma ς, or ϐ, ϑ, ϰ, ϖ, ϱ, ϕ.
* marks a question mark appearing on its own, e.g. ⠦⠈⠦⠴ for ⟨"?"⟩.
* derives some logograms, namely:
    ⠈⠇ £, ⠈⠑ €, ⠈⠽ ¥, ⠈⠉ ¢, ⠈⠲ [or] ⠈⠎ $.

#### Usage notes

* Indicates an unspecified diacritic, for example preceding an e in blessèd and coëducational, a c in façade, an n in señor.
* If the diacritic needs to be specified, technical transcription must be used.
* The question mark normally needs context to disambiguate, as the same braille cell is a quotation mark when preceded by a space.

## French
### Punctuation mark

* Marks subsequent glyphs as superscript; exponential notation.

### Contraction

⠈ (ar)
* The letter sequence ar.

#### Usage notes

    The sequence ar may appear anywhere in its word.

## Korean
### Letter

⠈ • (g-)
* Syllable-intial ㄱ (g).

#### Coordinate terms

    Syllable-final ⠁.

## Luxembourgish
### Punctuation mark

* The quotation mark (opening or closing).

## Mandarin
### Letter

* (Taiwan Braille) Tone 3
* Braille eight-dot extensions from ⟨⠈⟩: ⡈ ⢈ ⣈