Abstract

The title of this thesis is The Arabic Braille: Evaluation and Suggestions for Modification. It studies the Braille writing system from a descriptive point of view, with the purpose of trying to determine the extent of functionality of the Arabic Braille system and its comparability with the seen writing systems. After the theoretical background is presented, which discusses definitions of the Braille writing system, its history, and fields of activities, the thesis proceeds to its main objective, which is to examine the Arabic Braille system. The results of the study show that the efficiency of the Arabic Braille system sterns in part from its similarity to the functional seen writing systems, enabling the users to extend its domains of applications to other spheres of knowledge beyond the simple reading and writing tasks. Nonetheless, the study found that the Arabic system also has its problems. A part of which is inherited from the seen writing system, while the other part stemps from its own nature as a tactual writing system. Some solutions were suggested for these problems. For example, new letter dot representations were suggested for the problem of linear letters, mirror opposition letters, and common symbol letters, which are inherent in the system of Arabic Braille. A possible solution for the problems inherited from the seen Arabic orthography is to suggest reducing the paradigm of punctuation marks t its functional elements leaving out only the symbols that do not have active or meaningful role in writing. Introducing new dot representations for the short vowel phonemes was the proposed solution for the problem of the lack of representation for these linguistic elements. As a result, the study suggests a new alphabet literary code for the Arabic Braille.

School

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Degree Name

MA in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language

Date of Award

6-1-1997

Online Submission Date

1-1-1997

Document Type

Thesis

Extent

206 leaves

Library of Congress Subject Heading 1

Braille.

Library of Congress Subject Heading 2

Blind

Rights

The American University in Cairo grants authors of theses and dissertations a maximum embargo period of two years from the date of submission, upon request. After the embargo elapses, these documents are made available publicly. If you are the author of this thesis or dissertation, and would like to request an exceptional extension of the embargo period, please write to thesisadmin@aucegypt.edu

Call Number

Thesis 1997/43

Location

mgfth

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