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Charles Barbier
Charles Barbier de la Serre (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl baʁbje də la sɛʁ]; 18 May 1767 – 22 April 1841) was the French inventor of several forms of shorthand and alternative means of writing, one of which became the inspiration for Braille.
Barbier was born in Valenciennes and served in the French artillery from 1784 to 1792. He left France during the Revolution and lived for several years in the United States, returning to France during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. He did not rejoin the military.
Barbier was interested in shorthand and other alternative writing forms. In 1815, he published a book titled, Essai sur divers procédés d'expéditive française. In this book, Barbier explains that conventional writing is a barrier to universal literacy because it takes too long to learn, and people who must earn their living (farmers, artisans) cannot devote the necessary time to education. Barbier was also concerned about the barriers to literacy faced by people with visual or hearing impairments.
He proposed a simplified writing system based on a grid, which existed in two forms. The first is the conventional alphabet in a grid of 5x5 (at the time, the letter W was seldom used in the French language).
Each letter could be represented by a two-digit number: the row number followed by the column number. For example, Q = 4,2.
The numbers 1 to 5 could, in turn, each be assigned a unique and simple symbol: two symbols together formed each letter.
There was also a phonetic version, containing the sounds of the French language. In the 1815 book, there were 30 sounds in a grid of five rows and six columns, but Barbier later expanded the number to 36, in a grid with six rows and six columns. Barbier preferred the phonetic version, arguing that learning the rules of spelling presented a further barrier to literacy for those without formal education.
The book included 12 plates that used different symbols to represent the numbers. One, plate VII, used dots to represent the numbers: Q would be a vertical row of 4 dots immediately followed by a vertical row of 2 dots.
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Charles Barbier
Charles Barbier de la Serre (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl baʁbje də la sɛʁ]; 18 May 1767 – 22 April 1841) was the French inventor of several forms of shorthand and alternative means of writing, one of which became the inspiration for Braille.
Barbier was born in Valenciennes and served in the French artillery from 1784 to 1792. He left France during the Revolution and lived for several years in the United States, returning to France during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. He did not rejoin the military.
Barbier was interested in shorthand and other alternative writing forms. In 1815, he published a book titled, Essai sur divers procédés d'expéditive française. In this book, Barbier explains that conventional writing is a barrier to universal literacy because it takes too long to learn, and people who must earn their living (farmers, artisans) cannot devote the necessary time to education. Barbier was also concerned about the barriers to literacy faced by people with visual or hearing impairments.
He proposed a simplified writing system based on a grid, which existed in two forms. The first is the conventional alphabet in a grid of 5x5 (at the time, the letter W was seldom used in the French language).
Each letter could be represented by a two-digit number: the row number followed by the column number. For example, Q = 4,2.
The numbers 1 to 5 could, in turn, each be assigned a unique and simple symbol: two symbols together formed each letter.
There was also a phonetic version, containing the sounds of the French language. In the 1815 book, there were 30 sounds in a grid of five rows and six columns, but Barbier later expanded the number to 36, in a grid with six rows and six columns. Barbier preferred the phonetic version, arguing that learning the rules of spelling presented a further barrier to literacy for those without formal education.
The book included 12 plates that used different symbols to represent the numbers. One, plate VII, used dots to represent the numbers: Q would be a vertical row of 4 dots immediately followed by a vertical row of 2 dots.
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