| Shavian alphabet 𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯 𐑨𐑤𐑓𐑩𐑚𐑧𐑑 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | Alphabet |
| Creator | Ronald Kingsley Read |
Period | 1960—present |
| Direction | Left-to-right  |
| Languages | English,Esperanto |
| Related scripts | |
Child systems | Quikscript,Shaw Alphabet,Ŝava |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Shaw(281), Shavian (Shaw) |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Shavian |
| U+10450–U+1047F | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
TheShavian alphabet (/ˈʃeɪviən/SHAY-vee-ən;[1] also known as theShaw alphabet) is aconstructedalphabet conceived as a way to provide simple,phonemic orthography for theEnglish language to replace the inefficiencies and difficulties ofconventional spelling using theLatin alphabet. It was posthumously funded by and named after the playwrightGeorge Bernard Shaw and designed byRonald Kingsley Read, a professionalsignwriter andletterer.
Shaw set three main criteria: the new alphabet should be
The Shavian alphabet consists of three types of letters:tall (with an ascender),deep (with a descender) andshort.[2] Allvowels but the consonant–vowel ligatureyew are short. Among consonants, the short letters are liquids (r, l) andnasals (m, n); these, the semivowels (y, w) and theheng letters (h, ng) are derived from each other through rotation or reflection. Tall letters are voicelessconsonants, excepting Yea𐑘 and Hung𐑙. A tall letter rotated 180°, with the tall part now extending below the baseline, becomes a deep letter, representing the correspondingvoiced consonants (except Haha𐑣). These rotation pairs, with the exception of theheng consonants, are the same letters that are paired inPitman shorthand.Affricates, severaldiphthongs, andrhotic vowels are ligatures. The alphabet is therefore to some extentfeatural.
| Tall and deep letters: | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shavian letter |   |   |   |   |   | ||||
| Unicode text | 𐑐 𐑚 | 𐑑 𐑛 | 𐑒 𐑜 | 𐑓 𐑝 | 𐑔 𐑞 | ||||
| Pronunciation (may vary, see below) | /p//b/ | /t//d/ | /k//ɡ/ | /f//v/ | /θ//ð/ | ||||
| Name/example | peepbib | totdead | kickgag | feevow | thighthey | ||||
  |   |   |   |   | |||||
| 𐑕 𐑟 | 𐑖 𐑠 | 𐑗 𐑡 | 𐑘 𐑢 | 𐑙 𐑣 | |||||
| /s//z/ | /ʃ//ʒ/ | /tʃ//dʒ/ | /j//w/ | /ŋ//h/ | |||||
| sozoo | sure measure | churchjudge | yeawoe | hung ha-ha | |||||
Short letters: | |||||||||
  |   |   |   |   | |||||
| 𐑤 𐑮 | 𐑥 𐑯 | 𐑦 𐑰 | 𐑧 𐑱 | 𐑨 𐑲 | |||||
| /l//r/ | /m//n/ | /ɪ//iː/ | /ɛ//eɪ/ | /æ//aɪ/ | |||||
| lollroar | mimenun | ifeat | eggage | ashice | |||||
  |   |   |   |   | |||||
| 𐑩 𐑳 | 𐑪 𐑴 | 𐑫 𐑵 | 𐑬 𐑶 | 𐑭 𐑷 | |||||
| /ə//ʌ/ | /ɒ//oʊ/ | /ʊ//uː/ | /aʊ//ɔɪ/ | /ɑː//ɔː/ | |||||
| adoup | onoak | woolooze | outoil | ahawe | |||||
Ligatures: | |||||||||
  |   |   |   | ||||||
| 𐑸 𐑹 | 𐑺 𐑻 | 𐑼 𐑽 | 𐑾 𐑿 | ||||||
| /ɑːr//ɔːr/ | /ɛər//ɜːr/ | /ər//ɪər/ | /iə//juː/ | ||||||
| areor | air err | arrayear | Ianyew | ||||||
There are no separate uppercase or lowercase letters as in the Latin script; instead of using capitalization to markproper nouns, a "namer-dot" (·) is placed before a name. Sentences are typically not started with a namer-dot, unless it is otherwise called for. All other punctuation and word spacing is similar to conventional orthography.[2]
Each character in the Shavian alphabet requires only a single stroke to be written on paper. The writing utensil needs to be lifted up only once when writing each character, thus enabling faster overall writing than Latin script.
Spelling inAndrocles follows the phonemic distinctions ofReceived Pronunciation except for explicitly indicatingvocalic "r" with the above ligatures. Most dialectal variations of English pronunciation can be regularly produced from this spelling, but those who do not make certain distinctions, particularly in the vowels, find it difficult to produce the canonical spellings spontaneously. For instance, most North American dialects merge𐑭/ɑː/ and𐑪/ɒ/ (thefather–bother merger), though standard English orthography is a guide.
There is no ability to indicateword stress, sobillow/ˈbɪloʊ/ andbelow/bɪˈloʊ/ are both spelled𐑚𐑦𐑤𐑴, anddiploid/ˈdɪplɔɪd/ anddeployed/dɪˈplɔɪd/ are both spelled𐑛𐑦𐑐𐑤𐑶𐑛.[3] However, in most cases the reduction of unstressed vowels is sufficient to distinguish word pairs that are distinguished only by stress in spoken discourse. For instance, the nounconvict/ˈkɒnvɪkt/ and the verbconvict/kənˈvɪkt/ can be spelled𐑒𐑪𐑯𐑝𐑦𐑒𐑑ˈkɒnvɪkt and𐑒𐑩𐑯𐑝𐑦𐑒𐑑kənvɪkt, respectively.
Additionally, five common words are abbreviated as single letters. The wordsthe (𐑞),of (𐑝),and (𐑯),to (𐑑), and oftenfor (𐑓) are written with the single letters indicated.
George Bernard Shaw, the writer, critic and playwright, was a vocal critic of English spelling because it often deviates from thealphabetic principle. Shaw had served from 1926 to 1939 on theBBC'sAdvisory Committee on Spoken English, which included several exponents of phonetic writing. He also knewHenry Sweet, creator ofCurrent Shorthand (and a prototype for the character ofHenry Higgins), although Shaw himself for years wrote his literary works inPitman shorthand. However, he found its limitations frustrating as well and realized that it was not a suitable replacement for traditional orthography, making the production of printed material difficult and impossible to type. Shaw desired and advocated a phoneticspelling reform, and this called for a new alphabet.[4]
All of his interest in spelling and alphabet reform was made clear in Shaw's will of June 1950, in which provision was made for (Isaac)James Pitman, with agrant in aid from the Public Trustee, to establish a Shaw Alphabet. Following Shaw's death in November 1950, and after some legal dispute, the Trustee announced a worldwide competition to design such an alphabet, with the aim of producing a system that would be an economical way of writing and of printing the English language. A contest for the design of the new alphabet was won by four people, includingRonald Kingsley Read who had corresponded extensively with Shaw for several years regarding such an alphabet. Read was then appointed to amalgamate the four designs to produce the new alphabet.[5]
Due to the contestation of Shaw's will, the trust charged with developing the new alphabet could afford to publish only one book: a version of Shaw's playAndrocles and the Lion, in a bi-alphabetic edition with both conventional and Shavian spellings (1962 Penguin Books, London). Copies were sent to major libraries in English-speaking countries.
Between 1963 and 1965, 8 issues of the journal,Shaw-script, were published byRead inWorcester, U.K. The journal used Shaw's Alphabet, and much of the content was submitted by Shaw enthusiasts. In more recent years, there have been several published works of classical literature transliterated into Shavian.
The first, released in 2012, was the works ofEdgar Allan Poe entitledPoe Meets Shaw: The Shaw Alphabet Edition of Edgar Allan Poe, by Tim Browne. This book was published via Shaw Alphabet Books and had two editions in its original release. One, likeAndrocles and the Lion, had Shavian side-by-side with the Latin equivalent and the other was a Shavian-only edition.
The second, released in 2013, was an edition ofAlice's Adventures in Wonderland, transcribed into Shavian by Thomas Thurman.[6] This was published as a Shaw-only edition with no side-by-side Latin equivalent. The Shavian fonts were designed by Michael Everson.
In 2019, a print version ofPride and Prejudice was published in Shaw-only form by the website Shavian.info.[7]
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Some disagreement has arisen among the Shavian community in regard to sound–symbol assignments, which have been the topic of frequent arguments. Primarily, this has concerned the alleged reversal of two pairs of letters.[citation needed]
The most frequent disagreement of the letter reversals has been over the Haha–Hung pair. The most convincing evidence suggesting this reversal is in the names of the letters: the unvoiced letter Haha is deep, while the voiced Hung, which suggests a lower position, is tall. This is often assumed to be a clerical error introduced in the rushed printing of the Shavian edition ofAndrocles and the Lion.[citation needed] This reversal obscures the system of tall letters as voiceless consonants and deep letters as voiced consonants.
Proponents of traditional Shavian, however, have suggested that Kingsley Read may not have intended for this system to be all-encompassing, though it seems that vertical placement alone served this purpose in an earlier version of Shavian, before the rotations were introduced. Also, Read may have intentionally reversed these letters, perhaps to emphasize that these letters represent unrelated sounds, which happen to occur incomplementary distribution.
Both sides of the debate have suggested other reasons, including associations with various styles ofLatin letters (namely, the⟨g⟩ in⟨-ing⟩, often written with a bottom-loop in script) and the effect of letter-height on the coastlines of words, but whether Read considered any of these is uncertain. Since the letter representing the same sound in Read'sQuikscript appears identical to "Hung", it is doubtful that Read reversed the letter twice by mistake. Either he always intended that letter shape or he thought it best to leave things as they were, especially as a corrected⟨ng⟩ in hasty or careless writing might be confused with Hung "𐑣".[citation needed]
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Two other letters that are often alleged to have been reversed—intentionally or not—are theligatures Air "𐑺" and Err "𐑻".[8][better source needed] They are both made up of Roar "𐑮" and an unknown first part. Attempts to construct derivations of the ligatures suggest that the pronunciations and the shapes are reversed, and may assure a less conservative pronunciation of Air "𐑩", though this is not necessary.[9]
Though the shape of Air "𐑺"/ɛər/ suggests a derivation from Ado "𐑩"/ə/ + Ado "𐑩"/ə/ + Roar "𐑮"/r/ (which would give/ɜːr/), its name suggests a derivation either from Egg "𐑧"/ɛ/ + Ado "𐑩"/ə/ + Roar "𐑮"/r/ (reflecting the conservative pronunciation[ɛər]) or from Egg "𐑧"/ɛ/ + Egg "𐑧"/ɛ/ + Roar "𐑮"/r/ (reflecting the contemporary pronunciation[ɛːr]).
In contrast, the name of Err "𐑻"/ɜːr/ suggests a derivation from Ado "𐑩"/ə/ + Ado "𐑩"/ə/ + Roar "𐑮"/r/ (which would suggest "𐑺"), both because the closest short approximation of the conservative pronunciation[ɜː] is[ə] and because the contemporary pronunciation is[əː]. Its shape suggests a derivation either from Egg "𐑧"/ɛ/ + Ado "𐑩"/ə/ + Roar "𐑮"/r/ (reflecting the conservative pronunciation[ɛər]) or from Egg "𐑧"/ɛ/ + Egg "𐑧"/ɛ/ + Roar "𐑮"/r/ (which would give[ɛːr]).
Read, likely being anRP speaker born in 1887, would almost certainly not have had the contemporary pronunciation of Air, so that is unlikely to be relevant. It is possible that he either approximated Err/ɜːr/ as[ɛːr] (which would not contradict with his[ɛər] for Air) and flipped the initial stroke of Air/ɛər/ from something like "𐑸" to "𐑺" so as to avoid confusion with Are "𐑸", or that the hypothesised derivations of the ligatures are incorrect and bear no relation to pronunciation.
Some years after the initial publication of the Shaw alphabet,Read expanded it to createQuikscript, also known as the Read Alphabet or the Second Shaw Alphabet. Quikscript is intended to be more useful for handwriting, and to that end is more cursive and uses more ligatures. It is also intended to be closer toshorthand, with a "senior Quikscript" mode providing many more shortenings. Some letter forms are roughly the same in both alphabets, though the rotation symmetry of tall–deep pairs is sacrificed for connected handwriting. See the separate article for more details.
An adaptation of Shavian to another language,Esperanto, was developed byJohn Wesley Starling; though not widely used, at least one booklet has been published with transliterated sample texts.[10] As that language is already spelled phonemically, direct conversion between Latin and Shavian letters can be performed, though several ligatures are added for the common combinations of vowels withn ands and some common short words. Vowels use the letters of the orthographically equivalent short vowels in English (i.e.ă ĕ ĭ ŏ ŭ), except thato andu are reversed, as arej andw. Theoo-vowel letters are reassigned tom andn, and the unneeded letters forth andng are assigned toc andĥ.
Pronunciations that differ from their English values are marked inbold blue.
| Ŝava letter | 𐑨 | 𐑚 | 𐑔 | 𐑗 | 𐑛 | 𐑧 | 𐑓 | 𐑜 | 𐑡 | 𐑣 | 𐑙 | 𐑦 | 𐑢 | 𐑠 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation | [a] | [b] | [ts] | [tʃ] | [d] | [e] | [f] | [ɡ] | [dʒ] | [h] | [x] | [i] | [j] | [ʒ] |
| Conventional orthography | a | b | c | ĉ | d | e | f | g | ĝ | h | ĥ | i | j | ĵ |
| 𐑒 | 𐑤 | 𐑫 | 𐑵 | 𐑩 | 𐑐 | 𐑮 | 𐑕 | 𐑖 | 𐑑 | 𐑪 | 𐑘 | 𐑝 | 𐑟 | |
| [k] | [l] | [m] | [n] | [o] | [p] | [r] | [s] | [ʃ] | [t] | [u] | [w] | [v] | [z] | |
| k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | ŝ | t | u | ŭ | v | z | |
Short words | ||||||||||||||
 |  |  | ||||||||||||
| la | kaj | aŭ | ||||||||||||
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In 1996, Paul Vandenbrink devised the self-styled Shaw Alphabet, or the Revised Shaw Abjad, which was further revised in 2001. It is based on the Hebrew script and makes many changes to the shapes and names of the letters, though it is largely unknown.[11]
Shavian was added to theUnicode Standard in April 2003 with the release of version 4.0. Esperanto ligatures are not supported.
The Unicode block for Shavian is U+10450–U+1047F and is in Plane 1 (the Supplementary Multilingual Plane).
| Shavian[1] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+1045x | 𐑐 | 𐑑 | 𐑒 | 𐑓 | 𐑔 | 𐑕 | 𐑖 | 𐑗 | 𐑘 | 𐑙 | 𐑚 | 𐑛 | 𐑜 | 𐑝 | 𐑞 | 𐑟 |
| U+1046x | 𐑠 | 𐑡 | 𐑢 | 𐑣 | 𐑤 | 𐑥 | 𐑦 | 𐑧 | 𐑨 | 𐑩 | 𐑪 | 𐑫 | 𐑬 | 𐑭 | 𐑮 | 𐑯 |
| U+1047x | 𐑰 | 𐑱 | 𐑲 | 𐑳 | 𐑴 | 𐑵 | 𐑶 | 𐑷 | 𐑸 | 𐑹 | 𐑺 | 𐑻 | 𐑼 | 𐑽 | 𐑾 | 𐑿 |
Notes
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While the Shavian alphabet was added to Unicode 4.0 in 2003, Unicode Shavian fonts are still quite rare. Although a brief list of fonts with known Shavian coverage can be found onhttps://shavian.info. Before it was standardized, fonts were made that include Shavian letters in the places of Roman letters, and/or in an agreed-upon location in the Unicode private use area, allocated from theConScript Unicode Registry and now superseded by the official Unicode standard.