๐‘ž ยท๐‘–๐‘ฑ๐‘๐‘พ๐‘ฏ ๐‘จ๐‘ค๐‘“๐‘ฉ๐‘š๐‘ง๐‘‘ ๐‘ค๐‘จ๐‘ฏ๐‘›๐‘ฆ๐‘™ ๐‘๐‘ฑ๐‘ก

the Shavian alphabet landing page

Welcome! My name Haruki โ€œHaleyโ€ Wakamatsu (๐‘ฃ๐‘ผ๐‘ต๐‘’๐‘ฐ or ๐‘ฃ๐‘ธ๐‘ต๐‘’๐‘ฐ โ€œ๐‘ฃ๐‘ฑ๐‘ค๐‘ฆโ€ ๐‘ข๐‘ญ๐‘’๐‘ฉ๐‘ฅ๐‘ญ๐‘‘๐‘•๐‘ต), a language nerd from Japan, and I made this landing page to leads you to lots of neat and useful resources related to the Shavian alphabet, my favorite way to write English.

What is this?

The Shavian alphabet, also known as the Shaw Alphabet, is a phonemic English alphabet devised by Ronald Kingsley Read. It derives from the lifelong wish, and made manifest through the last will and testament, of the Irish-born playwright George Bernard Shaw. He long wished for a radical overhaul of English spelling, where our speech sounds are directly reflected.

[...] I should be able to spell t⁠-⁠h⁠-⁠o⁠-⁠u⁠-⁠g⁠-⁠h with two letters, s⁠-⁠h⁠-⁠o⁠-⁠u⁠-⁠l⁠-⁠d with three, and e⁠-⁠n⁠-⁠o⁠-⁠u⁠-⁠g⁠-⁠h with four: nine letters instead of eighteen: a saving of a hundred [sic] percent of my time and my typistโ€™s time and the printerโ€™s time to say nothing of the saving in paper and wear and tear of machinery.

— Preface to The Miraculous Birth of Language by Professor Richard Albert Wilson

Shaw bequeathed a large sum of money to organize an international contest for his dream alphabet. He counted at least 40 distinct speech sounds in English, and Read, the winner, designed a letter for each of them, plus some combined letters for utility. The result is this 48-letter marvel of ingenuity. Just as Shaw wished, though is spelled ๐‘ž๐‘ด, should is spelled ๐‘–๐‘ซ๐‘›, and enough is spelled ๐‘ฆ๐‘ฏ๐‘ณ๐‘“. 9 letters for 9 sounds, instead of the old 18โ€”though itโ€™s impossible to know if Shaw himself would have been pleased with the alphabet bearing his name, had he been alive to witness its creation.

While the alphabet never attained the playwrightโ€™s lofty ideals, a small but dedicated community of Shavianists survives and thrives to this day. You are looking at an outpost of one such Shavianist!

๐‘œ๐‘ง๐‘‘ ๐‘‘ ๐‘ฏ๐‘ด ๐‘ฆ๐‘‘ - get to know it

๐‘œ๐‘ง๐‘‘ ๐‘ฟ๐‘•๐‘‘ ๐‘‘ ๐‘ฆ๐‘‘ - get used to it

๐‘‘๐‘ฒ๐‘ ๐‘ฏ ๐‘’๐‘ฉ๐‘ฏ๐‘๐‘ป๐‘‘ - type and convert

๐‘๐‘ค๐‘ฑ - play

Word games and other games that you can play using the Shavian alphabet, including ports of Wordle and Waffle!

๐‘ค๐‘ง๐‘•๐‘ฉ๐‘ฏ๐‘Ÿ - lessons

Easy reading material and quizzes for Shavian reading practice

  1. ๐‘จ๐‘‘ ๐‘ž ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ต - at the zoo

  2. ๐‘ฅ๐‘ฒ ๐‘ค๐‘ช๐‘™ ๐‘ข๐‘ฐ๐‘’๐‘ง๐‘ฏ๐‘› - my long weekend

  3. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss โ€” The classic childrenโ€™s book entirely transcribed into the Shavian alphabet

  4. Androcles and the Lion by George Bernard Shaw, transcribed by Ronald Kingsley Read โ€” The Shavian play that first presented the alphabet to the world

๐‘›๐‘ฆ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฒ๐‘ฏ - design

Every writing system needs fonts.

๐‘ฎ๐‘ง๐‘“๐‘ผ๐‘ฉ๐‘ฏ๐‘• - reference

Ready to dive deeper?

๐‘’๐‘ฉ๐‘ฅ๐‘ฟ๐‘ฏ๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘ฑ๐‘‘ - communicate

What use is a writing system without someone to write to?