Shavian
๐ ๐๐ฒ๐๐พ๐ฏ ๐จ๐ค๐๐ฉ๐๐ง๐
(The ‘Shavian’ alphabet)
๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐
๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ก ๐ ๐ข ๐ ๐ฃ
๐ค ๐ฎ ๐ฅ ๐ฏ ๐ฆ ๐ฐ ๐ง ๐ฑ ๐จ ๐ฒ
๐ฉ ๐ณ ๐ช ๐ด ๐ซ ๐ต ๐ฌ ๐ถ ๐ญ ๐ท
๐ธ ๐น ๐บ ๐ป ๐ผ ๐ฝ ๐พ ๐ฟ
…is something I’ve been looking for for ages. As a kid I was taught ‘Initial Teaching Alphabet’ which I really liked. The idea was that you learned the basics of reading with a system that didn’t have all the spelling weirdness of standard English. Ever since I’ve been irked by the silly and arbitrary spelling gotchas that abound in this Frankenstein language. It turns out that the two are related. James Pitman (yes, of shorthand fame) invented i.t.a. and was one of the judges of the competition that gave birth to Shavian aka the Shaw Alphabet aka ยท๐๐ฑ๐๐พ๐ฏ.
It turns out that Sir George Bernard Shaw felt pretty much the same way and left a bunch of money for someone to come up with a better system. A guy called Kingsley Reid invented this ‘phonemic’ alphabet - I first found out about it here. It was named after ‘Shaw’ as (oddly) ‘Shavian’ (wikipedia).
๐ฆ๐ ๐ค๐ซ๐๐ ๐๐ด ๐๐ซ๐ค
(it looks so cool)
Here’s my ‘aide memoire’ with the letter, its name and the key combo for the ‘Shaw 2-Layer’ keymap (see below).
| tall | deep |
|---|---|
| ๐ peep ; | ๐ bib sh+; |
| ๐ tot j | ๐ dead sh+j |
| ๐ kick l | ๐ gag sh+l |
| ๐ fee sh+u | ๐ vow u |
| ๐ thigh sh+o | ๐ they o |
| ๐ so k | ๐ zoo sh+k |
| ๐ sure h | ๐ measure sh+h |
| ๐ church m | ๐ก judge sh+m |
| ๐ yea sh+i | ๐ข woe i |
| ๐ hung sh+p | ๐ฃ haha p |
| short | compound | |
|---|---|---|
| ๐ค loll a | ๐ฎ roar sh+a | ๐ธ are sh+r |
| ๐ฅ mime sh+f | ๐ฏ nun f | ๐น or sh+g |
| ๐ฆ if s | ๐ฐ eat sh+s | ๐บ air sh+z |
| ๐ง egg w | ๐ฑ age sh+w | ๐ป err sh+x |
| ๐จ ash e | ๐ฒ ice sh+e | ๐ผ array c |
| ๐ฉ ado d | ๐ณ up x | ๐ฝ ear sh+c |
| ๐ช on z | ๐ด oak v | ๐พ ian sh+d |
| ๐ซ wool sh+v | ๐ต ooze q | ๐ฟ yew sh+q |
| ๐ฌ out t | ๐ถ oil sh+t | |
| ๐ญ ah r | ๐ท awe g |
Getting it set up on linux has been a bit of a trial. See iykury and psaikido.