This is the Shavian community: a community to practice reading and writing with the Shavian alphabet.

The Shavian alphabet is a phonetic alphabet for the English language: in Shavian, you write a word the way you pronounce it. For more information you can check out the alphabet chart on the wiki page here.

The Shavian alphabet was proposed by the 20th century playwright George Bernard Shaw, and created after his death. Shaw was passionate about phonetic writing, and wrote some of his literary works in shorthand.
So how about you, why might you want to learn the Shavian alphabet? Maybe you’re…

  • a writer too, and want to experiment with writing phonetically
  • a non-native English speaker and you want to read English as it’s pronounced
  • generally interested in linguistics, and want to play with a new toy
  • interested in learning a language, but don’t have the time or inclination. Settle for learning an alphabet instead!

Just want to practice reading? Subscribe and get a few morsels of Shavian script in your feed every day.
If you want to write, come and give it a go! For text input, you have a few options. If you’re a Linux user and like to keep it simple, here’s a Shavian XKB layout you can edit as you wish. Otherwise, shavian.info has some keyboard resources.

𐑔𐑨𐑯𐑒𐑕 𐑓 𐑒𐑳𐑥𐑦𐑙 𐑑 𐑥𐑲 TED 𐑑𐑷𐑒!

    • hallettj@leminal.spaceEnglish
      2·
      11 days ago

      I don’t see exactly what you’re referencing. But although it is a phonetic alphabet, my understanding is Shavian is not designed to be a fast writing system, unlike Gregg or other shorthands. I think the pitch is a spelling reform for English, which puts it in a different category.