Unicode: Shavian Alphabet ๐‘•

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .
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Shavian alphabet is designed to be a simple phonetic alphabet for English.

It was created in 1960s after the death of Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. The creation is due to Shaw's interest and will.

Shavian alphabet has 4 types of letters: tall, deep, short, and ligatures.

tall ๐‘ ๐‘‘ ๐‘’ ๐‘“ ๐‘” ๐‘• ๐‘– ๐‘— ๐‘˜ ๐‘™

deep ๐‘š ๐‘› ๐‘œ ๐‘ ๐‘ž ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘  ๐‘ก ๐‘ข ๐‘ฃ

short ๐‘ค ๐‘ฅ ๐‘ฆ ๐‘ง ๐‘จ ๐‘ฉ ๐‘ช ๐‘ซ ๐‘ฌ ๐‘ญ ๐‘ฎ ๐‘ฏ ๐‘ฐ ๐‘ฑ ๐‘ฒ ๐‘ณ ๐‘ด ๐‘ต ๐‘ถ ๐‘ท

ligatures ๐‘ธ ๐‘น ๐‘บ ๐‘ป ๐‘ผ ๐‘ฝ ๐‘พ ๐‘ฟ

there are also these abbrevs, single char for a word:

Shavian Pronunciation

consonants
letterreadingexample
๐‘/p/peep
๐‘š/b/bib
๐‘‘/t/tot
๐‘›/d/dead
๐‘’/k/kick
๐‘œ/ษก/gag
๐‘“/f/fee
๐‘/v/vow
๐‘”/ฮธ/thigh
๐‘ž/รฐ/they
consonants
letterreadingexample
๐‘•/s/so
๐‘Ÿ/z/zoo
๐‘–/สƒ/sure
๐‘ /ส’/measure
๐‘—/tสƒ/church
๐‘ก/dส’/judge
๐‘˜/j/yea
๐‘ข/w/woe
๐‘™/ล‹/hung
๐‘ฃ/h/haha
liquids and nasals
letterreadingexample
๐‘ค/l/loll
๐‘ฎ/ษน/roar
๐‘ฅ/m/mime
๐‘ฏ/n/nun
vowels
letterreadingexample
๐‘ฆ/ษช/if
๐‘ฐ/iห/eat
๐‘ง/ษ›/etch
๐‘ฑ/eษช/age
๐‘จ/รฆ/ash
๐‘ฒ/aษช/ride
vowels
letterreadingexample
๐‘ฉ/ษ™/ado
๐‘ณ/สŒ/up
๐‘ช/ษ’/on
vowels
letterreadingexample
๐‘ด/oสŠ/oak
๐‘ซ/สŠ/wool
๐‘ต/uห/ooze
๐‘ฌ/aสŠ/loud
๐‘ถ/ษ”ษช/oil
๐‘ญ/ษ‘ห/ah
๐‘ท/ษ”ห/awe
Ligatures
letterreadingexample
๐‘ธ (๐‘ญ๐‘ฎ) /ษ‘หษน/are
๐‘น (๐‘ท๐‘ฎ) /ษ”หษน~ษ”ษ™ษน/or
๐‘บ (๐‘ฑ๐‘ฎ) /ษ›ษ™ษน/air
๐‘ป (๐‘ผ๐‘ฎ) /ษœหษน/err
๐‘ผ (๐‘ฉ๐‘ฎ) /ษš/array
๐‘ฝ (๐‘ฆ๐‘ฎ) /ษชษ™ษน/ear
๐‘พ (๐‘ฆ๐‘ต) /i.ษ™/ian
๐‘ฟ (๐‘ฐ๐‘ต) /juห/yew

Sample Text

ยท๐‘จ๐‘ค๐‘ฆ๐‘• ๐‘ข๐‘ญ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘š๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ฆ๐‘ฏ๐‘ฆ๐‘™ ๐‘‘ ๐‘œ๐‘ง๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘ง๐‘ฎ๐‘ฐ ๐‘‘๐‘ฒ๐‘ผ๐‘› ๐‘ ๐‘•๐‘ฆ๐‘‘๐‘ฆ๐‘™ ๐‘š๐‘ฒ ๐‘ฃ๐‘ผ๐‘ฎ ๐‘•๐‘ฆ๐‘•๐‘‘๐‘ผ ๐‘ญ๐‘ฏ ๐‘ž ๐‘š๐‘จ๐‘™๐‘’, ๐‘ฏ ๐‘ ๐‘ฃ๐‘จ๐‘๐‘ฆ๐‘™ ๐‘ฏ๐‘ณ๐‘”๐‘ฆ๐‘™ ๐‘‘ ๐‘›๐‘ต: ๐‘ข๐‘ฉ๐‘ฏ๐‘• ๐‘น ๐‘‘๐‘ข๐‘ฒ๐‘• ๐‘–๐‘ฐ ๐‘ฃ๐‘จ๐‘› ๐‘๐‘ฐ๐‘๐‘› ๐‘ฆ๐‘ฏ๐‘‘๐‘ฉ ๐‘ž ๐‘š๐‘ซ๐‘’ ๐‘ฃ๐‘ผ๐‘ฎ ๐‘•๐‘ฆ๐‘•๐‘‘๐‘ผ ๐‘ข๐‘ญ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ฎ๐‘ฐ๐‘›๐‘ฆ๐‘™, ๐‘š๐‘ฉ๐‘‘ ๐‘ฆ๐‘‘ ๐‘ฃ๐‘จ๐‘› ๐‘ฏ๐‘ด ๐‘๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘—๐‘ผ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘น ๐‘’๐‘ญ๐‘ฏ๐‘๐‘ผ๐‘•๐‘ฑ๐‘–๐‘ฉ๐‘ฏ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ฆ๐‘ฏ ๐‘ฆ๐‘‘, ยซ ๐‘ฏ ๐‘ข๐‘ญ๐‘‘ ๐‘ฆ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ž ๐‘ฟ๐‘• ๐‘ ๐‘ฑ ๐‘š๐‘ซ๐‘’, ยป ๐‘”๐‘ญ๐‘‘ ยท๐‘จ๐‘ค๐‘ฆ๐‘• ยซ ๐‘ข๐‘ฆ๐‘ž๐‘ฌ๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘—๐‘ผ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘น ๐‘’๐‘ญ๐‘ฏ๐‘๐‘ผ๐‘•๐‘ฑ๐‘–๐‘ฉ๐‘ฏ? ยป.

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ยซand what is the use of a book,ยป thought Alice ยซwithout pictures or conversation?ยป.

Phonetic Alphabet