Great job Paige! I was just about to post something like that myself!
Thanks
---
Shalom v'Tovah,
Jon Zuck
Web URL: http://surf.to/frimmin
It is more important to love much than to think much.
Always do that which most impels you to love.
--St. Teresa of Avila
----- Original Message -----
From: "C. Paige Gabhart" <pgabhart@...>
To: <shavian@...>
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2000 9:44 PM
Subject: [shavian] Shaw's Alphabet & Quikscript
> I had been working on the following today and after reading the e-mails
> thought I would throw it in the mix. Because it is a work in progress and
> intended for the general public, I modified it somewhat for this group.]
>
> KINGSLEY READ AND QUIKSCRIPT
>
> Kingsley Read worked to promote Shaw's Alphabet after the distribution of
> Androcles and the Lion. A paperback version was printed. Read worked
with
> a number of English-speaking volunteers from around the world who began
> using Shaw's Alphabet in handwritten correspondence to see how easy it was
> to learn and to read and how well it enabled them to communicate with
their
> various accents.
> After this period of testing the alphabet in actual use, Read began to see
> that certain changes would improve the alphabet. All of the changes Read
> made were carefully thought out and clearly improved the utility and, it
> seems fair to say, the intrinsic beauty of the script. Read wrote a
> twenty-six page manual entitled "Quikscript ITS ALPHABET AND MANUAL with
a
> general introduction to reformed alphabetic writings." The manual bears
no
> copyright date. Its price was 3s. 6d or 50 cents.
> One might think of Shaw's Alphabet as the beta version of Quikscript. Due
> to the wide distribution of Adrocles and the Lion printed in Shaw's
> Alphabet and the relatively limited distribution of Read's Quikscript
> Manual, in the years since Read's death and now with the burgeoning of the
> internet, knowledge of the beta version of his alphabet has begun to
spread
> slowly, while Quikscript remains virtually unknown -- a result I believe
he
> would have been displeased with.
> The willingness to promote the use of Shaw's Alphabet, which I have
> encountered on the internet among its adherents, when its devisor had
> revised and improved it, seems ill-founded. What would we think if in the
> late 1940s, NBC had the technology of color TV perfected and ready for use
> but decided to shelve it because some people had already seen a few black
> and white broadcasts and thought them adequate. This would have made no
> more sense than it would to continue to promote the initial form of an
> alphabet with infelicities that became apparent to its devisor through
> actual testing and use, when its improved descendent exists along with a
> manual explaining many of Read's thoughts about the best way to use it.
> At this time, knowledge of Shaw's Alphabet among the public is still
> almost non-existent so it would not be much of a setback for true
believers
> to begin promoting Quikscript through the tool of the internet rather than
> continuing to promote the beta version of Read's work because "We've
> already learned it!" This makes even less sense than the United States'
> citizens continuing animosity towards and lack of interest in the metric
> system because they "already know the English system" and do not care how
> the rest of the world measures things. They are correct that their fellow
> citizens still use the English system. But in this case, virtually nobody
> knows Shaw's Alphabet so there is no vested interest of any size. We
> should promote the best alternative alphabet we have -- not the beta
version.
>
> COMPARISON BETWEEN SHAW'S ALPHABET & ITS SUCCESSOR -- QUIKSCRIPT
>
> [This section is intended to discuss the differences between Shaw's
> Alphabet and Quikscript. Unfortunately, it is not complete now so here
are
> some quick thoughts.]
>
> 1. The changes Read made enable the Quikscript writer to write in a more
> fluid manner, without pen lifts, similar to cursive roman writing, because
> more of the letters end at the base line or mid-line. The fact that
> letters can be joined more easily has no effect on a printed form of the
> alphabet. A few of the letters have an alternative that brings the pen
> back up to the base line. Again, this is not a big deal in reading, nor
> does it affect the printed form.
>
> 2. Changes and minor alterations to the alphabet:
> a. "loll" is changed to foster writing from left to right.
> b. "bib" and "gag" are altered to end on the base line.
> c. "tot" loses the barb to make connections easier.
> d. the letters for "thigh" and "they" become"fee" and "vow" respectively
> (with "th" sounds given similar, simpler forms.)
> e. "yea" made vertical with a loop at the top.
> f. "wh" letter form added recognizing that many English speakers use this
> phoneme. (the change is a barb on the "woe," a structural equivalent to
> the barb turning "sure" into "church.")
> g. "ha" is changed to mirror image of "peep." (rotated about vertical
axis)
> h. "eat" modified to make connection on base line.
> i. "age" and "ice" remain mirror images of each other but are changed by
> adding a loop at the top fostering left to right writing.
> j. "up" is discarded and no longer looks so similar to "up." (I have not
> missed it in my writing.)
> k. "out" and "oil" remain mirror images, but they are simplied in form
> with loops on top. (I always found these letters awkward to write.)
> l. "ah" and "awe" are changed to the forms for "mime" and "none"
> respectively. (I believe this change was made because they are sounds
used
> less frequently than "m" and "n," and are not as likely to be confused
with
> "ash" and "on." (a problem I noticed with the font I was using to read
the
> recent posts)
> m. "are," "or" and "air" are discarded. Those sounds are made with
> digraphs: "ah" + "roar," "awe" + "roar" and "age" + "roar."
> n. "urge" is discarded and "array" is written as a digraph of "ado" +
"roar."
> o. "yew" is still written as a digraph of "yea" + "ooze."
> p. "ear" and "ian" are discarded.
> q. "measure" is altered to bring its tail back to the base line.
>
> 3. One of the most innovative changes Read made in Quikscript was to
> permit the use of half-letters for the following consonants: "h," "t,"
> "p," "d," "z" and "w." Read did not include "wh," or "y," but there is no
> reason they should not be used in the same manner.
>
> These half-letters join with vowels and other consonants very readily and
> provide distinctive and elegant word-shapes for use in handwriting. Now
> with the increasing ubiquity of computers and their flexibility, it should
> be possible to use the half-letters with word processors as well.
>
>
> [This was written fairly quickly, so I beg your indulgence for any errors
> caused by haste.]
>
>
> Paige
>
>
>
>
>
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