Hi Steve
As we have all accepted FAQ no. 1 and FAQ no. 2 (See Attached)
and we are bogged down on the Question (3) on how to best type the
Shavian Alphabet on the Computer (Keyboard Mapping),
I thought we could look at providing a standard response to
the frequently asked questions 4, 5 and 6.
FAQ - Shavian Additional Glosses and comments welcomed:
4. What makes the Shaw alphabet different from the regular alphabet?
Roman alphabet has 26 letters, many with more than one
pronunciation.
- Shaw Alphabet has 48 letters, each with only one phonemic
pronunciation.
- Roman alphabet has a number of silent letters, some of which are
used to indicate an alternate pronunciations of a preceding letter.
- Shaw alphabet pronounces all letters and is completely phonetic.
- Roman alphabet has capital letters for each of the 26 letters. So
the reader must recognize 52 characters, in any case. Some lowercase
characters are not easily distinguishable.
- For example the lower case "L" resembles the upper case "I" and
the number "1". Capital letters are used to indicate the beginning
of the sentence, names and many other things.
- Shaw alphabet has no Capital letters. Each individaul letter is
distinctive and not easily confused with any other letter.
Most of the 24 Consonant Letters are organized into Voiced/Unvoiced
Consonant Pairs.
The 24 vowel letters are organized into similarly sounding pairs.
5. How is the Shavian Alphabet different from many other Phonetic
Alphabets proposed for General English Spelling Reform?
Almost all the other English spelling reforms tended to use the
existing Roman Alphabet and extend or modify the meaning of the
letters to represent more English sounds.
The Shavian Alphabet is not a piecemeal approach.
The Shavian Alphabet created a complete set of new symbols to
represent all the phonemes of English.
6. Why it easier to spell words with the Shaw Alphabet?
English has a wide number of variations in its spelling using the
Roman alphabet. Multiple spellings for the same word are considered
acceptable. (ie. Colour, color, gaol, jail, key, quay)
Different English words can even have the same pronunciation, (i.e.
One, won) with little regard to the phonetic value of the Roman
letters.
Shaw alphabet spells each English word phonetically with very little
redundancy. There are only two additional redundant letters, "Yew"
and "Ian" which are used to represent a couple of significant
composite sounds.
And while Written English using the Roman cursive alphabet is
falling into disuse, except to provide signatures for legal
documents, due to lack of any useful modern application, the Shaw
Alphabet is ideal for taking notes.
The form of each of the Shaw letters has been simplified to ensure
only 1 or 2 pen strokes are required to write each letter. It is
much faster to print in the Shaw Alphabet, than to write in the
Roman cursive alphabet.
Regards, Paul V.
P.S. Please let me know if you have any more corrections or comments.
--- In shawalphabet@yahoogroups.com, "paul vandenbrink"
<pvandenbrink@s...> wrote:
>
> FAQ - Shavian Additional Glosses and comments welcomed:
>
> What is the Shaw or Shavian alphabet?
> by Paul Vanderbrink [PV] Glosses by Steve Bett [SB]
>
> PV: The Shavian or Shaw alphabet is a modern, phonetically
accurate
> replacement for the old Roman alphabet to write English. The Shaw
> alphabet has been designed to write modern English more quickly
and
> effectively. The Roman alphabet was designed specifically for
Latin,
> over 2,600 years ago, and over time has become the alphabet of
> choice for hundreds of languages. It also became the Standard
> Alphabet for written English, as Latin was the language of
education
> and literacy, at that time that English was first written down.
>
> The Roman Alphabet is not really an appropriate Alphabet for
> English, because the English Language uses a wider variety of
> sounds, than are found in the Latin and the other Romance
Languages.
> The 26 Letters are inadequate to represent the 40 odd English
sounds.
>
>
> The Roman alphabet uses over 40 vowel letters and vowel letter
> combinations made up from the 7 Vowel
> Letters, "a", "e", "i", "o", "u", "w" and "y". It also doubles
> Consonants and adds a silent "e" to the end of the words to
indicate
> different vowel sounds. Unfortunately, with time, the
pronunciation
> of these vowel sounds in some English words have changed and not
all
> of those various vowel letters and vowel letter combinations
> consistently represent the same sound, anymore.
> The Shaw alphabet uses a system, that can handle a wider variety
of
> vowel sounds and their combinations and represent them accurately
> and consistently.
>
>
> SB: The Shaw alphabet is a non-Roman, near 100% phonemic, symbols
> system suitable for writing English as it is spoken.
> Alphabet Systems with one symbol per sound and no silent letters
are
> more compact and faster to write. Shaw saw it as a parallel
> alphabet which would win converts due to its superiority. Shaw
> recommended a new set of letters so the new spellings would not be
> considered uneducated or ugly.
>
>
> Who created the Shaw alphabet?
>
> SB: Shaw specified the linguistic requirements for an alphabet
code
> as early as 1941. He wanted one unequivocal symbol for 42 English
> speech sounds and he did not want it to be confused with
traditional
> spelling. His model was phonemic shorthand. In his will, Shaw
left
> most of his fortune to fund the development of a new alphabet.
The
> will was contested and only a small sum [less than $20,000] was
made
> available to carry out Shaw's proposal. The group that controlled
> the funds decided that the best they could do with such limited
> funds was to run a contest.
>
> PV: A contest was announced specifying the linguistic
requirements,
> in 1958. Four contestants submitted alphabet schemes that met or
> surpassed the requirements. The Shaw Alphabet was created from an
> amalgam of these 4 proposals. Kingsley Read, an architect and
> designer, provided the majority of the design. He also created a
> script or cursive version of the Shaw alphabet called Quickscript.
>
> SB: In 1941, Shaw specified the goal for his proposed British
> alphabet. He himself used Pitman shorthand and was familiar with
the
> advantages of phonemic writing. Pitman, however, was not linear
and
> difficult to print. Shaw was impressed with Sweet's "current"
> linear shorthand but objected to the focus on abbreviation.
>
> Ronald Kingsley Read was impressed with the essay which appeared
as
> the preface to the book, The Miraculous Birth of Language, and
> contacted Shaw. He showed Shaw his early attempts to build a
> phonemic notation to match Shaw's requirements. Shaw encouraged
his
> efforts.
>
> In his will, Shaw left most of his fortune to advancing his
> linguistic ideas, in particular the development and propagation of
> an improved English Alphabet. The will was successfully challenged
> by lawyers representing the British Museum and other charities on
> the grounds that you can't leave money to an idea. Shaw's fortune
> did not amount to much until the spectacular success of the
> adaptation of his play "Pygmalion", into the musical, "My Fair
> Lady". Sir James Pitman negotiated a deal whereby a small amount
of
> the fortune, about 8,300 British Pounds, would be used to fulfill
> the terms of the will.
>
> Regards, Paul V.
>
>
> P.S. Excuse the test. I lost my first draft, and had to retype
> everything in again. So I did a test first.
>
> P.P.S. I made a few small corrections, including removing the
> statement describing Ronald Kingsley Read, as the sole Creator of
> the Shavian Alphabet.
>
>
> --- In shawalphabet@yahoogroups.com, "paul vandenbrink"
> <pvandenbrink@s...> wrote:
> >
> > a