Shawalphabet YahooGroup Archive Browser

I noticed Nimyad on your site, but I don't know the origin.

--Star

==========
"If you mess with a thing long enough, it'll break."
--Murphy's Laws of Combat.


My LJ: http://wodentoad.livejournal.com
Or: http://community.livejournal.com/housewyfs_home/


>
>From: Thomas <tthurman@...>
>To: shawalphabet@yahoogroups.com
>Sent: Fri, January 8, 2010 1:14:54 PM
>Subject: [shawalphabet] "Not Ordinarily Borrowable"
>
> >
>>
>
>I have a self-published children's book called "Not Ordinarily Borrowable"; you can read about it at http://borrowable. net or http://www.amazon. com/Not-Ordinari ly-Borrowable/ dp/1449517544 .
>
>>I'm vaguely considering a Shavian edition, either as a printed book or as a free e-book. It's about 15,000 words; I'll be checking it myself, but does anyone want to volunteer to proofread the transliteration?
>
>>Thomas
>
>
>

Nimyad is a conlang I've had since I was a teenager. (I go by "Marnanel" online; it's "dreamer" in Nimyad.)

Thomas

...Conlang? Sorry, I'm a long time scifi fantasy fan, but I don't speak klingon.

--Star

==========
"If you mess with a thing long enough, it'll break."
--Murphy's Laws of Combat.


My LJ: http://wodentoad.livejournal.com
Or: http://community.livejournal.com/housewyfs_home/


>
>From: Thomas <tthurman@...>
>To: shawalphabet@yahoogroups.com
>Sent: Fri, January 8, 2010 3:53:09 PM
>Subject: [shawalphabet] Re: "Not Ordinarily Borrowable"
>
> >
>>
>
>Nimyad is a conlang I've had since I was a teenager. (I go by "Marnanel" online; it's "dreamer" in Nimyad.)
>
>>Thomas
>
>
>

"Conlang" just means "constructed language."
Nimyad is a language that Thomas created.


Star Raven writes:
>
> ...Conlang? Sorry, I'm a long time scifi fantasy fan, but I don't speak klingon.
>
> --Star
>
>>From: Thomas <tthurman@...>
>>To: shawalphabet@yahoogroups.com
>>
>> Nimyad is a conlang I've had since I was a teenager. (I go by "Marnanel" online; it's "dreamer" in Nimyad.)

It's surprisingly simple to get the N900 into a state where I can type in Shavian:

http://people.collabora.co.uk/~tthurman/shavian-n900.png

Now I should package it.

Thomas

To accelerate literacy or reach a 3rd grade level of proficiency in 9 months, it is a good idea to teach the dictionary key first.  Unifon is a simple dictionary key.  There are dozens of others. 
 
You may not be able to view this graphic if you are not logged in to Yahoo and also
a member of Unifon:  Join by sending  a blank email to unifon-subscribe@egroups.com
You can also write to me at sbett@...
 
If you want to practice sound spelling, this is a good group to start.  You can also
practice at shaw-alphabet but the script is a little harder to learn. 
 
In the case of Unifon, you only need to memorize 12 new or slightly revised sound-signs.
With the Shaw Alphabet you have to start from scratch and lean all 40+ sound signs.
 
To view the Unifon script, you will need to download the latest Unifon fonts and install them on your computer.  This is easy to do and almost semi-automatic. If you do not download
the fonts, you will view the keyboard code which is a mixed case notation.  Unifon is all
uppercase.
 
If this image does not display, try http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unifon
I think you can view the home page without being a member.  You are only prevented
from posting messages until you join.






The Unifon (one sound) 40 character augmented alphabet
was invented in 1950 by John Malone, a University of Chicago trained economist.
The simplified dictionary key which represented English the way it was
spoken was originally developed, under contract, for an avionics application.
Malone taught the system to his curious son and his son taught the code to his
preschool friends. The kids became code literate in the process of exchanging messages.  More at Wikipedia
 
This group has helped revive interest in this code and has found a way
to represent it in a way that aligns with the Carnegie Mellon Pronunciation Dictionary
Those participating in this group should download the latest Unifon fonts
so they can view the all cap alphabet rather than the keyboard entry code.
To make sure that you have the latest fonts go to message #1295
To view Unifon without downloading the font, go to
www.unifon.org/convert.htm

Dis iz u Sxrt sampul uv Ynifon.
Unless you download the font, it will display as a keyboard code.

Can you read this?
"wuns upxn u tIm u lxng tIm ugO Dc livd u fer prinsus."

If not, you could learn the 12 unfamiliar sound signs in about 15 min.
There are only 40 sound-symbol correspondences and you already know over half of them.
 
Preschool children can over-learn the code in 3 months.
Quick code literacy enables the beginner to read traditional text
at a 3rd grade level in 9 months.
 
Initial Teaching Alphabets such as Unifon and Pitman's augmented
Roman can accelerate literacy if the 40 sound signs are taught first and then overlearned by writing messages to peers and reading the
Unifon messages received from peers. 

I wCd lIk tU ulq evrEwun tU ekspiriuns
Dis bI sendiN and rEsEviN mesijuz on Du
web. 
 
Remember that each letter is pronounced one and only one way.
So, u is always "uh" that is /@/ or /V/ as in *abut ubut


 
 
This is a typical way to teach phonics.  The Unifon way uses this approach to teach
the variant ways of representing the same sound in traditional English spelling (TS).
 
Hipplewhite uses a digraph to represent the vowels.  Unifon uses a single Unifon letter.
ay ee igh oa yoo becomes  A E I O Y

Unifon students will already be able to write in Unifon when they are asked to transition.  To write in TS they must convert A into ai, ay, ei, ey, aCe, aCV. ....   
LAT = lait or late
MAD = maid or made
VAN = vain vane vein
AK = aik, ake, eik, ache
DA = thay they

This table by Hipplewhite does not all list of alternate spellings of the same sound.  There are over 14 spelllings per phoneme in English.  Fortunately, only about 4 are high frequency.  The high frequency spelling patterns are the ones taught in a good course on phonics.  They are sufficient for a 3rd grade reading level provided that about 20 word signs are also learned.

Phoneme  . . .   Alternate Graphemes
 

 
http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/majorbett/Linguistics/alpa-code-hipplewhite-1.jpg
 
 

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--- In shawalphabet@yahoogroups.com, Steve Bett <stbett@...> wrote:
> In the case of Unifon, you only need to memorize 12 new or slightly revised sound-signs.
> With the Shaw Alphabet you have to start from scratch and lean all 40+ sound signs.

That's not a bug, it's a feature. An explicit provision of the alphabet was that it should not share any letters with the Latin alphabet, so that Shavian text did not appear to be misspelt Latin-alphabet text. (This wasn't entirely followed: So, Zoo, If, and Oak are very close to very similar Latin-alphabet letters.)

> To view the Unifon script, you will need to download the latest Unifon fonts and install them on your computer.  This is easy to do and almost semi-automatic. If you do not download
> the fonts, you will view the keyboard code which is a mixed case notation.  Unifon is all
> uppercase.

It does disturb me that we're in 2010 and people are still remapping the Latin-alphabet codepoints. There are perfectly good Unifon codepoints: http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/unifon.html . People should use them.

Thomas

There is, as you know, a commonly-used mapping from Latin-alphabet letters to Shavian letters, which is used in keyboard layouts and, before the Shavian range became available in Unicode, was used in font design.

I am puzzled by the use of the four codepoints occupied by the Latin-alphabet letters Q, q, Y, y. In some systems, they are mapped thus:

Q Out
q Awe
Y Oil
y Ah

whereas in other systems, they are mapped

Q Oil
q Out
Y Awe
y Ah

The latter seems to me to make more sense, since Oil/Out and Awe/Ah are pairs.

The only other oddity is that some layouts put the naming dot on G and others on B. But there is no reason why a layout should not have a naming dot on both positions, of course.

I would like to resolve this so that there could be some kind of a standard. Then I and other people who configure keyboard layouts would know how best to do so.

So: what way do you prefer? Should the Q key generate Oil and Out, or Out and Awe?

Thomas

Ideas on what might be done to promote the
50th Anniversary of the Shaw Alphabet Competition.

I thought this milestone deserved being brought to the attention of a
larger audience.

So far, few have contributed ideas. Please do.


After the competition was announced, 500 alphabeteers submitted entries.

Millions learned about the event due to the media coverage it obtained.

Can anyone think of a competition or event that would bring out this
kind of response?

I would think the goal would be first to expose people to Shaw's sound
spelling ideas.

A subsidiary goal would be to bring in a few hundred new members to the
Shaw Alphabet discussion group.


Shaw wanted a linear phonetic shorthand that could be typeset and
handwritten.

If we were doing this over, we might want to add typing or keyboard
entry.

One possible new competition might be to design a code and technology
for fonetic texting.

This would be a little more technical than the first competition since
it could include

the design of the interface: new keyboards, new kaypads, ....

Any suggestions on how this might be set up?



If you drop the surplus characters and clearly
represent the sounds, a great deal of brevity is achieved.

Brevity is good. Fewer characters mean more information per page
Clarity of lack of ambiguity is good. It means that the code can be
easier to learn and use.

[QR-fool.jpg ryt-lyk-ful picture by majorbett]

Unigraf compared to Quick-Write (QicRyt).
Unigraf extends the traditional aphabet with
ANSI diacritics. Unigraf lives with amgibuity.
Not the same level as the traditional writing
system with 14 ways to represent the same sound.
QikRyt keeps the standard keyboard and does not
distinguish similar sounds that could be guessed
from context. tok could be talk, toke, tauk, taak.
so it is not a pronunciation guide but it is sufficient
to convey meaning.


--- EARLIER COMMENTS:

> Why not set up a non-profit as the Phonemic Spelling Council (to use
an old name)
>
> You would need to specify your goals and aims. Check out
www.spellingsociety.org
>
> What would be the educational benefit beyond learning
> a nifty phonemic shorthand for English?
>
> Why would a teacher want to allow a student to write a paper on the
Shaw alphabet?
> Taking up class time to teach it might be asking too much.
>
> Are shorthand classes still being taught?
> Is any kind of note-taking skill being taught?
>
> --Steve
> sbett@...
>
>
>
> Re: [shawalphabet] Fiftieth birthday
>
> I've been thinking about highschools.
>
> The Shaw alphabet is somewhat unique in being both phonetic and
shorthand, plus already being in unicode and will have been around for
50 years, and it's connection with a famous English playwright..
>
> With a quick non-profit incorporation (5 signatures, $25, and 15
minutes at the secretary of state's office in NH) and some fund raising,
we could distribute free learning materials to schools; some public
domain books transliterated to Shavian, copies of Ubuntu Shavian Remix
(Ubuntu with the shaw translations and fonts included), curricula which
could be incorporated into another class such as English or a vocational
class which already teaches various forms of shorthand.
>
> We may only get a few hundred teachers in different schools to request
these, but it could effect thousands of students.
>
>
> You know, in 2011 it'll be fifty years since the competition to design
the alphabet. Â We should do something quite big to celebrate the
anniversary and publicise the alphabet. Â What do you think?
>
> Thomas
>
>
>
> This is something I tried to post before but did not get thru.
>
> Phonetic shorthand vs. quasi-phonetic texting
>
> Phonetic texting is stuck with the existing keypads.
> This makes it difficult to augment the alphabet or use a keypad code.
>
> One answer is to reduce the phonemicity of the code to what can be
readily handled.
>
> QicRyt is one proposal for phonetic texting:
>
>
>
> Check out Adrocles and the Lion (Penguin Dual Reader) Probably
available on Google Books.
> In this book, the Shavian transcription require 2/3's the space
required for the traditional notation.
> The difference would not have been so clear if a condensed type had
been used instead of a book face.
>
> GUS: Dt dipends on hw wel u cn si smol letrs...
> Bt if no problm, y nt us dm tgedr wid QR - den ud sev ivn mor.
>
> SB: Can you recognize these magazine and store names in QR?
> It is next to impossible to do so in Shavian until you memoirze the
new sound-signs.
> QR does not respell proper nouns but if they did....
>
>
>
> Lyf mag'zin y = why, wie, /aI/ @I/ /j/
> McDon'lds apostrophe = schwa /@/ or /V/
> Mesis e = /E/ /e/ or /eI/ ekr = acre or ecker
> Sports 'tor'ti s = /s/ or /z/, t = /t/ or /theta/
> Sacs Fift Avinu
Coca Cola not much of a challenge here. koka kola
>
> Coca Cola there is no difference in QikRyt and even the Shavian can be
recognized.
> images may not display:

> Ston Henj
>
> Stit syns
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shawalphabet/files/shavian.swf
> Simple text animation using Shavian spelling. You need a Flash player
or Flash-equipped browser to view it.
>
>
http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/its-offishal--english-iz-dar\
ned-hard-to-lurn-20091116-ii9z.html
>
> These images probably will not display but I thought I would
experiment
>

Reddit is a social bookmarking site. In other words:
* people can list other websites they're interested in
* people can vote these listings up or down
* people can view all listed sites, sorted by most recently listed or most "up" votes

I have created a section of Reddit for sites about the Alphabet:
http://www.reddit.com/r/shavian

Thomas