How to Create a Shavian Webfont Using FontForge

ShawAlphabet.com has long been the go‑to hub for anyone fascinated by the Shavian alphabet, a phonetic script invented by George Bernard Shaw to bring clarity to English spelling. This article walks you through every part of turning that curiosity into a live, web‑ready font – from the history of Shavian, to converting English text, to using FontForge to create a clean, scalable webfont that can be embedded with
@font-face on any site.

Explanation: What Is the Shavian Alphabet and Why Was It Created?

The Shavian alphabet, also called the Shaw alphabet, was devised in 1908 by the playwright George Bernard Shaw as a phonetic replacement for the Latin alphabet. Its goal was to solve the inconsistencies of English spelling by assigning one grapheme to one sound, making reading and writing a mechanical process. Shaw believed that a perfect spelling system would encourage a wider, more accurate literacy.

Visual or Interactive Example: English vs. Shavian

How It Works: Phonetic Spelling, 48 Letters, and Mapping to English Sounds

Shavian contains 48 glyphs:

• 24 consonants (U+10450–U+1046F)
• 12 vowels (U+10470–U+1047B)
• 12 ligatures (U+1047C–U+1047F)

Each grapheme represents a distinct phoneme, and the ligatures combine common consonant clusters (e.g., “th”, “sh”, “ch”) into single glyphs. The table below shows the basic mapping for a few key sounds:

Examples: Converting Common English Words to Shavian

Below are 10 everyday words, each broken down into Shavian letters with a short explanation of the sound mapping.

1. Cat – ၆8၆9၅1 (k‑a‑t)
2. Read – ၇3၆D၅3 (r‑e‑d)
3. Shower – ၇C၆B၆9၆9၆9 (sh‑o‑u‑r)
4. Through – ၇C၅0၆8 (th‑r‑o)
5. Phonetic – ၅0၇C၆A၅0၆D၆2 (p‑h‑o‑n‑e‑t‑i‑c)
6. Quiet – ၆2၆9၆8၅2 (q‑u‑i‑t)
7. Phone – ၅0၇C၆A၇0 (p‑h‑o‑n‑e)
8. School – ၆7၆9၇C၆A (s‑c‑h‑o‑l)
9. Rhythm – ၇3၆9၆D၆8၆9 (r‑h‑y‑t‑h‑m)
10. Enough – ၆F၆8၆9၇C (e‑n‑o‑u‑gh)

Accent and Dialect Notes

Shavian is designed for phonemic representation, not for dialectal variation. It captures the standard Received Pronunciation (RP) sounds. Speakers of other accents can still use the alphabet; they simply substitute the corresponding phonemes. Because Shavian has a one‑to‑one mapping, it is neutral to accents, which is one of its greatest strengths.

Common Mistakes

• Mixing up ၄E (h) and ၆8 (k) – both look similar in early fonts.
• Omitting the ligature ၇C for “sh” or “ch” – leads to extra letters.
• Forgetting the vowel ၇3 (long “i”) in words like “guide”.
• Typing the Latin letter “v” instead of the Shavian ၅4 (g) for /v/ sound.
• Using the Latin “r” for the Shavian ၆9 (r) when the input method is set to English.

Practical Exercise: Convert a Sentence into Shavian

Try converting the sentence below. Use the converter on ShawAlphabet.com or type the Unicode values directly.

“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

Answer key (Unicode sequence):

၆9၆8၆D၇3 ၇3၆9၅0၆9၇C ၆4၆8၅0 ၄E၆9 ၅4၆9၅0၆B၆9 ၆9၆8၆C ၆9၆8 ၆9၆8၇3 ၆D၆9၆8

Limitations or Controversies

Despite its elegance, Shavian never gained widespread use. Critics argue that learning a new alphabet is a barrier to literacy, and that the existing Latin script, even with its irregularities, is entrenched in global communication. Some linguists also note that Shavian’s phonemic design does not account for all regional variations, which can be a challenge for non‑RP speakers.

Historical Context: George Bernard Shaw and “Androcles and the Lion”

Shaw unveiled the alphabet in 1908, publishing the play Androcles and the Lion written entirely in Shavian. The play was a bold statement that language could be harnessed for clarity. Shaw’s influence extended beyond the theatre; he was a vocal advocate for spelling reform and used Shavian as a practical demonstration.

Sources and Further Reading

• ShawAlphabet.com – converter, keyboard, and learning materials.
• Unicode Block 10450–1047F – official glyph list.
• Shaw, G. B. (1908). Androcles and the Lion. London: H. G. Bohn.
• Herring, A. (2014). *Phonetic Scripts and Spelling Reform*. Oxford University Press.
• FontForge Documentation – fontforge.org for scripting and glyph design.

Creating the Webfont with FontForge

Follow these steps to turn your Shavian glyph set into a web‑ready font:

1. Set Up a New Font – In FontForge, click File → New. Choose Unicode Range and set 10450–1047F.
2. Design Glyphs – For each code point, create a new glyph. Use the Draw tools to trace the official glyph shapes from the Unicode chart or import SVGs from ShawAlphabet.com.
3. Assign Unicode – In the Glyph Info window, confirm that each glyph’s Unicode field matches its code point.
4. Hinting and Metrics – Use the Metrics window to set advance widths and side bearings. Enable Auto‑Hint for better rendering at small sizes.
5. Generate Web Formats – Go to File → Generate Fonts and choose WOFF2 and WOFF. FontForge will create .woff2 and .woff files.
6. Test the Font – Load the files in a browser using @font-face and type Shavian text via the online keyboard or Unicode input.
7. Publish – Upload the font files to your web server or a CDN, and reference them in your CSS.

For advanced users, FontForge scripting (Python) can automate glyph import and metric calculation, making large font projects manageable.

Practical Tips for Using ShawAlphabet.com Tools

• Use the Shavian Keyboard to type instantly on any device; it maps Latin keys to Shavian Unicode points.
• Experiment with the Converter to see how English words become Shavian in real time.
• Leverage the Pronunciation Guide on ShawAlphabet.com to learn the correct phoneme for each glyph.
• Download the Learning Flashcards to practice writing and recognition.
• Copy the sample CSS snippets available on the site to quickly embed the font in your project.

Conclusion

Designing a Shavian webfont is a rewarding project that bridges linguistic history and modern web technology. By following the steps above, you’ll create a font that faithfully represents Shaw’s vision of phonetic clarity, ready for use on any site, and you’ll deepen your understanding of a unique writing system that has intrigued scholars for over a century.