Welcome to ShawAlphabet.com, an independent educational website dedicated to the Shavian alphabet, also known as the Shaw alphabet.
Our goal is simple: make Shavian easier to discover, understand, learn, type, and use.
Shavian is an alternative writing system for English associated with playwright and language reform advocate George Bernard Shaw and developed principally by Kingsley Read. The University of Reading’s Kingsley Read Alphabet Collection documents Read’s work on alphabet reform and explains how he ultimately developed a 48-character writing system following the competition established after Shaw’s death.
Today, ShawAlphabet.com brings that fascinating history into a modern learning environment through clear explanations, practical reference material, interactive tools, and resources for anyone interested in writing systems, phonetics, English spelling reform, typography, or language.
Our Mission
Our mission is to make the Shavian alphabet accessible to both complete beginners and experienced users.
Learning an unfamiliar script can be intimidating. A chart containing dozens of unfamiliar symbols is useful as a reference, but it does not necessarily explain how the system works, why particular letters represent particular sounds, or how those characters can be used on a modern computer or phone.
ShawAlphabet.com therefore focuses on practical learning.
We aim to help visitors:
- Understand what the Shavian alphabet is and why it was created.
- Learn the sounds and forms of its 48 letters.
- Understand the relationship between English pronunciation and Shavian spelling.
- Practice reading and writing Shavian.
- Type Shavian using modern devices and Unicode-compatible software.
- Convert conventional English text into Shavian for study and experimentation.
- Explore the history of George Bernard Shaw, Kingsley Read, and English spelling reform.
- Compare Shavian with the Latin alphabet, IPA, Quikscript, Deseret, and other writing systems.
- Find reliable sources for further study.
The Unicode Standard describes Shavian as a phonemic alphabet for English and identifies the form used in the Shavian edition of Androcles and the Lion as the normative version. Unicode records 48 letters, with no uppercase/lowercase distinction, along with a special name-mark convention.
Learn, Explore and Experiment
ShawAlphabet.com is intended to be more than an encyclopedia entry about an unusual alphabet.
We are building a practical Shavian learning and reference platform.
Our resources may include:
Alphabet Guides
Explore the Shavian letters individually and as a system, including consonants, vowels, compound letters, letter names, sound values, and Unicode characters.
Beginner Lessons
Follow structured lessons designed to take you from recognizing your first Shavian letters to reading complete words and sentences.
Spelling and Pronunciation Guides
Learn why converting conventional English spelling into Shavian is not simply a matter of replacing one Latin letter with another symbol.
English pronunciation varies by dialect and accent, so we also explore where Shavian spelling conventions and individual pronunciation may differ.
Interactive Tools
Our planned and developing tools include an English-to-Shavian converter, online Shavian keyboard, alphabet explorer, word lookup, Unicode inspector, quizzes, flashcards, and reading exercises.
These tools are intended as learning aids rather than unquestionable authorities. Where pronunciation, dialect, homographs, or competing conventions can produce more than one reasonable result, we aim to explain that uncertainty rather than hide it.
Computing Resources
Because Shavian is encoded in Unicode, it can be represented as ordinary digital text rather than only as images or custom-font substitutions. The Unicode Shavian block occupies U+10450–U+1047F.
We provide practical information about fonts, keyboards, browsers, operating systems, web publishing, HTML, CSS, and other technologies that can help people use Shavian digitally.
Why Study the Shavian Alphabet?
Shavian is interesting for reasons that extend beyond learning another set of symbols.
It offers a practical case study in questions such as:
- Why is English spelling so irregular?
- What would happen if written English represented sounds more directly?
- Can a writing system be designed to make writing more economical?
- How should an alphabet handle differences between English accents?
- What makes a new writing system easy—or difficult—to learn?
- How do historical scripts survive in the Unicode era?
The University of Reading preserves extensive Kingsley Read material covering Shavian, alphabet reform, Shaw-script, Quikscript, Readspel, correspondence, research notes, and related publications. This surviving material demonstrates that Shavian belongs to a much broader history of experimentation with English writing and spelling.
We want ShawAlphabet.com to make that history understandable without requiring visitors to already be specialists in linguistics.
About the History of ShawAlphabet.com
The domain ShawAlphabet.com also has its own history.
Historical references identify an earlier website at this domain with Paul Gershon Vandenbrink and his revised version of the Shaw alphabet. Contemporary references describe that project as proposing changes to the original Shavian system, particularly in its treatment of vowels.
Omniglot describes Vandenbrink’s system as the Revised Shaw Abjad, developed in 1996 and further revised in 2001. It differs substantially from standard Shavian.
The present ShawAlphabet.com is a new and independent publication.
We do not claim to be the original ShawAlphabet.com project, an official continuation of Paul Vandenbrink’s work, or the owner of any database, documentation, software, fonts, illustrations, correspondence, or other material that may previously have appeared on this domain.
Historical material will be discussed when relevant, but third-party or earlier-site content will not be republished merely because it was once associated with this domain. Material is used only when we have an appropriate right, permission, license, or legitimate basis to do so.
Our primary educational focus is the standard Shavian alphabet while also documenting significant variants and related writing systems where useful.
Independent Publication
ShawAlphabet.com is an independent educational and reference publication.
We are not the official website of:
- George Bernard Shaw or his estate.
- Kingsley Read or his estate.
- The University of Reading.
- The Unicode Consortium.
- Shavian.info.
- Paul Vandenbrink or the historical Revised Shaw Alphabet project.
- Any former owner, publisher, organization, or community previously associated with this domain.
References to people, organizations, books, fonts, websites, standards, and historical projects are provided for educational, informational, and research purposes.
Our Editorial Approach
Accuracy matters especially when documenting a writing system.
Whenever practical, we prefer authoritative and primary sources such as the Unicode Standard, archival collections, original publications, scholarly material, and documented historical sources.
We also distinguish between:
- Established Shavian conventions.
- Accent-dependent pronunciation.
- Historical practices.
- Modern community usage.
- Alternative interpretations.
- Revised or derivative writing systems.
When reliable sources disagree, our goal is to describe the disagreement rather than present an uncertain interpretation as established fact.
We welcome corrections. Language, phonetics, software support, and digital typography can all involve details that change or require specialist knowledge. If you identify an error or have a source that could improve one of our pages, please contact us.
Who ShawAlphabet.com Is For
You do not need to be a linguist to use this website.
ShawAlphabet.com is for:
- Curious readers discovering Shavian for the first time.
- Students of linguistics and phonetics.
- English pronunciation enthusiasts.
- Teachers and language learners.
- Writers and typographers.
- Font and software developers.
- Alternative-alphabet enthusiasts.
- Researchers interested in spelling reform.
- Existing Shavian readers looking for convenient digital tools.
Whether you came here because you saw the characters 𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯 somewhere online, encountered George Bernard Shaw’s ideas about spelling reform, or simply enjoy exploring writing systems, you are welcome to start from the beginning.
Start Exploring
If Shavian is completely new to you, begin with What Is the Shavian Alphabet? and then move to our Shavian Alphabet Chart to explore all 48 letters.
If you already know the basics, try our learning exercises, spelling guides, keyboard resources, converter, Unicode references, and historical articles.
The Shavian alphabet began as an ambitious experiment in rethinking how English could be written.
ShawAlphabet.com exists to make that experiment easier to explore today.