r/shavian

2.1K archived posts · Jan 2010 – Sep 2026

the shavian alphabet / ·𐑞 𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯 𐑨𐑤𐑓𐑩𐑚𐑧𐑑

r/shavian

Reddit is killing third-party apps, and itself. Dedicated to the alternative script for writing the English language developed by Ronald Kingsley Read and commissioned by famous playwright George Bernard Shaw. Shavian proposes itself as a largely one-to-one phonetic alphabet as an alternative to the irregular and confusing orthography of English's traditional Latin script.

Created Aug 14, 2009

1.9KMembers (last snapshot)

2.1KArchived posts

Content in and about the Shavian alphabet, a phonemic alphabet designed to represent English orthography in a way that's more phonetically consistent than in the standard Latin alphabet. It consists of 40 different characters, each representing a single sound found in English with the intention of being written as they sound. Originally the result of a contest commissioned by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw to create a new alternative script for writing English, it has since entered obscurity maintained through its prevalence in Shaw's literature like Androcles and the Lion and through its adoption into Unicode. Shavian can also be used to write Esperanto.

Installing the Noto Sans Shavian font and restarting your browser will help if you only see boxes rather than Shavian text here: 𐑞𐑦𐑕 𐑦𐑟 𐑩 𐑑𐑧𐑕𐑑

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