#learning shavian

[prestonmonterey]

going feral actually

[keithbutgay]

explodes

im like halfway through learning the shavian alphabet :OO

its sooo confusing tho that there are flipped things

like

um

𐑓 (fay) 𐑝 (vie) 𐑚 (bell) and 𐑐 (pin)

umm yea

whoa look im so cool and smart learning another alphabet for the first time (shhh don tell my parents who tried to teach me hebrew and thai for years--)

*laughs nervously in 8 years of hebrew school and only knows like twenty-five words* i'm trying to learn more i swear--

[sweetfirebird]

Currently on sale at Smashwords for $2.49

The Interplanetary Trade Coalition has not been welcomed with open arms by the Sha Empire. Isolated at the far edge of a distant system, the Sha are distrustful of outsiders, and previous I.P.T.C. diplomatic missions have ended with members imprisoned or dead. But, if pushed enough, the I.P.T.C. will overrun the planet to take what it wants. The situation is already precarious when student linguist Taji Ameyo is conscripted to translate for the newest I.P.T.C. ambassador. Taji, used to being alone, has never learned to hide his heart or his opinions, and the controlled Sha nobility regard little, outspoken human Taji with fascination, calling him shehzha.

Mysterious, coveted figures, so devoted to their lovers that pleasing them is a test of Shavian honor, shehzha are usually kept out of public view. Taji is a nobody, hardly alluring, and yet it’s not long before his runaway mouth gets him entangled in imperial politics, and he has no one rely on but the soldiers assigned to protect him—one soldier, more than the others.

At the mercy of both a greedy trade coalition and a proud empire, Taji has to determine what it means to be shehzha, while surrounded by ambitious noble families and a sharp-eyed emperor, and hopefully learn enough about the Sha to keep him and everyone he cares about alive.

A queer sci-fi romance

Taji From Beyond the Rings

[tokiro07]

Just learned about Shavian, an alternate English phonemic alphabet, and immediately clocked that it's the same basic idea behind the language in Tunic

I don't know if the devs were inspired by it, but looking over the characters, I have to imagine that they were at least aware of it

[lasterfox]

I love Tumblr, I’ve been back on here for one (1) day and I already discovered a whole new alphabet that I want to learn (Shavian).

[vincentaureliuslin]

i think ya asked me about my fursona a couple days ago

anyway

i drew him

:33

(his sweater says 'milo' in shavian)

i did !!! i love seeing peoples fursonas

he is soosoo cute omg,, i need to learn how to draw anthro animals NOW

[rawr-monsters]

Just learned about the shavian alphabet, I think I'm gonna try to learn it for note taking purposes. It's pretty neat and will make a better shorthand for proofs.

[etherwraith]

Because it's still sort of the new year and I've not blogged nearly enough to give this internet corner an identity yet, I thought I'd talk about my life at the moment.

I'm on Uni break from my Medical Science degree, which will hopefully become a Medicine post-grad in two years. I really enjoy Science and want to be a Doctor (at the moment, I'm looking at Pathology) but I kind of miss the diversity of High School with all of STEM plus the Humanities.

Because I'm super forgetful, I've recently started using Obsidian to try to organise my thoughts into a 'second brain' so that important things don't evaporate from my head as soon as I need them.

I'm self-teaching myself Python, which is fun. I'm currently trying to write a program that lets you create and use a character sheet for DnD5e.

I'm a little interested in learning how to use base2 counting in everyday life, and a lot interested in the Shavian writing system for English at the moment.

·𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯 𐑦𐑟 𐑮𐑰𐑤𐑦 𐑓𐑳𐑯!

I'm a lifesaver and bartender but mostly unemployed.

I play hockey, and am thinking about moving back to defence after trying out striker last year.

[emptymanuscript]

@_@ HOMG, I LOVE IT!

or 𐑣𐑴 𐑥𐑲 𐑜𐑪𐑛, 𐑲 𐑤𐑳𐑝 𐑦𐑑!

I totally want to know about other entries in the contest.

I had a random plot in the extended zero draft (will definitely not be making it into any book I write, though I dunno, if @coatntails ever decides to sit down and write her books about the back end, it might go in there) where Tosh (minor character who is the little sister of the boyfriend of the rule 63 version of James stolen from another timeline... yeah, ok, I can see why she's nervous about even figuring out how to even start those books) ends up trying to use her position as one of the inner circle of Founders of Nu Laputa ( ·𐑯𐑿 ·𐑤𐑳𐑐𐑿𐑑𐑷? Maybe, I think. Or maybe ·𐑯𐑿 ·𐑤𐑨𐑐𐑿𐑑𐑷... hmmm) to force a more logical way of dealing with language. She was gung-ho on the IPA, so it did tell you exactly how to pronounce it - the way the founders did.

I was definitely interested in how Laputian (·𐑤𐑨𐑐𐑿𐑖𐑩𐑯) would evolve as a language into that world's future, just wasn't quite sure how to work on it. I definitely think of Laputa as a deeply cosmopolitan clash of very different cultures spitting out something only vaguely recognizable. I was very curious intellectually about what might spit out in the definitive future. Every so often I think about writing stuff in that setting. Maybe all the writing is actually in something like Shavian instead of the IPA. Since one of the clashes I definitely see happening is English being the dominant framework for how things progress. Too much power is concentrated in the hands of Received American English speakers for anything else to get the top spot. But other languages have populations that are far too large not to have a dramatic effect.

Which is all besides the point, really.

I just really find stuff like this cool. I want more. I wish I had the energy to learn and do more.

[edelweiss-ivy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_alphabet

The Deseret alphabet was an outgrowth of the idealism and utopianism of Young and the early LDS Church. Young and the Mormon pioneers believed "all aspects of life" were in need of reform for the imminent millennium, and the Deseret alphabet was just one of many ways in which they sought to bring about a complete "transformation in society," in anticipation of the Second Coming of Jesus. Young wrote of the reform that "it would represent every sound used in the construction of any known language; and, in fact, a step and partial return to a pure language which has been promised unto us in the latter days," which meant the pure Adamic language spoken before the Tower of Babel.

In public statements, Young claimed the alphabet would replace the traditional Latin alphabet with an alternative, more phonetically accurate alphabet for the English language. This would offer immigrants an opportunity to learn to read and write English, the orthography of which, he said, is often less phonetically consistent than those of many other languages Similar neographies have been attempted, the most well-known of which for English is the Shavian alphabet. Young also proposed teaching the alphabet in the school system, stating "It will be the means of introducing uniformity in our orthography, and the years that are now required to learn to read and spell can be devoted to other studies."

Between 1854 and 1869, the Alphabet was used in scriptural newspaper passages, selected church records, a few diaries, and some correspondence. Occasional street signs and posters used the new letters. In 1860 a $5 gold coin was embossed 𐐐𐐬𐑊𐐨𐑌𐐮𐑅 𐐻𐐭 𐑄 𐐢𐐫𐑉𐐼 (Holiness to the Lord). In 1868-9, after much difficulty creating suitable fonts, four books were printed: two school primers, the full Book of Mormon, and a first portion of it, intended as a third school reader.

Despite repeated and costly promotion by the early LDS Church, the alphabet never enjoyed widespread use, and it has been regarded by historians as a failure. However, in recent years, aided by digital typography, the Deseret Alphabet has been revived as a cultural heirloom.

A Deseret chart at the front of an 1869 Book of Mormon. Internet Archive/Public Domain

[prestonmonterey]

i feel like such a child sounding out each letter TwT

[disgruntled-welshgirl]

A couple of things.

As far as I know, I have little to no Welsh blood, but I am quite interested in linguistics, especially the Celtic languages of the Gaelic and Brittonic families. Welsh is, in particular, a very beautiful language, which I understand informed the languages of Middle-Earth, as well as countless other fantasy language systems. I am also a huge fan of the Welsh side of Celtic mythology, as well as the Welsh side of Arthurian stories. All of this is to ask: Would I be appropriating Welsh culture by attempting to learn the language? I understand that it is one of the less-spoken languages in the world, and since it is an older language, and not one I plan to use for day-to-day business, I worry that by learning it I would be intruding.

If it is okay for me to learn this language, what would be the best way to go about it? Should I use books, Duolingo (ew), Croeso, or another source completely? Do you know of any difficult pitfalls in this language? Is grammatical gender more or less difficult in Welsh than in, say, French? How are conjugations? Is it a very dialectic language? Are there any alternate writing systems to prevent the need for double letters and make it truly phonetic/phonemic, a la Shavian?

I am really sorry for writing such a dense ask, but language learning is one of my passions, and this language seems really, REALLY cool.

Okay so that's a lot and I'll do my best to work through it in a way that's at all satisfactory. My qualifications for this are a decade of Welsh language schooling so I'm not the best but you could do worse. First off yes, Welsh was the inspiration for chiefly elvish and Tolkien called it "the senior language of Britain" and I like him find it very beautiful. Alright then, next point!

It would in no way be cultural appropriation to learn to speak Welsh, and by doing so you would not be intruding in any way shape or form. If anything I'd call it appreciation to learn a language especially a minority language such as Welsh. Even if you don't plan to use it day to day knowing it is the best thing you could possibly do in relation to the language. Next!

I'm not sure entirely what you mean when you ask where you could learn the language but I would recommend geiriadur yr academi or Glosbe if you want to translate specific words and word hippo if you want to do longer strings. Word hippo also has a pronunciation feature so that may prove useful. The best way to learn how to speak Welsh is learning the alphabet, Welsh is entirely phonetically consistent so if you learn the alphabet you will be able to pronounce every single word competently and in a way that people will understand. This playlist would be incredibly useful in learning the letter sounds. Onwards!

The biggest pitfall is absolutely mutations, there's a number of letters than mutate in at most three ways depending on a number of factors. The best thing I can recommend to help with mutations is to commit this chart to memory:

(radical here just means the original letter) So for example, the mutations of Pen (head) would be Ben, Mhen, and Phen. Next you should learn these rules

So, taking those examples from earlier we can see that the mutations would occur as follows (remember these are just one example);

Dy ben

Fy mhen

Tri phen

I would also recommend you look into this yourself to make sure you understand it because it is a surety that whatever you find will go more in depth than I have. Let's press on!

Grammatical is a complete and total Trainwreck with no rhyme or reason behind it. You will have to look up what each object is gendered as on a case by case basis. Alternatively, you could just not care. I can't honestly say I've ever met a Welsh speaker who cares about grammatical gender so I think you'll be fine if you don't. We're nearing the end to let's endeavour to get there!

Conjugation is simple once you get it but it can be daunting when you're starting, but trust me, it gets easier with practice. I would highly recommend this Wikipedia article which explains conjugation better than I ever could. All you'll really need to worry about on there is the colloquial section so I'd focus on that if I were you. Penultimate point!

Welsh has two primary dialects, north and south. The differences are small and they're not going to hinder communication much so you should be fine. This video showcases dialects pretty well. And now for your final point!

As far as I'm aware there are no alternative systems for writing Welsh. The double letters, while confusing to people unfamiliar with them, are actually fairly simple when you realise that they are a completely separate sound to the singular letters. D and Dd make completely different sounds, same F and Ff, G and Ng, P and Ph and all the rest. The third video in that playlist I linked earlier focuses on these so turn your eyes there if you've any questions.

And that is everything. Thank you ever so much for this ask and for showing interest in the language. It's nice to see people show interest in it from farther afield than I'd expect.

[whersoever]

a new blog for shavian musings

hi, i'm lynn

i intend to be filling this space with the shavian alphabet, notes about development of shavian-related things, and other miscellaneous things that feel appropriate. i'm a big spelling reform advocate, and my main goal with this blog is to make new content for people to practise with. as such, keep in mind that not everything will be written with the roman alphabet. if that bothers you, you could always consider learning shavian

current projects include a new input method for shavian, a copy of alice in wonderland designed to help people learn it, and a figuring out of whatever github is meant to be

[tokiro07]

I decided to learn Quikscript over Shavian because it's supposedly better for dyslexia and handwriting, and while that seems to be true, Bay and Fee are literally the same character, just one is Deep and the other is Tall. I'm not sure if this was an unfortunate necessity for the sake of maintaining simplicity or just an oversight, but I'm a tad miffed

[sweetfirebird]

Taji From Beyond the Rings

In paperback form!! (For the nerds and completists out there)

The Interplanetary Trade Coalition has not been welcomed with open arms by the Sha Empire. Isolated at the far edge of a distant system, the Sha are distrustful of outsiders, and previous I.P.T.C. diplomatic missions have ended with members imprisoned or dead. But, if pushed enough, the I.P.T.C. will overrun the planet to take what it wants. The situation is already precarious when student linguist Taji Ameyo is conscripted to translate for the newest I.P.T.C. ambassador. Taji, used to being alone, has never learned to hide his heart or his opinions, and the controlled Sha nobility regard little, outspoken human Taji with fascination, calling him shehzha. Mysterious, coveted figures, so devoted to their lovers that pleasing them is a test of Shavian honor, shehzha are usually kept out of public view. Taji is a nobody, hardly alluring, and yet it’s not long before his runaway mouth gets him entangled in imperial politics, and he has no one rely on but the soldiers assigned to protect him—one soldier, more than the others. At the mercy of both a greedy trade coalition and a proud empire, Taji has to determine what it means to be shehzha, while surrounded by ambitious noble families and a sharp-eyed emperor, and hopefully learn enough about the Sha to keep him and everyone he cares about alive. A queer sci-fi romance

Paperback

Ebook also available

[gwendolynlerman]

Writing systems

Alternative scripts and notation systems

In this post, I explained the different writing systems in the world, including alphabets, syllabaries, and semanto-phonetic scripts, but there are alternative scripts and notation systems.

Alternative spelling systems

These writing and spelling systems are alternative ways of writing English and other languages. Most are designed to make it easier to learn how to write English.

Benjamin Franklin’s Phonetic Alphabet consists of all the lowercase letters of the Latin alphabet, minus c, j, q, w, and y (which Franklin considered redundant), plus six new letters for sounds which he believed lacked unambiguous orthographic representation (cɩ for /ɔː/ and /ɒ/, ɥ for /ʌ/, ի or ̊ի for /ʃ/, ŋ for /ŋ/, ⱨ for /θ/, ˇh̢ or ᷄h̢ for /ð/).

Much as the imperfections of the alphabet will admit of; the present bad spelling is only bad because contrary to the present bad rules: under the new rules it would be good—the difficulty of learning to spell well in the old way is so great, that few attain it; thousands and thousands writing on to old age, without ever being able to acquire it. ‘Tis, besides a difficulty continually increasing; as the sound gradually varies more and more from the spelling: and to foreigners.

The Deseret alphabet was devised as an alternative to the Latin alphabet and developed during the 1850s at the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah) by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon. The name “Deseret” is taken from a word in the Book of Mormon and means “honeybee”. It reflects the Mormon use of the beehive as a symbol of co-operative industry.

This is what the alphabet looks like.

Dialectal Paleotype was developed by Alexander J. Ellis to represent the dialects of English during the 1880s. The total number of symbols is over 250, some of them are the following:

He was whining away, says she, for all the world like a sick child, or a little lass in a tizzy.

The Pitman Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a) was invented by Sir James Pitman to make it easier for English-speaking children to learn to read English. However, since it is based on Received Pronunciation, people with other accents find it difficult to decipher and the transition to the traditional orthography can be difficult for children as well.

The alphabet consists of 42 letters, including 24 standard Latin letters.

Quikscript was created by Kingsley Read, who also created the Shavian alphabet, to improve various problems with the latter. There are two written forms: Junior and Senior. The letters in Junior Quickscript are mostly unconnected, with the exception of a few common dipthongs. Senior Quickscript is the semi-cursive “official” form of Quickscript: many letters have alternate forms which allow words to be handwritten with fewer lifts of the pen.

Junior Quikscript

Senior Quikscript

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The Shavian or Shaw alphabet is named after George Bernard Shaw, who created a competition to create a new writing system for English, since the official one was according to him, a waste of time, energy and paper. There are three types of letters: tall, deep and short. Tall letters are the equivalent of ascenders in the Latin alphabet (e.g. b, d, f, h), deep letters are the equivalent of descenders (e.g. p, g, j, y), and short letters are all the same height, like the letters a, c, e and i. Consonant letters come in pairs, with the tall one representing an unvoiced consonant and the deep one representing a voiced consonant. There are no capital letters, although a ‘namer dot'’is used for proper names.