A better English alphabet? ·𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯 (Shavian)

Question

I'm a native English speaker, and I've never liked the spelling of "night" or "cough" or "through." Shavian was introduced in 1962 as a phonemic alternative to the traditional Latin alphabet that you're reading now. For example, "night" is spelled 𐑯𐑲𐑑, "cough" is spelled 𐑒𐑪𐑓, and "through" is spelled 𐑔𐑮𐑵.

Honestly, I didn't think I would get into it. But I find it fun, and there's a great community of people on Facebook, Bluesky, and Reddit. Since there isn't one on SpaceHey yet, I thought I'd try to form one here.

Here's the same two paragraphs in Shavian:

𐑲𐑥 𐑩 𐑯𐑱𐑑𐑦𐑝 ·𐑦𐑙𐑜𐑤𐑦𐑖 𐑕𐑐𐑰𐑒𐑼, 𐑯 𐑲𐑝 𐑯𐑧𐑝𐑼 𐑤𐑲𐑒𐑑 𐑞 𐑕𐑐𐑧𐑤𐑦𐑙 𐑝 "𐑯𐑲𐑑" 𐑹 "𐑒𐑪𐑓" 𐑹 "𐑔𐑮𐑵." ·𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯 𐑢𐑪𐑟 𐑦𐑯𐑑𐑮𐑩𐑛𐑿𐑕𐑑 𐑦𐑯 1962 𐑨𐑟 𐑩 𐑓𐑩𐑯𐑰𐑥𐑦𐑒 𐑷𐑤𐑑𐑻𐑯𐑩𐑑𐑦𐑝 𐑑 𐑞 𐑑𐑮𐑩𐑛𐑦𐑖𐑩𐑯𐑩𐑤 ·𐑤𐑨𐑑𐑦𐑯 𐑨𐑤𐑓𐑩𐑚𐑧𐑑 𐑞𐑨𐑑 𐑿𐑼 𐑮𐑰𐑛𐑦𐑙 𐑯𐑬. 𐑓 𐑦𐑜𐑟𐑭𐑥𐑐𐑩𐑤, "𐑯𐑲𐑑" 𐑦𐑟 𐑕𐑐𐑧𐑤𐑛 night, "𐑒𐑪𐑓" 𐑦𐑟 𐑕𐑐𐑧𐑤𐑛 cough, 𐑯 "𐑔𐑮𐑵" 𐑦𐑟 𐑕𐑐𐑧𐑤𐑛 through.

𐑪𐑯𐑩𐑕𐑑𐑤𐑦, 𐑲 𐑛𐑦𐑛𐑩𐑯𐑑 𐑔𐑦𐑙𐑒 𐑲 𐑢𐑫𐑛 𐑜𐑧𐑑 𐑦𐑯𐑑𐑵 𐑦𐑑. 𐑚𐑳𐑑 𐑲 𐑓𐑲𐑯𐑛 𐑦𐑑 𐑓𐑳𐑯, 𐑯 𐑞𐑺𐑟 𐑩 𐑜𐑮𐑱𐑑 𐑒𐑩𐑥𐑿𐑯𐑦𐑑𐑦 𐑝 𐑐𐑰𐑐𐑩𐑤 𐑪𐑯 ·𐑓𐑱𐑕𐑚𐑫𐑒, ·𐑚𐑤𐑵𐑕𐑒𐑲, 𐑯 ·𐑮𐑧𐑛𐑦𐑑. 𐑕𐑦𐑯𐑕 𐑞𐑺 𐑦𐑟𐑩𐑯𐑑 𐑢𐑳𐑯 𐑪𐑯 ·𐑕𐑐𐑱𐑕𐑣𐑱 𐑘𐑧𐑑, 𐑲 𐑔𐑷𐑑 𐑲𐑛 𐑑𐑮𐑲 𐑑 𐑓𐑹𐑥 𐑢𐑳𐑯 𐑣𐑽.

This YouTube video is about the best explanation that I've come across if you want to learn more:

Please comment with any of your thoughts! I'd love to hear from you.

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Answer

Hello! I saw your post on the Reddit. TBH I forgot about this site, I barely remember making my account 2 years ago.

Edit: I actually don't remember making this account (Jao). I forgot about SpaceHey twice it seems, as when I was looking in my password manager to log in to the mobile app I noticed I also made an account (Jaoh) 7 months ago.

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I'm glad you're here, Jao. I've been on SpaceHey for a while, but the reply system on forums baffles me. What keeps you using Shavian?

Answer

"I'm glad you're here, Jao. I've been on SpaceHey for a while, but the reply system on forums baffles me. What keeps you using Shavian?"

Yeah, the reply system could be better, there is no way to specify which person/message you are replying to. I think copying the message you reply to in your own message and changing the color of it might be a good work around.

Shavian is very interesting to me, I have been into Conlangs and other things of that nature for a while, but never really any luck learning any due to the difficulty of learning a new language. Shavian is a good middle ground as it's just English, something I already know.

I am not yet fluent with Shavian but after a couple seconds I can read at least half of the words I see. Though due to some of the letters being too similar I am having issues with it, but that's something that's also in the Latin alphabet. i.e q, p, d, and b. So that's not a unique failing of Shavian.

I have been using https://shavian.app to learn. I find that it's the best of the websites that I have seen at teaching Shavian, as it includes exercises where you see a word in Shavian and then you have to type the word out, and the website would tell you if you got the word correct or not.

Though one of the biggest annoyances I have with the site is that when you get to the next lesson/page it doesn't put you back at the top of the page, but instead keeps you at the bottom of the site so you have to manually scroll to the top of the page.

Edit: It seems that coloring the text doesn't work. I guess that might be a bug?

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A better English alphabet? ·𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯 (Shavian)

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