Shavian alphabet

Shavian alphabet 𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯 𐑨𐑤𐑓𐑩𐑚𐑧𐑑
Script type	Alphabet
Creator	Ronald Kingsley Read
Time period	~1960 to present
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	English, Esperanto
Related scripts
Child systems	Quikscript, Revised Shavian, Ŝava
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Shaw (281), ​Shavian (Shaw)
Unicode
Unicode alias	Shavian
Unicode range	U+10450–U+1047F
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

This article contains Shavian text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Shavian characters.

The Shavian alphabet (/ˈʃeɪviən/ SHAY-vee-ən;^[1] also known as the Shaw alphabet) is a constructed alphabet conceived as a way to provide simple, phonemic orthography for the English language to replace the inefficiencies and difficulties of conventional spelling using the Latin alphabet. It was posthumously funded by and named after Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw.

Shaw set three main criteria for the new alphabet. It should be:

1. at least 40 letters;
2. as phonetic as possible (that is, letters should have a 1:1 correspondence to phonemes);
3. distinct from the Latin alphabet to avoid the impression that the new spellings were simply misspellings.