Why ·𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯?

../ blog / why_shavian

For reasons...

2025.04.21

TLDR;

Because it's cool and easy to write.

Introduction

I am an amateur that likes to mess around with pointless things that most others would find reprehensible. One such thing is various writing systems. One such very specific thing is the Shavian alphabet (𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯 𐑨𐑤𐑓𐑩𐑚𐑧𐑑).

I'm a fan of simplicity,and the more simple the better. Much of my own writing stems from a desire to be quick and efficient, using the least number of strokes as possible. In this I try to maintain simplicity with legibility. Shavian does the opposite, where it maintains simplicity for legibility.

However, there are some benefits of Shavian. First are the words used with one Shavian glyph, such as the (𐑞), and (𐑯), of (𐑝), or (𐑹), and you (𐑿). Then there's 𐑞 minimal number of strokes needed to write a phoenome.

Shavian's Simplicity

Shavian is (ARGUABLY) simple. It doesn't use too many strokes and lacks any extra markings (think the crossed t and dotted i). Let's look at the letter D: D has 2 strokes. d has 2 strokes. 𐑛 has 2 strokes. Wait... So technically yes, they all have 2 strokes, but logically have more work involved.

"But what about J being one stroke and 𐑡 being 2? 𐑖𐑳𐑑 𐑳𐑐

Back to the point, it's simpler to write. D is 2 strokes: vertical 1st stroke with a curved 2nd stroke. If you write it like me, you start at the bottom, draw the line up, then draw the curve back down. If you write it like some people, you start at the top, draw the line down, then return to the top, and draw the curve down. So while there's 2 strokes, there's 3 movements (or more if you count rounder curves like I do). Now, d, in the way I do it, uses 3 movements. Others will have 4. With 𐑛? I have 2 movements.

Shavian makes for quick writing.

Shavian's Flexible Glyphs

Kinda already mentioned this, butt...

Some letters double as abbreviations: the (𐑞𐑩) becomes 𐑞, and (𐑨𐑯𐑛) becomes 𐑯, you (𐑘𐑵𐑢) becomes 𐑿, of (𐑩𐑝) is 𐑝, or (𐑪𐑮) is 𐑹...

Shavian's Space Savings

I love Japanese because it saves space. Each glyph is a syllable. You have a few words in a handful of glyphs in Hiragana and Katakana. It takes up significantly less space than the English Latin Alphabet. But then there's Shavian. A few glyphs extra for phonetic reasons and you've got a good middle ground between an abjad, alphabet, and syllabary. Shavian saves some space. For instance:

She sells sea shells down by the sea shore.
𐑖𐑰 𐑕𐑧𐑤𐑟 𐑕𐑰 𐑖𐑧𐑤𐑟 𐑛𐑬𐑯 𐑚𐑲 𐑞𐑩 𐑕𐑰 𐑖𐑹.

Both say the same thing, but ·𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯 saves space, and that's without shortening common words like 𐑞𐑩 to 𐑞.

Shavian's Shortcomings

Despite how great it can seem, it sucks in some dealbreaking areas for folks:

• Too Phoenetic (Can spell the same word different ways depending on dialect and personal pronounciation of words, which phoenetically shift over time and can lead to confusion like the DSS)
• Fails to Account for Homophones (Yup, it's homophonophobic™, because pear and pair are now simply 𐑐𐑹)
• Too Many Glyphs (Goes from 27 letters to 48, though you could generously see only 31 when you realize most are just flipped variants of each other)
• Difficult Tech Support (No real default language support on most devices, leading to using clunky web keyboards or the Keyman app
• Paradigm Shift (Requires you to rethink how you read and write text, which is slower and less efficient if you don't use it consistently)

So Why, Exactly???

Because it's cool and easy to write. And come on, you can't possibly tell me my initials don't look cool in it: 𐑡𐑕.