History

Manual of Current Shorthand (from Rider University)
By Henry Sweet, 1892

Henry Sweet is perhaps best known for his being the prototype of Henry Higgins in Shaw’s play, Pygmalion, but his shorthand scheme is the oldest inspiration cited for what would become the Shaw Alphabet. This book describes it in very great detail: from the first principles of its orthographic mode, which replaces the letters a–z with new shapes while retaining the current spellings; to a full-blown shorthand based on recording sounds of speech, which (with its many abbreviations) could have been used for verbatim reporting.

Preface to The Miraculous Birth of Language by Richard Albert Wilson, 1923

Letter to the Editor of The Times, 15 April 1941
Both by George Bernard Shaw, 1941

Shaw held a lifelong disdain for the conventional Latin alphabet and its English orthography, going so far as to do all of his writing in Pitman Shorthand. These pieces are Shaw’s earliest documented public pleas for a new alphabet, to be specifically designed for writing English. He explains the reasoning behind the choice of Sweet’s system as a starting point for future development. Further, he emphasises the statistical incentive of saving the time and effort of writing in our present orthography, as opposed to merely pointing out quirky spellings as others usually did.

Shavian (from Medium)
By Leo Philp, 2017-2019

This series looks into the origins and development of the Shaw Alphabet, examining the primary sources held at the University of Reading. Containing photographs of original correspondence and records of design iterations, these blog posts are a fascinating read for anyone interested in the details of how this alphabet was created.

Foreword, Introduction, Notes on the Spelling, and Suggestions for Writing
by C.R. Sopwith, Sir James Pitman, Peter MacCarthy, and Kingsley Read, 1962.
From The Shaw Alphabet Edition of Androcles and the Lion, pp. 9‒16 & 143‒152

This excerpt from Androcles and the Lion pertains to the original Shavian (Shaw) Alphabet. It explains the context behind its creation and the methodology of spelling used in the transliteration. It also provides advice for newcomers that should still be helpful to Quikscript enthusiasts.

Sound-writing 1892‒1972: Bernard Shaw and a modern alphabet
By Kingsley Read, 1972

This article was prepared for an exhibition at the Library of the University of Reading. It tells the story of Shaw’s desire for a new alphabet, giving rise to Shavian and, later, Quikscript. It includes samples of the four winning entries to the alphabet competition in the late 1950s, which currently cannot be found anywhere else on the internet as far as I’m aware.

Kingsley Read biography

Kingsley Read 1887‒1975: a memoir
By Mrs M.W. Mottram and Brian Read
From The Kingsley Read Alphabet Collection: a catalogue by Patricia Smart, University of Reading, 1983. pp 27‒30.

Written by his son and daughter, this account of Read’s life was printed in the catalogue of the University of Reading’s collection of original materials pertaining to his alphabets.

Revised Shaw Alphabet of Kingsley Read
By Jon Zuck, undated (circa 2002?)

This HTML document was written by Jon Zuck, creator of the Jerome font, with input from other key members of the early online Shavian/Quikscript community. While Shavian had something of a following at that time, Quikscript remained very obscure. Much of this piece, therefore, is devoted to explaining the differences between the two for a Shavian-savvy audience. The authors added to the existing canon, too, by giving new names to the letters and their various alternative forms; these are the names are used throughout my own website. The unique features and relative merits of Quikscript are discussed, along with justifications for the changes.

I found this file archived on the Quikscript Yahoo! Group. Since it forms a notable part of the alphabet’s ongoing history, I decided to republish it here so it might be seen by a wider audience. The only modification I made was to add the provision for modern web fonts—otherwise the Shavian and Quikscript characters could only be seen if the requisite fonts were actually installed on your computer.