Revised Shaw Abjad

Origin

The Revised Shaw Abjad or Shaw Phonetic Alphabet is a version of the Shavian Alphabet. It is designed to represent English phonetically, while at the same time minimizing the variations in vowel letters due to differences in accent. It was developed by Paul Vandenbrink in 1996 and further revised in 2001.

Notable features

The Revised Shaw Abjad has 72 characters, 59 of which are letters in the traditional sense, and 13 are vowel placeholders used to streamline the writing process and represent more than one vowel.
The letters represent consonants and vowels which are accentuated with a glottal stop or are merged with a consonant or another vowel (diphthong) and/or begin a syllable. Other vowel sounds are represented by simple placeholders (dot, dash, squiggle).
The vowel system is modelled on the Hebrew script.
A symbol resembling an asterisk is used to indicate names. A stop sign is used to replace the period and some of the other punctuation signs.

Revised Shaw Abjad and vowel markers

Revised Shaw Abjad

Sample text in the Revised Shaw Abjad

'Translation'

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.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Links

Further details of the Shaw Phonetic Alphabet
http://www.shawalphabet.com/

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