"ANDROCLES" IN SHAVIAN ALPHABET

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29994, 1 December 1962, Page 8

"ANDROCLES" IN SHAVIAN ALPHABET

“Looks Like Arabic Shorthand”

[Associated Newspaper* Feature Sendees]

LONDON, November 26. Q.EORGE BERNARD SHAW’S revolutionary alphabet, which looks like Arabic shorthand, burst on London this week.

It was Shaw’s greatest wish that the 26 Roman letters we use should be scrapped and replaced with symbols representing the phonetic English language.

Some days ago. Penguin Books published Shaw's play, "Androcles and the Lion,” in the new alphabet which is popularly called “Shavian.” The new alphabet, which is a mixture of short lines and curves, has 48 letters instead of the present 26. Experts who designed the new alphabet told the "SunHerald” (Sydney) this week that many advantages could be gained from using the new form of writing. It had to be printed—it w’as not in running writing—and this made it much easier to read.

It would cut the time it took children to learn to read by at least a year and probably two.

Although there would be a basic way to spell important words, people in Scotland and others in the south of England would write words differently, or as they sounded.

In printing the Shavian alphabet took up only twothirds of tlie space of a normal page of printing. Lack Of Funds A spokesman for the publishers said that originally only 25.000 copies of the book with the Roman alphabet text on one side and the Shavian on the other were printed. But with the great demand from booksellers, this figure

had to be increased to 40,000. Thirteen thousand copies of the same book have been printed privately under the terms of Shaw's will and distributed free to libraries throughout the world. Although Shaw left more than £1,000.000 m his estate, the new alphabet may fail through lack of funds. Mr C. Sopworth, the public trustee who is executor of Shaw’s will, said: “After a long tussle over the validity of Shaw’s will, the Courts allowed us only £B3OO sterling to set up a new alphabet “Most of this has already been spent. The remainder should go to financing a statistical inquiry into the economic advantages of adopting the new alphabet. "But it is probable we shall not have sufficient funds to undertake this.”

Although known as the Shaw alphabet the new system was compiled by a 74-year-old Mr Kingsley Read, who worked on it as long ago as 1941 sitting under his kitchen table during air raids.

"Some people passed the time doing crosswords, but I took my mind off the bombs with this alphabet.” he said. Although he never met Shaw, Mr Read had his support Shaw saw his alphabet and said; "This is far and away the best alphabet with the best head at the back of it that has come my way, and I believe there is a future for it" Mr P. MacCarthy, of the Department of Phonetics at Leeds University, said African countries just forming their languages could be the first to use the new alphabet He said it was easier to write it than to read it. Many people would begin to correspond with each other in the new script “for fun." He already wrote to his friends in the new alphabet and asked them to write back in the same way.

Gradually the new alphabet would gain in popularity until the two alphabets were being used side by side for many generations. One drawback to the Shaw's alphabet was that Education Department authorities in Britain had refused to try it in British schools.

ACT I

Evening. The end of three converging roads to Rome. Three triumphal arches span them where they debouch on a square at the gate of the city. Looking north through the arches one can see the campagna threaded by the three long dusty tracks. On the east and west sides of the square are long stone benches. An old beggar sits on the east side, his bowl at his feet. jii x [spi!. q fta inpyrt xh? 1 ’XX. 6m twr/frc nCq SVv qv /n pc p(<C ■a c U/n Z j f q Si*. tvM wd toA q j>tr? fix <A Ss q 6/lnV foun t’ q fos oJ jrSli DaS. T\ Q sSI \ asl Stj? f p S<f//> r> OH Slo\ (uir?. a ou 190 SilS w p sSI Sn, JI? (OC Ji JI? M. A paragraph from Shaw’s “Androcles and the Lion” in the new alphabet; and its transcription.