Quikscript


The front page of the Quikscript manual. The Quikscript text reads, "This is the way to do it."

Quikscript (also known as the Read Alphabet and Second Shaw) is an alphabet (and phonemic orthography) specifically designed for the English language. Quikscript replaces traditional English orthography, which uses the Latin alphabet, with completely new letters. It is phonemically regular, compact, and comfortably and quickly written. There are also adapted Quikscript alphabets for other languages, using the same letters for sounds which do not exist in English.

Contents

Origins and History

See also: Shavian alphabet

George Bernard Shaw, famous writer, critic and playwright, was a highly vocal critic of English spelling because it lacked a coherent system for representing the phonemes of English accurately. As a result, for years he wrote his literary works using Pitman shorthand. However, he found its limitations frustrating as well and realized that it was not a suitable replacement for the Latin alphabet. A shorthand, is, by definition, more specialized than an alphabet, which represents the standard written form of a language. Shaw desired and advocated a phonetic reworking of written English, and this called for a new alphabet.

To that end, Shaw placed in his will provisions instructing his executor to organize a world-wide competition to design an improved English alphabet. A British designer, Ronald Kingsley Read, who had corresponded extensively with Shaw for several years regarding just such an alphabet, was selected along with three other finalists as the winners of the competition. Read was chosen to design the final form of the alphabet. The "Shaw Alphabet" or "Shavian," as it is now generally known, was the result.

To provide field testing, as it were, of the new alphabet, Read organized a lengthy public testing phase of Shavian by some 500 users from around the world who spoke different dialects of English. Once he had analyzed the results of those tests, Read decided to revise Shavian to incorporate a number of changes to improve the alphabet and make it both easier and faster to write. He called the revised alphabet "Quikscript". In 1966 he published the Quikscript manual which set out the alphabet's rationale, and briefly discussed different possible methods of alphabet reform. The heart of the manual provided comprehensive instructions regarding the use of the alphabet along with reading samples. The manual is sufficient by itself to teach a neophyte how to read and write in Quikscript.

Description

Alphabet chart with names for all letters and ligatures.

The letters of Quikscript each represent exactly one English phoneme (vowel or consonant) each. There are 25 consonants and 15 vowels, totaling in 40 letters. The letters are also designed to be written easily and each of them only requires a single (usually curved) stroke of pen.

  • Just as in the Latin alphabet, there are short letters, e.g. a, c, e, m, and n, written between the base writing line and the "upper parallel" (as Read calls it), tall letters, e.g. b, d, f, k, and t, which ascend above the top of the short letters, and deep letters, e.g. g, j, and y, which descend below the base writing line. Quikscript, however, makes better use of these possibilities by using 11 tall, 11 deep, and 18 short letters. All vowels are short letters just as they are in the Latin alphabet.
  • The most common phonemes have the simplest letters.
  • Similar sounding phonemes have similar letters. Examples:
    • Long vowels and glides are written with a larger bend or loop, while short vowels have a simpler shape.
    • Every voiced consonant is written with a deep letter similar in shape to corresponding voiceless consonant which in turn is written with a tall letter.
  • While the Latin alphabet has two distinct alphabets, which are designated as lower and upper case, this concept does not exist in the Quikscript alphabet. There is only one form for the majority of the letters. Names and proper nouns are preceded with a mid-line dot (called a name-dot) which is sufficient to distinguish them from ordinary words.
  • Beginners learn Junior Quikscript first. Each word is spelt "as it is spoken." Each letter is written separately from the next so that it is equivalent to what is termed "printing" in the Latin alphabet. Some people may prefer Junior for printed texts as readers are used to the Latin alphabet being printed in that manner.
  • Senior Quikscript introduces a number of advanced techniques which save time in writing. The most obvious difference is that letters which can connect to each other, i.e. without changing the form of the letter, do so. Quikscript letters connect easily because each letter either begins or ends on the base writing line or on the upper parallel. The alphabet was designed so that it is not uncommon that several letters naturally come together, and, thus, may be connected in a row. Those letter connections do not require extra connecting strokes, rather the next letters starts right where the previous one ended. When such a connection is not possible, the letters are left unconnected. By this means, the letters retain their primary shape. Having said that, there are a very small number of alternative letter forms, which permit more letters to connect easily. It is the writer's choice whether to use them or not.
  • Senior Quikscript also introduces the concept of half-letters, which permit several tall and deep letters to be used in "half-letter" versions, which facilitates connections between letters and produces more varied "word-shapes." This characteristic, it is thought, may result in faster reading speeds as fluent readers recognize word-shapes or word-outlines. They do not sound out individual letters to figure out a word for the overwhelming majority of words they read. As a result of these aspects, Senior Quikscript has a cursive appearance which Junior Quikscript lacks. This increased connectivity increases the speed of handwriting significantly.
  • Senior Quikscript also introduces a number of abbreviations for the most common English words. Again, writers may choose whether to use these. Presumably, formal writing would use the full forms of the words, whereas, more colloquial writing would probably take advantage of the time and space savings possible through their use.

Modern day use

In the last few years, Quikscript computer fonts have been developed so that the alphabet can be used with computers and the Internet.

There is also a computer program which will transliterate Latin alphabet text into Quikscript text.

References in Literature

Book two of the popular Cole's Funny Picture Books, published in Australia by E. W. Cole at the turn of the 20th century, was revised in 1979 to include an article introducing Quikscript under the name Second Shaw.

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