Shavian alphabet translator

Type or paste English. Each word is looked up in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary and written in Shavian, one letter per sound. Words the dictionary doesn't know stay in English letters, and the notes under the result list them.

By default the, of, and, to and for get their one-letter forms, and names get a namer dot, the small raised point that Shavian puts where English would use a capital letter. Both are optional.

Shavian, also called the Shaw alphabet, was paid for under George Bernard Shaw's will and designed by Ronald Kingsley Read. It gives each sound of English its own letter. Spelling follows speech.

Letters come in three heights: tall, deep and short. Many come in pairs where the shape is turned over for the voiced sound, as with peep and bib. There are no capitals. A dot, the namer dot, goes before a name instead.

The 1962 Shaw Alphabet Edition of Androcles and the Lion spelled the vowels of British Received Pronunciation. This translator uses an American dictionary instead, so its spellings follow General American.

The main difference is the vowel in "father" and "bother". Most Americans say them the same, so both come out with 𐑪 here, where a British spelling would give "father" 𐑭. Before a final r, the ligatures 𐑸 and 𐑹 still keep car and core apart.