Shavian alphabet Shavian alphabet The Shavian alphabet (also known as the Shaw alphabet) is an alphabet conceived as a way to provide simple, phonetic orthography for the English language to replace the difficulties of conventional spelling. It was posthumously funded by and named after Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Shaw set three main criteria for the new alphabet: it should be (1) at least 40 letters; (2) as "phonetic" as possible (that is, letters should have a to phonemes); and (3) distinct from the Latin alphabet to avoid the impression that the new spellings were simply "misspellings". The Shavian alphabet consists of
Shavian (horse) start and the colt drew away in the closing stages to win by three lengths from Kaheel (later to finish fourth in The Derby) with Lord Florey in third. Shavian began his three-year-old season in the Craven Stakes (a trial race for the 2000 Guineas) over one mile at Newmarket Racecourse on 19 April. After racing prominently he appeared to be somewhat outpaced in the closing stages and finished third behind Tirol and Sure Sharp. He was moved up in distance for his next race, the Predominate Stakes over ten furlongs at Goodwood Racecourse and was ridden by Willie Ryan