Ewellic alphabet   

Origin

The Ewellic alphabet was invented in 1980 by Doug Ewell. It was originally intended
as a means of secret writing. The shape of Ewellic letters was inspired by
the Runic and Cirth scripts,
but shows greater (though still imperfect) regularity of form. The name
“Ewellic” was first applied to the script in 1998.

As a phonemic alphabet intended for a limited set of languages, Ewellic
represents the general sound of words as perceived by the speaker,
representing a middle ground between the irregularity of standard spelling
and the phonetic precision achievable with IPA.

No imaginary languages, cultures, or worlds are associated with the Ewellic
alphabet.

Notable features

• Written from left to right in horizontal lines, with spaces between words.
• Words of more than one syllable require an acute accent
  (ˊ) over the vowel of the stressed
  syllable. Accents may be used sparingly or omitted when writing French and
  other languages where stress is not significant.
• The “schwa” letter is intended for very limited use,
  unlike the frequent use of the schwa (ǝ)
  in dictionaries. As a special case, unstressed “a,”
  “an,” and “the” in English are written with the
  schwa.
• Because Ewellic is a phonemic alphabet, and because pronunciation varies
  (especially in English), spelling is less rigid than in Latin-script
  orthographies.
• A full set of digits is provided, including hexadecimal digits, which
  were added in 2002. Hexadecimal numbers are indicated by preceding a string
  of digits with a grave accent (ˋ).
  European digits may also be used.
• Ewellic is registered in the
  ConScript Unicode Registry
  and supported in the
  Code2000 and
  Code2001 fonts by James
  Kass.

Used to write

English, Esperanto,
French, German,
Italian, Spanish,
and any other language whose phonemic repertoire is covered. New letters
were added in 2007 to support languages other than English.

Consonants

All consonants have a single vertical stroke and no horizontal (perpendicular) stroke.

Vowels

All vowels have two vertical strokes.

Ligatures

The sounds OY and ER (as in oyster) may be represented by special
ligated forms, as shown below. Other ligatures may be formed between letters
that share a natural connection point. The sample texts on this page do not
use ligatures due to font and rendering-engine limitations.

Digits

Digits have a single vertical stroke. Digits 0 through 9 have one
horizontal (perpendicular) stroke, while digits 10 through 15 (for
hexadecimal use only) have two horizontal strokes.

Sample text (English)

Transliteration

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.
(Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1)

Sample text (German)

Transliteration

Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich an Würde und Rechten geboren. Sie
sind mit Vernunft und Gewissen begabt und sollen einander im Geist der
Brüderlichkeit begegnen.
(Die Allgemeine Erklärung der Menschenrechte, Artikel 1)

Links

General description of Ewellic, with links to more sample texts:
http://www.ewellic.org/ewellic.html
http://www.ewellic.org/ewellic-charts.html

Complete list of letters:
http://www.ewellic.org/complete.html

Questions and answers:
http://www.ewellic.org/ewellic-q-and-a.html

ConScript Unicode Registry proposal:
http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/ewellic.html