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.

Ewellic consonants

Vowels

All vowels have two vertical strokes.

Ewellic vowels

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.

Ewellic ligatures

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.

Ewellic digits

Sample text (English)

Sample text in the Ewellic alphabet (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)

Sample text in the Ewellic alphabet (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)