World Unity Alphabet

The World Unity Alphabet alphabet (WUA) was invented by Shane Gartner as a writing system that can be used to write virtually any language. You could call it his hope for the future where all nations of the world will be united in peace and harmony.

World Unity Alphabet

He used existing alphabets to construct the language into a uniform font, bringing together the idea of world unity (hence the name). The template he came up with is a circle with six triangular sections that looks sort of like a Trivial Pursuit "pie" piece, which he likes to think represents the six (inhabited) continents and their nations. It can also be two peace symbols stacked on top of each other. He borrowed characters from as many different languages as he could as an "original" design for each letter. He borrowed from some languages more than once, taking in account how many people speak them.

Notable features

World Unity Alphabet (W.U.A.)

Vowels

World Unity Alphabet vowels

Vowel diacritics

World Unity Alphabet vowel diacritics

Consonants

W.U.A. digital consonants

Consonant diacritics

World Unity Alphabet consonant diacritics

World Unity Alphabet diacritics

Diacritics

Because many languages have distinctions between similar consonants and vowels, (e.g. [o] and [ɤ]), W.U.A. uses diacritics ("moons") to distinguish between certain sound shifts.

Tone indication

World Unity Alphabet tone indication

Numerals

World Unity Alphabet numerals

Punctuation

The WUA can use any form of punctuation, depending on the language being written.

World Unity Alphabet for digital readouts

Sample text

Sample text in World Unity Alphabet

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.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Other phonetic/universal scripts

Learn Chinese Characters with the Omniglot Chinese app