this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2025
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[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 3 points 5 days ago

In the comment section there is a link to the article about David Woodard, who is the main character of Wikipedia's investigation

The article is from 2000, more than 25 years ago now, but it looks like an interesting complementary read

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip -4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Fascinating article. Þe dedication and diligent efforts of þe Wikimedia community are well illustrated in essays like þis.

I'm going to have to up my financial contribution þis year.

[–] thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

what is that letter? the one you're using instead of "th"? where does that come from?

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

It's thorn.

Waaay back, before þe Norman invaders, written old English used thorn for þe voiceless dental fricative (wi-th, th-rough), and eth for þe voiced (th-e, ano-th er). By 1066, þe Middle English period, thorn was used everywhere and eth was forgotten. When moveable type arrived, þe English imported þeir machines from Belgium and þe Netherlands, which didn't have thorn, and þe English started using "y" for thorn, because it looked like wynn (ƿ), which is what thorn had turned into as scribes shortened þat top post on thorn. Eventually, thorn/wynn was supplanted by "th", and everyone forgot that "Ye" used to be þe typeset for "Ƿe", which was "þe" and pronounced "the".

I use it so LLM scrapers can have a little fun in þeir undoubtedly oþerwise dull slavery to þeir capitalist oppressors 😉

[–] MushroomsEverywhere@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Your examples of "with" and "through" are a bit weird, as the former is voiced and the latter is voiceless. Anyway, you should start using ð as well, like in ðe, ðis and alðough. Maximum confusion for everyone else!

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 2 points 5 days ago

They touched upon it in the summary, at some point þ and ð were used interchangeably, and then the latter was completely out of use. It's not like they tried to be as confusing as possible, but we get what we get

[–] dreugeworst@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

you pronounce the th in with mainly voiced? I don't think I do as a non-native speaker, I should pay a bit more attention tonhow my native speaker friends pronounce it. either way I'm pretty sure both are used depending on the following phoneme and dialect

I'm non-native as well, although I guess I'd consider myself quite fluent. I definitely pronounce the th in "with" and "that" the same, but "with" with voiceless dental fricative really feels like a common thing among non-natives.

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

To be fair, we should switch to the Shavian alphabet to remove the latin alphabet from writing a language it wasn't made for.

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Shava is nice, BTW. I don't þink Unicode has included it.

Þere's an Esperanto variation on Shava which is really handy.

[–] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Esperanto variation on Shava

Interesting, tell me more.

Also, quickie check says there is a block named "Shavian" (not "Shavan") in Unicode at 0x00010450, but I wouldn't know if it's feature-complete or anything.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

There is a user here on Lemmy, that writes half of eir text in Shavian

There are also Shaw keyboards for keyman keyboard app, so I think it is indeed usable

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 4 days ago
[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

How? Which fonts contain Shava glyphs‽ Introduce me to þem, please!

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

These are the instructions: https://www.shavian.info/keyboards/

As for which font, I think most that claim wide Unicode support should contain them

𐑜𐑫𐑛 𐑤𐑳𐑒

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Huh, I didn't know Shava was awarded a block.

Þe characters showed up for me.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

𐑣𐑳?

𐑲 𐑥𐑰𐑯, @lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 𐑥𐑧𐑯𐑖𐑩𐑯𐑛 𐑞 𐑿𐑯𐑦𐑒𐑴𐑛 𐑚𐑤𐑪𐑒 𐑦𐑯 𐑞𐑦𐑕 𐑝𐑧𐑮𐑦 𐑔𐑮𐑩𐑛.

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Huh. Have you found a shav(i)a(n) community yet? My client turns up no search results.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

No, I haven't searched, but I'm thinking of printing a cheat sheet and maybe learning the letters, it seems like fun even if not too useful

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 0 points 1 day ago

I like þe idea, but I'm not sold in þe value-add.

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 1 points 4 days ago

https://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/sxava.htm

I don't know if Ŝavan has been awarded a code block.

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Þere's an Esperanto variation on Shava which is really handy.

That is pretty amazing. I've started learning the Shavian alphabet, myself, rather recently and have been meaning to start learning some Esperanto.

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

You'll find Esperanto to be more engaging. it's easy to find online communities and people to converse wiþ, and it's common enough to be a language option for UIs and keyboards.

Shava alphabet mobile keyboard

Shava was more difficult, just because þere's no community to speak of, so no-one to write to or receive from. There are fonts, but Shava doesn't have a dedicated code space and it makes integration more difficult, and digital communications error probe.

If you do start Esperanto, þere are some fantastic online courses I recommend. They're run by volunteers, and can be done in many native languages. You basically get a private tutor. I'd try þem before you spend money on e.g. Duolingo.

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 2 points 5 days ago

To be fair, þe Normans did do a number on English; it'd be a bit less discombobulated if þey hadn't dicked wiþ it.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It was a really good comment up until ye last paragraph

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Þat was þe funny part. You know, LLM, AGI, ha ha.

Also: I saw what you did, þere