Entry tags:

shavian

I'm typesetting Alice in an interlinear Shavian edition. Here's the first chapter; there's more to come, obviously. Your feedback is greatly valued.

The only problem I can foresee is this exchange:

“I’m a poor man, your Majesty,” the Hatter began, in a trembling voice, “--and I hadn’t begun my tea—not above a week or so—and what with the bread-and-butter getting so thin—and the twinkling of the tea——”

“The twinkling of what?” said the King.

“It began with the tea,” the Hatter replied.

“Of course twinkling begins with a T!” said the King sharply. “Do you take me for a dunce? Go on!”

The word twinkling (𐑑𐑢𐑦𐑙𐑒𐑤𐑦𐑙) begins with the Shavian letter 𐑑, which is usually known as "tot". The names given in Unicode and used canonically these days were originally only examples (thanks, pne) given in the card which came with Androcles. The joke clearly doesn't work if the Hatter says, "the twinkling of the tot".

However, in Shaw Script, that letter was known as "tea". I may add a footnote to this effect. If you have other solutions, I'd like to hear them.

Update: pne suggests that Shavian and italics don't mix well, and suggests some alternatives.