Alphabork is my altered 31 character alphabet (or 37 depending on how you count) that I use for note taking.
As a kid, I used to frequently create my own “alien” alphabets with more than 26 letters. They were often wildly different than the English alphabet. As an adult, I learned about Shavian, Symbolic Shorthand, and Teeline. While all really efficient to write, the learning curve and readability is quite difficult.
I wanted something easy and efficient to write; a super low learning curve to read; and could be set on my keyboard without ruining my ability to type in English. So…
During a long weekend in early 2025 I created Alphabork.
See the Alphabork translated version of this page if you are curious.
The alphabet
Aa Āā Bb Cc Dd Ee Ēē Əə Ff Gg Hh Ii Īi Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Ññ Ŋŋ Oo Ōo Pp Qq Rr Ss Şş Tt Þþ Uu Ūū Vv Ww Xx Yy Ȳȳ Zz
Notes on characters
In the above alphabet, I’ve changed one character and added five others.
All vowels (a, e, i, o, u, and y) use the short vowel sound. Vowels with macrons (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, and ȳ) are the long vowel sounds.
| Character | Notes |
|---|---|
| c | C becomes the ch sound. Because the hard c can be handled with k and the soft c with s, we don’t need the classic c character. |
| ə | This is the schwa from the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). It is strictly reserved for unstressed syllables. It is the sound that any vowel in the English language makes when we rush past it and get lazy. Examples: The ‘a’ in about = əbout The ‘e’ in taken = tākən The ‘i’ in pencil = pensəl The ‘o’ in lemon = lemən The ‘u’ in supply = səplī |
| ñ | This makes an ny sound like in canyon or ni in onion. Taken from eñe in Spanish. |
| ŋ | This makes the ng sound and is taken from the IPA. |
| ş | This makes the sh sound and the character comes from the Turkish sheh. |
| þ | This is th. It comes from the Old English character, thorn. |
I’ve chosen “ş” in favor of “∫” due to the ease of writing. While lowercase “∫” from IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is very fast, uppercase is represented with a “Ʃ”…which is a pain to write. In handwriting, writing an “s” with a squiggle at the bottom is much simpler!
Phonetics
At its core, Alphabork is a phonetic alphabet. If you don’t hear a letter, don’t write it.
Consonants
| Sound | Character | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ch | c | cərc (church) |
| ph | f | fōtō (photo) |
| hard c | k | kat (cat) |
| ny/ni | ñ | cañən (canyon) |
| ng | ŋ | siŋ (sing) |
| kwa | q | qik (quick) |
| soft c | s | sel (cell) |
| sh | ş | şip (ship) |
| th | þ | þiŋk (think) |
Vowels
| Sound | Character | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Short vowels | a, e, i, o, u, y | bat, bet, bit, bot, but, yes |
| Long vowels | ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ȳ | lāzē (lazy), fūd (food), rūf (roof) |
| The unstressed vowel | ə | bəter (butter), əbəv (above), pensəl (pencil) |
| Short oo | u | buk (book), wud (wood), put (put) Yup, the “u” does double duty because it also makes the “uh” sound. |
| The “Aw” | o | lo (law), þot (thought), |
Efficiency rules
Leaning into phonetic writing, we can be even more efficient than written English with some extra changes.
- The no-doubles rule: Double consonants are no longer necessary to infer the previous vowel is short—letter -> leter, correctly -> korektlē.
- The homophone rule: If words sound the same, they are spelled the same. Wood/would -> wud.
- The silent rule: Drop all silent letters. Know -> nō, debt -> det, light -> līt.
Writing shorthand
Honestly, this is a great addition that I got inspiration from Shavian as well as Gen Z typing behaviors that has grown over the years.
| Character | Shorthand for |
|---|---|
| f | for |
| n | and |
| r | are |
| s | is |
| t | to |
| þ | the |
| ū | you |
| v | of |
| w | with |
| ȳ | why |
Some word parts can remain the same
Some words, while they could be phonetically spelled differently, can retain the English phonics for speed of writing. That’s up to the writer.
| English word | Typical translation | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| -er (example: letter) | -ər (example: letər) | -er (example: leter) |
| or (example: word) | ər (example: wərd) | or (example: word) |
| ou (example: sound) | ow (example: sownd) | ou (example: sound) |
| -s (example: has) | -z (example: haz) | -s (example: has) |
| -ur (example: during) | -ur (example: duriŋ) | -ər (example: dəriŋ) |
Enforcing English spelling/pronunciation
Brands. Technical terms. Acronyms. These are all things that permeate our language and modifying those diminishes readability. To indicate a word should be read in regular English, a middle dot is used to precede the word. If an acronym is all caps, the middle dot can be omitted.
This:
The iOS guide recommends using the REST API for that.
Becomes:
Þ ·iOS gīd rekəmends ūsiŋ þ REST API f þat.
Try it out
If you want to play around with it, you can try it out on your keyboard with my Karabiner-Elements config. It hijacks the caps-lock key as a modifier for the extra characters.
Let’s analyze it
To see exactly where Alphabork fits into the broader world of note-taking, we need to pit it against the established giants of the industry. Here is the full comparative analysis of Alphabork versus Symbolic Shorthand (like Gregg or Pitman), Alphabetic Shorthand (like Teeline), and Standard English.
TL;DR: Alphabork is great at typing efficiency, reading & decoding, and learning. Symbolic shorthand and Teeline blow Alphabork out of the water with handwriting (though Alphabork is more efficient than regular English).
Typing efficiency
WINNER: Alphabork
Symbolic Shorthand fails completely. Systems like Gregg are purely visual and cannot be typed on a standard QWERTY keyboard. While steno machines can achieve 200+ WPM, that isn’t possible without specialized quipment.
Teeline Shorthand is functional, but clunky. Teeline relies on stripping out vowels entirely and blending consonants. You have to actively suppress your muscle memory completely for spelling.
Alphabork doesn’t require you to change your keyboard, other than some additional shortcut keys. Every character maps 1:1 with a Unicode symbol. Typing with Alphabork gives you ~18% savings on character count.
Handwriting efficiency
WINNER: Symbolic Shorthand. Alphabork comes in last, but beats English.
Symbolic Shorthand is the undisputed champion. Gregg shorthand replaces entire words and syllables with single, fluid, looping strokes. Court reporters and vintage secretaries could easily handwrite 150 to 200+ WPM because their pen rarely left the paper.
Teeline is highly efficient. By dropping vowels and modifying standard Latin letters into simplified hooks and curves, a trained journalist can handwrite Teeline at 100 to 120 WPM.
Alphabork has efficiencies that places it faster than English but far short of Teeline and Symbolic Shorthand. A highly efficient Alphabork writer might be able to cap out at 60 to 80 WPM. I’m not there yet, of course :D
Reading & decoding
WINNER: Alphabork
Symbolic Shorthand is a highly volatile shorthand. If your handwriting proportions are slightly off (like drawing a loop a millimeter too large), the entire meaning of the word changes. Reading cold Gregg notes apparently requires intense focus.
Teeline relies heavily on context. Because medial vowels are dropped, the outline for “bld” could mean build, bold, blood, or bald. If you look at your notes six months later, you might have to solve a puzzle to figure out what you meant.
Alphabork has flawless readability. In fact, this is its greatest strength and why I’m a fan of this particular alphabet/approach. It can catch the exact audo blueprint of a word. I could leave an Alphabork document untouched for five years and read it back instantly without stumbling. (assuming I know the short and easy rules)
Learning curve
WINNER: Alphabork by a long shot.
Symbolic Shorthand is brutal to learn. It is like learning a foreign language—apparently—takes months of daily repetitive drills just to memorize the strokes, and years to achieve professional speeds.
Teeline is moderately difficult. There are rules for dropping vowels and connecting modified letters takes a few weeks to internalize, followed by months of practice to build speed (apparently…I’ve not done this myself).
Alphabork learning curve is incredibly small. The rule system is small and straightforward and takes just a little practice due to it mostly being additive to the English alphabet.