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Lesson 2


It is beneficial to have a Quikscript font (preferably "King Plus Monospace" or "King Plus") installed on your system to view the Quikscript words & letters as they were intended to be viewed.

Contents
Spell Your "R"s
Numbers & Brackets
"Half-Letters" & Alternate Letters
Prefixes & Suffixes (part I)


Spell Your "R"s
With some accents (like "American Boston," "American New York City Bronx," Some sections of the United Kingdom, Some rural sections of Australia, etc.), the letter "R" seems to have been depreciated or entirely erased from pronunciation. For instance, the word "car" has become "cah," the word "yard" is spoken "yahd." It is VERY IMPORTANT to point out to those people that the letter "R" in Quikscript (represented by the r symbol) IS STILL SPELT.

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Numbers & Brackets
As parenthesis "(" & ")" look very much like the Quikscript letters T, H n S, they are not used. In their place, special angled brackets such as ( & ) are used instead. The font "King Plus Monoscript" (available at this website) has this feature.

Numbers (such as "1234") written amongst Quikscript letters should, but are not required to, be underlined. Especially for novices, several Quikscript letters could be confused for numbers & vice versa. For instance, "1" could be mistaken for the Quikscript letter t. The number "2," depending on how it is written (with or without the loop), might be mistaken for the Quikscript letters J or Z.

Quikscript HEr war 4 Aplz (2 war bYt lEtar).
Normal There were 4 apples (2 were bought later).

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"Half-Letters" & Alternate Letters
As with all writing, the most time-wasting feature of any written language is when someone must lift up their pen, pencil or other writing implement to finish one letter & start writing the next. EVERY QUIKSCRIPT LETTER CAN BE WRITTEN WITHOUT LIFTING YOUR WRITING IMPLEMENT. However, unlike the standard alphabet's "cursive," not every letter in Quikscript ends on the writing line or has special rules to permit permanent non-stop writing without lifting your writing implement.

While Quikscript can be written without connecting any of it's letters, it has also been designed to allow for as much connectivity as possible. To facilitate as much connectivity as possible, some letters have alternate forms that can be used in place of their normal letter shape. These differently-styled letters are broken into two groups - "Half-Letters" & "Alternate Letters."

Half-Letters are called as such because only the identifying half of the letter is written. If you look at the Quikscript letters p, t, d, z, j, w & `, you will notice that most of them have a straight "stalk" for one half of the letter & then an "identifying" loop or curve for the other part. Eliminating the one-half of the letter that does not entirely identify the letter allows the letter to be connected to other letters that they would not have normally been connected to. For instance, tin can now become [in, help becomes \elp. A "zig-zag" between the half-letter & the next letter is usually sufficient to visually assist in the transition between the half-letter & the next letter, if such a transition is needed at all. NOTE : It is difficult to express the true nature of half-letters with a font that was not designed to allow the letters to connect. Again, I deeply encourage people to download & view the Quikscript manual to see the letters as they were designed to be connected.

Here are the list of half-letters that can be used in Quikscript :

Quikscript "Half-Letter" ] D B L ^ @ ~ \
Normal Letter p t d z j w ` h

Alternate letters are full-sized alternate symbols for existing symbols. In a more perfect world, for instance, more popular letters like n & a have more "connection points" so that practically all other Quikscript letters could connect to them with ease. However, this is not the case. For these popular letters, an alternate letter has been created so that those people interested in connecting letters together have more opportunities to do so.

Alternate Letter G u
Normal Letter n a

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Prefixes & Suffixes
The English language has a number of prefixes & suffixes that should be addressed as to how they would "translate" over into Quikscript. As the Quikscript alphabet was originally designed for British spelling & pronunciation, the existing rules do not always concur with legitimate American pronunciation. Therefore, some modifications have had to be made to accomodate this. Fortunately, those modifications appear to be few.

SUFFIX -es, -ies, -ed & -ied

There is little practicality in writing the "e" in words like "race" & it should remain removed when writing words like "races." The vowel sound "e" in several "-es" words is ambiguous at best. Is it a short "e" (like in ever), a short "i" (like in hit) or a short "u" (like in up)? It's complete removal from the word is neither distracting or confusing to even the most novice of readers. Indeed, in the standard spelling scheme, the suffix "-es" can simply be spelt as - s or - z, where applicable.

Just as for suffix "-es," suffix "-ed" needs no letter "e." A much smaller percentage of words, though, have a "t" sound where the "d" should be. Words like "rushed," "tipped" & "clutched" all have a terminal "t" sound at the end of the word & it should be spelt as such. Therefore, suffix "-ed" can be spelt as - d or - t, where applicable.

Quikscript Suffix - s - z - d - t
Normal Suffix
- s
ex. "cups"
- es
ex. "dishes"
- ed
ex. "fitted"
- ed
ex. "tipped"

For plurals of words that ended in a "-y" sound (like "hurried" or "flurries"), you should include the vowel sound between the final two consonants.

Quikscript Suffix - Is - Id
Normal Suffix
- ies
ex. "flurries"
- ied
ex. "hurried"

SUFFIX -ess, -est, -less & -ness

When it is a suffix, the endings of "-ess," "-est," "-less" & "-ness" should use the letter - i as it's vowel.

When it is a root, these endings should be spelt as properly pronounced.

Quikscript hOstis hFist hOplis gUdnis best les
Normal hostess highest hopeless goodness best less

SUFFIX -er, -ar, -ir, -or, -uor, -yr & all other similar-sounding endings

Either as a suffix or root, these endings should always be spelt - ar.

The plural should always be spelt - arz.

Quikscript Word mEkar pilar kAfar YTar likar myrtar
Normal Word maker pillar Kafir author liquor martyr

SUFFIX -ing

Only as a suffix (and not a part of the root word itself) preceded by a consonant SOUND, should the suffix -ing be abbreviated to - N.

Quikscript Word siN siNN mOiN rFtNz
Normal Word sing singing mowing writings

PREFIX un-

The prefix "Un-" is always spelt as an -. Where two "N" sounds come together, such as "unnecessary" or "unknown" (the "k," obviously, is silent), they are both spelt out - ann -.

Quikscript Word ankFnd annOn
Normal Word unkind unknown

SUFFIX -y, -ey, -ie, -e, -ily & -ity.

As a FINAL SUFFIX ONLY for a word that is two or more syllables long, the UNSTRESSED -y (along with all other similar-sounding suffixes) should use the letter - i BUT PRONOUNCED LIKE THE LETTER - I. For those that are STRESSED, use the letter - I. Single syllable words are presumed to have stress on them, so they will always use - I.

Quikscript Word hApi legatI hapili hI lIgAliti
Normal Word happy legatee happily he legality

SUFFIX -land, -ment, -man

When the vowel is unstressed, it can be removed from the suffixes -land, -ment & -man with little consequence...

Quikscript Word iNglnd pEmnt hjMmn OvarlAnd siment anmAn
Normal Word England
(unstressed)
payment
(unstressed)
human
(unstressed)
Overland
(stressed)
cement
(stressed)
unman
(stressed)

...However, when the vowels of those suffixes are stressed, then they are always spelt as pronounced.

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