Today from the archives I want to exhume a little Russian/Esperanto curiosity billed as a universal alphabet. I received this as part of a bulk lot consisting of a number of Esperanto periodicals and ephemera, much of which belonged at one stage to Latvian Esperantist and compositor Ints Čače. The collection can be found under Ints Čače Esperanto fragments and ephemera, 1907-1936 in the catalogue of my personal library and archives.
The universal alphabet is a system for writing both the Cyrillic and Latin scripts, with a specific eye towards the Russian and Esperanto languages. It is based on a system of orthogonal straight lines, similar in appearance to a pigpen cipher, which the writer could reproduce either freehand or by overlaying a piece of paper onto a grid of squares (“transparanto”) and using it as a guide. The system would thus allow the writer to produce perfectly clear and professional handwriting without the need for a typewriter. The system even allowed for letters to be combined by sharing edge strokes, producing a very compact version of the script. While “transparanto” is not a word in Esperanto, it appears to be a transliteration of the Russian “транспарант” (transparency).
The universal alphabet was distributed by means of a single pamphlet, scanned above in its entirety, with perforations that allowed the grid and instructions to be separated from the introductory material. The instructions are dated 1909 and signed K. O. Ostanieviĉ. The trusty Encicklopedio de Esperanto volume 2, K–Z (Budapest : Literatura Mondo, 1934-35) gives the following biographical sketch about Ostanieviĉ (my translation):
Ostanieviĉ Kazimir Osipoviĉ, Russian. Born in 1859, died in 1911 in Petrograd. Pioneer of Esperanto. In 1899-1902 was president of Esperanto society “Espero” in Petrograd. Spread the word much through the newspaper, donated much money for Esperanto, owned a comprehensive library.
Even though the purpose of the universal alphabet is to write without a typewriter, Ostanieviĉ invites inventors to contact him if they’re interested in creating typewriters using a simplified alphabet. I have not been able to find any other evidence of the universal alphabet online, such as how and where Ostanieviĉ might have distributed it, so I see it as a little ephemeral treasure that we’re very lucky has survived.
If anyone has any advertising or promotional materials for Ostanieviĉ’s universal alphabet, I hope you’ll get in touch. Maybe there is even an archival collection somewhere that contains correspondence written in this quirky little writing system.