What this shows is that across continents people were seeking solutions to the same problems, and that they often found similar answers. Chief among the reasons to develop a shorthand was record keeping that could keep up with speech. Most if not all languages can be spoken faster than they can be written out in longhand. When it comes to stenography, the practice of writing in shorthand, there are three main categories, at least when using the Latin alphabet.
One is symbolic, where simple geometric shapes are used to represent letters, words, phrases, and phonemes.
Phonemes are sounds units that are repeated and rearranged to create words and phrases. Timothy Bright developed a symbolic system in where arrangements of lines, circles, and semi-circles could be used to take quicker notations. While these systems are quite efficient at taking down words of simple to average complexity, they struggle with speech containing rarer words.
They are also comparatively difficult and time-consuming to learn. The other two main bases for shorthand systems are orthography and phonetics. Orthography is concerned with the proper spelling conventions of languages, thus orthographic shorthands are those centered around maintaining the actual spelling of words. Current Shorthand modifies each letter, simplifying the motions required to render it, so as to cut down on time spent penning each letter and the time spent moving the pen between letters.
Phonetic systems often simplify their characters as well, but focus on how words sound over how they are traditionally written. Phonetic spelling, writing out words as they sound, is the last major type of shorthand, and serves as the basis for most systems still in use today. Many shorthand systems are named after those who devised them. Sometimes this is a more casual way of referring to a system, though often it is encouraged by the founder.
Many of the modern shorthand systems were designed as business and administrative aids, technologies akin in spirit to the spreadsheet. In these situations, naming a system after oneself was a branding decision.
Similar to Current Shorthand, elevation above a line can be used to indicate vowels when they are left out of a word, as it is often quicker to write just the consonant sounds of a word and leave the reader to later infer the vowels.
Thickness and thinness of lines are used to differentiate between certain sounds, where the same shape can potentially be two different consonants and its thickness indicates which. It should be noted that these categories are not exclusive. Most shorthand systems use symbols for their characters, with the larger distinction being whether a shorthand is orthographic or phonetic. What of machines though? Before audio recording technology was widely affordable and portable, typewriters had become a mainstay in offices and academia.
If technological advances in stenography had not posed such a threat to traditional shorthand, no one would have bothered to devise such a system. While not the most complex shorthand system, Speedwriting still took several weeks to learn.
As advancements in technology marched on, shorthand went from being a secretarial necessity to a rarity. In many fields the need for people to take down dictation has decreased. With the ability to record audio, which is instantaneous and easily transferable, stenography began to automate and combine with others roles.
Secretaries of the past were generally expected to know some form of shorthand, though today many get by with keyboards and touch typing. Email too has lessened the need for abbreviated scripts by lessening the hurdles to long-distance communication.
Where in the past a boss might have asked a secretary to take down what they were saying to be sent elsewhere, now the vast majority of managers will simply broadcast their thoughts themselves. Yet in some fields, stenography remains the easier option. For example, legal systems depend on such written records. Rules and precedents, which often take the form of textual documents, are the bedrock of most judicial bureaucracies.
Lawyers, judges, and clients deal in complex legal codes, and while evidence binders stuffed with hundreds of pages might seem arcane to some, this style of documentation serves a practical purpose. Shorthand Shorthand is any system of rapid handwriting which can be used to transcribe the spoken word. A brief history of shorthand systems Ever since the invention of writing scribes have used various techniques to enable them to take notes quickly and efficiently.
Modern shorthand systems There are a number of different shorthand systems currently in use. The most popular ones include: Pitman Shorthand Pitman Shorthand was devised by Sir Isaac Pitman and was first published in Notable features Pitman is phonetic: it records the sounds of speech rather than the spelling.
For example, the sound [f] in f orm, ele ph ant and rou gh is written in the same way for each word. Vowel sounds are optional and are written with small dots, dashes or other shapes next to the main strokes. This helps increase writing speed because most words can be identified from their consonants only. The thickness, length and position of the strokes are all significant.
There are many special abbreviations and other tricks to increase writing speed. The record for fast writing with Pitman shorthand is wpm during a two-minute test by Nathan Behrin in Pitman consonants Pitman vowels Pitman abbreviations Sample text in Pitman 'Translation' All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Notable features Gregg is phonetic: it records the sounds of speech rather than the spelling. Vowels are written as hooks and circles on the consonants. Gregg consonants Gregg vowels Gregg punctuation Gregg sample text 'Translation' All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Learn languages on iTalki Join shareasale. Throughout my years in working with him, I would constantly jot down in shorthand his gems of wisdom — wherever and whenever I could — on just about everything from regular notepaper to napkins to pages torn out of the phone book. Today there are tons of published books available on his teachings and words. Nowadays I am happily attempting to sort through pages and pages of this delicate script towards what may be a monumental masterpiece of wisdom for me and others who enjoy not only timeless reading but happy living.
Shorthand is a way of writing words at the speed they are spoken. I find it interesting that although shorthand has virtually disappeared, nothing has filled that gap.
The modern way of creating a transcript would be to make an audio recording, and then play it back slowly, while typing. Although the shorthand method is probably somewhat faster, it also requires a great deal of effort to learn. In fact, the early editions show how the same system can be used to transcribe French, German, Greek, Russian, Latin, and Sanscrit.
It would probably have worked well for this purpose, but as time went on, Pitman shorthand was increasingly adjusted for higher speed, and these changes made the system harder to learn. The chaotic situation made it easy for Gregg to introduce his system, based on different principles, a few years later. In Britain and its former colonies, Pitman remained the dominant shorthand until shorthand started to fade out in the s.
Dare I wonder aloud if texting is the new shorthand? Would it be faster to notate something that way, which the computer could then translate into plain English for you via character recognition? Since it seems to be disappearing, I shall begin to teach it to them for their own use. It did lead me to a successful career—back in the olden days. About 20 years ago I taught myself one of the alphabetic-script-based shorthands QuickScript, I think it was called , and then a few years later studied a slightly different, although similar, one EasyScript, I think and now write in a highly personalized and quite eclectic mashup of the two styles.
What strikes me as funny is how shorthand these days has come to be thought of as somewhat useless. It is just such an amazingly useful skill to have.
0コメント