Bezenšek Shorthand
Encyclopedia
Bezenšek Shorthand is a shorthand
system, used for rapidly recording Bulgarian
speech. The system was invented by the Slovene linguist Anton Bezenšek
c. 1879. It is based on the Gabelsberger shorthand
(used for German
), so it is often referred to as the Gabelsberger–Bezenšek Shorthand. (More precisely, Bezenšek Shorthand is based on a system by Heger — one of Gabelsberger's students, who adapted the system for the Czech language
.)
Bezenšek Shorthand has features of a phonetic system, though Bulgarian writing almost identically represents the sounds in speech. It is acceptable to replace certain closely related sounds with each other, for the sake of simplicity and speed, e. g. s for z, e for ya, svo for stvo, etc. The system is not an alphabetic one, but closer to a syllabic one, though many syllables are normally skipped. Vowels are usually not recorded as separate strokes, but are marked via modifying the preceding or following consonant, similarly to an abjad
.
The shorthand's form is based on borrowings from natural longhand, as opposed to geometric or elliptical systems, such as Gregg
and Pitman
. The strokes are distinguishable by size, proportion, position (three of them: above, below, or on the base line), and shading (variation of thickness of strokes). Shading, normally used for marking an /a/ vowel, is nowadays difficult to achieve with a ballpoint pen
, but at the time of invention was convenient for marking, using the then-ubiquitous pencil
s. Nevertheless, ambiguity is close to none, even when thickness is not marked, because words are easily recognizable from the context.
Several letters can be written in two different ways:
Йй and Ьь represent the same sound /j/, so they share the same stroke.
The system has a set of compulsory abbreviations, called sigli , and recommends rules for forming free abbreviations. Punctuation consists only of a period, written as a small horizontal segment on the base line, because the dot, comma
, question mark
, exclamation mark
, and others, have special meaning and could be confused with words. Colons
and double quotes
are acceptable, especially for beginners. Digits are similar to the Arabic numerals
, except for 5 and 7, which can be written without a horizontal bar; also, special notation is normally applied for hundreds, thousands, and millions. Abbreviation of whole phrases into a single connected sequence of strokes is allowed and encouraged.
from a five-century Ottoman
rule, and a government was formed. Initially, discussions in Parliament were recorded by conventional scribes, and arguments about the accuracy of records were not uncommon. Slovenian linguist Bezenšek, who had already had experience with adapting shorthand to other Slavic languages
, was invited. He accepted and came up with a solution, although he was not a proficient speaker of Bulgarian
at first.
As the system developed, it required corrections, which Bezenšek coped with well. In the following decades, however, improvements were more and more difficult to make, hindered by new teachers who had already published books, that were then expensive to re-print. Most of those book authors had ideas about improvements of their own, but only a few could manage to gain control of the "official" version. The system became quite conservative, a lot of suggestions were rejected, including some proposed by Bezenšek himself. Some suggestions were rejected without even being taken into consideration. The existing system was announced unique, official, compulsory, and "best in the world". Competition was banned — a participant in a shorthand competition was once disqualified for using an alternative system.
Shortly after the Communist party
took power in 1944, all existing shorthand organizations were dismissed, and the National Shorthand Institute was established. It kept on resisting reforms until the 1960s, when a contest was held. At first no propositions were accepted, which caused a scandal, so after re-examination four of them were approved. Unfortunately it was reported to the Minister of Education, that the new speed results were worse than before, so the old system once again survived. Another fruitless contest was held in the 1980s.
As a result, the 1923 version of Bezenšek-Gabelsberger remained official until the National Shorthand Institute was shut down in Democratic Bulgaria
. Presently, newer systems are taught at universities, but are not regulated and none of them is a monopoly.
Shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed or brevity of writing as compared to a normal method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek stenos and graphē or graphie...
system, used for rapidly recording Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
speech. The system was invented by the Slovene linguist Anton Bezenšek
Anton Bezenšek
Anton Toma Bezenšek was a Slovene linguist, publicist, shorthand expert, and lecturer, who spent most of his life in Bulgaria...
c. 1879. It is based on the Gabelsberger shorthand
Gabelsberger shorthand
Gabelsberger shorthand, named for its creator, is a form of shorthand previously common in Germany and Austria. Created circa 1817 by Franz Xaver Gabelsberger, it was first fully described in the 1834 textbook Anleitung zur deutschen Redezeichenkunst oder Stenographie and became rapidly...
(used for German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
), so it is often referred to as the Gabelsberger–Bezenšek Shorthand. (More precisely, Bezenšek Shorthand is based on a system by Heger — one of Gabelsberger's students, who adapted the system for the Czech language
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
.)
Overview
Abjad
An abjad is a type of writing system in which each symbol always or usually stands for a consonant; the reader must supply the appropriate vowel....
.
The shorthand's form is based on borrowings from natural longhand, as opposed to geometric or elliptical systems, such as Gregg
Gregg Shorthand
Gregg shorthand is a form of stenography that was invented by John Robert Gregg in 1888. Like cursive longhand, it is completely based on elliptical figures and lines that bisect them. Gregg shorthand is the most popular form of pen stenography in the United States and its Spanish adaptation is...
and Pitman
Pitman Shorthand
Pitman shorthand is a system of shorthand for the English language developed by Englishman Sir Isaac Pitman , who first presented it in 1837. Like most systems of shorthand, it is a phonetic system; the symbols do not represent letters, but rather sounds, and words are, for the most part, written...
. The strokes are distinguishable by size, proportion, position (three of them: above, below, or on the base line), and shading (variation of thickness of strokes). Shading, normally used for marking an /a/ vowel, is nowadays difficult to achieve with a ballpoint pen
Ballpoint pen
A ballpoint pen is a writing instrument with an internal ink reservoir and a sphere for a point. The internal chamber is filled with a viscous ink that is dispensed at its tip during use by the rolling action of a small sphere...
, but at the time of invention was convenient for marking, using the then-ubiquitous pencil
Pencil
A pencil is a writing implement or art medium usually constructed of a narrow, solid pigment core inside a protective casing. The case prevents the core from breaking, and also from marking the user’s hand during use....
s. Nevertheless, ambiguity is close to none, even when thickness is not marked, because words are easily recognizable from the context.
Several letters can be written in two different ways:
- The pairs of strokes for Ее /ɛ/, Фф /f/, and Тт /t/ can be used interchangeably.
- The first stroke for Зз /z/, Цц /ts/, and Уу /u/ is used only in the beginning of a word.
- The second stroke for Вв /v/ and Шш /ʃ/ can be used only in the end of a word.
- Both stroke for Аа /a/ can be used for an isolated (possibly an abbreviation) /a/, but only the second sign is used as part of a word. Note, that /a/ is normally marked by shading of the preceding consonant.
- One of connecting lines of Аа /a/ or Лл /l/ may be omitted when part of a word.
Йй and Ьь represent the same sound /j/, so they share the same stroke.
Comma (punctuation)
The comma is a punctuation mark. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline of the text. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight but inclined from the vertical, or...
, question mark
Question mark
The question mark , is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop at the end of an interrogative sentence in English and many other languages. The question mark is not used for indirect questions...
, exclamation mark
Exclamation mark
The exclamation mark, exclamation point, or bang, or "dembanger" is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume , and often marks the end of a sentence. Example: “Watch out!” The character is encoded in Unicode at...
, and others, have special meaning and could be confused with words. Colons
Colon (punctuation)
The colon is a punctuation mark consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line.-Usage:A colon informs the reader that what follows the mark proves, explains, or lists elements of what preceded the mark....
and double quotes
Quotation mark
Quotation marks or inverted commas are punctuation marks at the beginning and end of a quotation, direct speech, literal title or name. Quotation marks can also be used to indicate a different meaning of a word or phrase than the one typically associated with it and are often used to express irony...
are acceptable, especially for beginners. Digits are similar to the Arabic numerals
Arabic numerals
Arabic numerals or Hindu numerals or Hindu-Arabic numerals or Indo-Arabic numerals are the ten digits . They are descended from the Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed by Indian mathematicians, in which a sequence of digits such as "975" is read as a numeral...
, except for 5 and 7, which can be written without a horizontal bar; also, special notation is normally applied for hundreds, thousands, and millions. Abbreviation of whole phrases into a single connected sequence of strokes is allowed and encouraged.
History
In 1878 Bulgaria was liberatedLiberation of Bulgaria
In Bulgarian historiography, the term Liberation of Bulgaria is used to denote the events of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 that led to the re-establishment of Bulgarian state with the Treaty of San Stefano of March 3, 1878, after the complete conquest of the Second Bulgarian Empire, which...
from a five-century Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
rule, and a government was formed. Initially, discussions in Parliament were recorded by conventional scribes, and arguments about the accuracy of records were not uncommon. Slovenian linguist Bezenšek, who had already had experience with adapting shorthand to other Slavic languages
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
, was invited. He accepted and came up with a solution, although he was not a proficient speaker of Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
at first.
As the system developed, it required corrections, which Bezenšek coped with well. In the following decades, however, improvements were more and more difficult to make, hindered by new teachers who had already published books, that were then expensive to re-print. Most of those book authors had ideas about improvements of their own, but only a few could manage to gain control of the "official" version. The system became quite conservative, a lot of suggestions were rejected, including some proposed by Bezenšek himself. Some suggestions were rejected without even being taken into consideration. The existing system was announced unique, official, compulsory, and "best in the world". Competition was banned — a participant in a shorthand competition was once disqualified for using an alternative system.
Shortly after the Communist party
Bulgarian Communist Party
The Bulgarian Communist Party was the communist and Marxist-Leninist ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 until 1990 when the country ceased to be a communist state...
took power in 1944, all existing shorthand organizations were dismissed, and the National Shorthand Institute was established. It kept on resisting reforms until the 1960s, when a contest was held. At first no propositions were accepted, which caused a scandal, so after re-examination four of them were approved. Unfortunately it was reported to the Minister of Education, that the new speed results were worse than before, so the old system once again survived. Another fruitless contest was held in the 1980s.
As a result, the 1923 version of Bezenšek-Gabelsberger remained official until the National Shorthand Institute was shut down in Democratic Bulgaria
History of Bulgaria since 1989
The reforms towards liberalization, both social, political and economic in the Eastern Block started with Gorbachev's reform program in the Soviet Union which was felt in Bulgaria in the late 1980s...
. Presently, newer systems are taught at universities, but are not regulated and none of them is a monopoly.
Criticism
- Shading is difficult to express with a ballpoint pen. This also reduces readability for learners.
- Positioning might lead to ambiguity, as the same sign can often mean different things when put at different positions.
- Steep learning curve — the great number of consonantal blends and abbreviations ("sigli") require quite some time for a beginner to start using the system effectively.
- Suitability for Bulgarian is disputed, as the system was created for the unrelated German language, and Bezenšek had become fluent in Bulgarian just shortly before he invented it. To a certain extent, this resulted in some waste of elegant natural strokes for infrequent sounds, and a redundancy of complex slow strokes for common sounds. Neither does the system fit well with the increasing number of loanwords from English.
See also
- Gabelsberger shorthandGabelsberger shorthandGabelsberger shorthand, named for its creator, is a form of shorthand previously common in Germany and Austria. Created circa 1817 by Franz Xaver Gabelsberger, it was first fully described in the 1834 textbook Anleitung zur deutschen Redezeichenkunst oder Stenographie and became rapidly...
- Anton BezenšekAnton BezenšekAnton Toma Bezenšek was a Slovene linguist, publicist, shorthand expert, and lecturer, who spent most of his life in Bulgaria...
- ShorthandShorthandShorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed or brevity of writing as compared to a normal method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek stenos and graphē or graphie...