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
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
stenos (narrow) and
graphē or
graphie (writing). It has also been called
brachygraphy, from Greek
brachys (short) and
tachygraphy, from Greek
tachys (swift, speedy), depending on whether compression or speed of writing is the goal.
Many forms of shorthand exist. A typical shorthand system provides symbols or abbreviations for words and common phrases, which can allow someone well trained in the system to write as quickly as people speak. Abbreviation methods are alphabet-based and use different abbreviating approaches.
Shorthand was used more widely in the past, before the invention of recording and
dictation machineA dictation machine is a sound recording device most commonly used to record speech for later playback or to be typed into print. It includes digital voice recorders and tape recorders....
s. Until recently, shorthand was considered an essential part of secretarial training as well as being useful for journalists. Although the primary use of shorthand has been to record oral dictation or discourse, some systems are used for compact expression. For example, health-care professionals may use shorthand notes in medical charts and correspondence. Shorthand notes are typically temporary, intended either for immediate use or for later transcription to
longhandCursive, also known as joined-up writing, joint writing, or running writing, is any style of handwriting in which the symbols of the language are written in a simplified and/or flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing easier or faster...
, although longer term uses do exist, diaries (like that of the famous
Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
) being a common example.
Classical antiquity
The earliest known indication of shorthand systems is from
Ancient GreeceAncient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, namely the
ParthenonThe Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their virgin patron. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although...
in which a stone from mid-4th century BC was found. The marble slab shows a writing system primarily based on vowels, using certain modifications to indicate consonants.
HellenisticHellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE...
tachygraphy is reported from the 2nd century BC onwards, though there are indications that it might be older. The oldest datable reference is a contract from Middle
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, stating that Oxyrhynchos gives the "semeiographer" Apollonios for two years to be taught shorthand writing. Hellenistic tachygraphy consisted of word stem signs and word ending signs. Over time, many syllabic signs were developed.
In
Ancient RomeAncient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
,
Marcus Tullius TiroMarcus Tullius Tiro was first a slave, then a freedman of Cicero.The date of Tiro's birth is uncertain. From Jerome it can be dated to 103 BC, which would make him only a little younger than Cicero...
(103–4 BC), a slave and later a
freedmanA freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves became freedmen either by manumission or emancipation ....
of
CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, developed the
Tironian notesTironian notes is a system of shorthand said to have been invented by Cicero's scribe Marcus Tullius Tiro. Tiro's system consisted of about 4,000 signs, somewhat extended in classical times to 5,000 signs. In the European Medieval period, Tironian notes were taught in monasteries and the system...
so he could write down Cicero's speeches. The Tironian notes consisted of
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word stem abbreviations (
notae) and of word ending abbreviations (
titulae). The original Tironian notes consisted of about 4000 signs but new signs were introduced so that their number might increase to as many as 13,000. In order to have a less complex writing system, a syllabic shorthand script was sometimes used. After the
decline of the Roman EmpireThe decline of the Roman Empire refers to the gradual societal collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Many theories of causality prevail, but most concern the disintegration of political, economic, military, and other social institutions, in tandem with foreign invasions and usurpers from within the...
, the Tironian notes were no longer used to transcribe speeches, though they were still known and taught, particularly during the
Carolingian RenaissanceIn the history of ideas the Carolingian Renaissance stands out as a period of intellectual and cultural revival in Europe occurring from the late eighth century, in the generation of Alcuin, to the 9th century, and the generation of Heiric of Auxerre, with the peak of the activities coordinated...
. After the 11th century, however, they were mostly forgotten.
When many
monasteryMonastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
libraries were
secularizedSecularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...
in the course of the 16th-century
Protestant ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
, long-forgotten manuscripts of Tironian notes were rediscovered.
Imperial China
In imperial
ChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, clerks used an abbreviated, highly cursive form of
Chinese characterChinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
s to record court proceedings and criminal confessions. These records were used to create more formal transcripts. One cornerstone of imperial court proceedings was that all confessions had to be acknowledged by the accused's signature, personal seal, or thumbprint, requiring fast writing. Versions of this technique survived in clerical professions into the modern day, and influenced by western shorthand methods, some new methods were invented.
Modern Europe and America
An interest in shorthand or "short-writing" developed towards the end of the 16th century in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. In 1588
Timothy BrightTimothy Bright, M.D. was an English physician and clergyman, the inventor of modern shorthand.-Early life:Bright was born in or about 1551, probably in the neighbourhood of Sheffield. He matriculated as a sizar at Trinity College, Cambridge, 'impubes, æt. 11,' on 21 May 1561, and graduated B.A. in...
published his
Characterie; An Arte of Shorte, Swifte and Secrete Writing by Character which introduced a system with 500 arbitrary symbols each representing one word. Bright's book was followed by a number of others, including John Willis's
Art of Stenography in 1602, Edmond Willis's
An abbreviation of writing by character in 1618, and
Thomas SheltonThomas Shelton was the English translator of Don Quixote. Shelton's was the first translation of the novel into any language.-Life:...
's
Short Writing in 1626 (later re-issued as
Tachygraphy).
Shelton's system became very popular and is well known because it was used by Samuel Pepys for his diary and for many of his official papers, such as his letter copy books. It was also used by Sir Isaac Newton in some of his notebooks. Shelton borrowed heavily from his predecessors, especially Edmond Willis. Each consonant was represented by an arbitrary but simple symbol, while the five vowels were represented by the relative positions of the surrounding consonants. Thus the symbol for B with symbol for T drawn directly above it represented "bat", while B with T below it meant "but"; top-right represented "e", middle-right "i", and lower-right "o". A vowel at the end of a word was represented by a dot in the appropriate position, while there were additional symbols for initial vowels. This basic system was supplemented by further symbols representing common prefixes and suffixes.
One drawback of Shelton's system was that there was no way to distinguish long and short vowels or diphthongs; so the b-a-t sequence could mean "bat", or "bait", or "bate", while b-o-t might mean "boot", or "bought", or "boat". The reader needed to use the context to work out which alternative was meant. The main advantage of the system was that it was easy to learn and to use. It was popular, and under the two titles of
Short Writing and
Tachygraphy, Shelton's book ran to more than 20 editions between 1626 and 1710.
Shelton's chief rivals were Theophilus Metcalfe's
Stenography or
Short Writing (1633) which was in its "55th edition" by 1721, and
Jeremiah RichJeremiah Rich was an English stenographer, who published a pioneering system of shorthand writing.-Life:His uncle, William Cartwright, taught him shorthand, and he became a noted practitioner of the art...
's system of 1654, which was published under various titles including
The penns dexterity compleated (1669). Another notable English shorthand system creator of the 17th century was William Mason (
fl.Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
1672–1709) who published
Arts Advancement in 1682.
Modern-looking geometric shorthand was introduced with
John ByromJohn Byrom or John Byrom of Kersal or John Byrom of Manchester FRS was an English poet and inventor of a revolutionary system of shorthand. He is also remembered as the writer of the lyrics of Anglican hymn Christians Awake, salute the happy morn.- Early life :John Byrom was descended from an old...
's
New Universal Shorthand of 1720.
Samuel TaylorSamuel Taylor was the British inventor of a widely-used system of stenography.He began working on his own method of stenography in 1773, based on earlier efforts. In 1786, he published An essay intended to establish à standard for an universal system of Stenography, or Short-hand writing, the...
published a similar system in 1786, the first English shorthand system to be used all over the English-speaking world. Thomas Gurney published
Brachygraphy in the mid-18th century. In 1834 in
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
,
Franz Xaver GabelsbergerFranz Xaver Gabelsberger was a German inventor of a shorthand writing system, named Gabelsberger shorthand after him....
published his
Gabelsberger 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...
. Gabelsberger, who ignored the English stenography tradition, based his shorthand not on geometrical shapes but on the shapes used in handwriting script.
Modern Japan
There are several other pen shorthands in use (Ishimura, Iwamura, Kumassaki, Kotani, and Nissokuken), leading to a total of nine pen shorthands in use. In addition, there is the Yamane pen shorthand (of unknown importance) and three machine shorthands systems (Speed Warpro, Caver and Hayatokun or sokutaipu.) The machine shorthands have gained some ascendancy over the pen shorthands.
Japanese shorthand systems ('sokki' shorthand or 'sokkidou' stenography) commonly use a syllabic approach, much like the common writing system for Japanese (which has actually two syllabaries in everyday use). There are several semi-cursive systems. Most follow a left-to-right, top-to-bottom writing direction. Several systems incorporate a loop into many of the strokes, giving the appearance of Gregg, Graham, or Cross's Eclectic shorthand without actually functioning like them. (This is in fact similar to the Graham and Lindsley adaptations of Pitman for English; examples of Gregg, Graham and Eclectic are above.) The Kotani (aka Same-Vowel-Same-Direction or SVSD or V-type) system's strokes frequently cross over each other and in so doing form loops.
Gregg is English by origin and uses loops for several vowels between consonant strokes; Waseda (among others) is syllabic, and though there always is a vowel included in every syllable, and often a loop in writing a syllable, the vowel is not indicated in and of itself by any loop, and the operation of the systems is distinct. There exists a Japanese version of Gregg shorthand that was created in the early 20th century but which is not professionally used.
Japanese also has its own variously cursive form of writing kanji characters, the most extremely simplified of which is known as
SōshoCursive script , sometimes translated as Grass script is a style of Chinese calligraphy. Cursive script is faster to write than other styles, but difficult to read for those unfamiliar with it. It functions primarily as a kind of shorthand script or calligraphic style...
.
The two Japanese syllabaries are themselves adapted from the Grass Script versions of the Chinese characters; the hiragana being direct adaptations and the katakana being adapted from the hiragana (both katakana and hiragana are in everyday use alongside the Chinese characters known as kanji; the kanji, being developed in parallel to the Chinese characters, have their own idiosyncracies, but Chinese and Japanese ideograms are largely comprehensible, even if their use in the languages are not the same.)
Prior to the Meiji era, Japanese did not have its own shorthand (the kanji did have their own abbreviated forms borrowed alongside them from China). Takusari Kooki was the first to give classes in a new Western-style non-ideographic shorthand of his own design, emphasis being on the non-ideographic and new. This was the first shorthand system adapted to writing phonetic Japanese, all other systems prior being based on the idea of whole or partial semantic ideographic writing like that used in the Chinese characters, and the phonetic approach being mostly peripheral to writing in general (even today, Japanese writing uses the syllabaries to pronounce or spell out words, or to indicate grammatical words. Furigana are written alongside kanji, or Chinese characters, to indicate their pronunciation especially in juvenile publications. Furigana are usually written using the hiragana syllabary; foreign words may not have a kanji form and are spelled out using katakana.)
The new sokki were used to transliterate popular vernacular story-telling theater (yose) of the day. This led to a thriving industry of sokkibon (shorthand books). The ready availability of the stories in book form, and higher rates of literacy (which the very industry of sokkibon may have helped create, due to these being oral classics that were already known to most people) may also have helped kill the yose theater, as people no longer needed to see the stories performed in person to enjoy them. Sokkibon also allowed a whole host of what had previously been mostly oral rhetorical and narrative techniques into writing, such as imitation of dialect in conversations (which can be found back in older gensaku literature; but gensaku literature used conventional written language in-between conversations, however.)
Pitman Shorthand
Taylor's system was superseded by Pitman Shorthand, first introduced in 1837 by Sir Isaac Pitman, and improved many times since. Pitman's system has been used all over the English-speaking world and has been adapted to many other languages, including Latin. Pitman's system uses a
phonemic orthographyA phonemic orthography is a writing system where the written graphemes correspond to phonemes, the spoken sounds of the language. In terms of orthographic depth, these are termed shallow orthographies, contrasting with deep orthographies...
. For this reason, it is sometimes known as
phonography, meaning 'sound writing' in Greek. One of the reasons this system allows fast transcription is that
vowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
sounds are optional when only consonants are needed to determine a word. The availability of a full range of vowel symbols, however, makes possible complete accuracy.
The record for fast writing with Pitman shorthand is 350 wpm during a two-minute test by Nathan Behrin in 1922, although this result has been questioned.
Gregg Shorthand
Pitman shorthand is still in widespread use, but in the
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and some other parts of the world it has been largely superseded by Gregg shorthand, which was first published in 1888 by
John Robert GreggJohn Robert Gregg was an educator, publisher, humanitarian, and the inventor of the eponymous shorthand system Gregg Shorthand.-Childhood:...
. This system was influenced by the handwriting shapes that Gabelsberger had introduced. Gregg's shorthand, like Pitman's, is phonetic, but has the simplicity of being "light-line." Pitman's system uses thick and thin strokes to distinguish related sounds, while Gregg's uses only thin strokes and makes some of the same distinctions by the length of the stroke.
In fact, Gregg claimed joint authorship in another shorthand system published in pamphlet form by one Thomas Stratford Malone; Malone, however, claimed sole authorship and a legal battle ensued. The two systems use very similar, if not identical, symbols; however, these symbols are used to represent different sounds. For instance, on page 10 of the manual is the word d i m 'dim'; however, in the Gregg system the spelling would actually mean n u k or 'nook'.
Geometric and script-like systems
Shorthands that use simplified letterforms are sometimes termed
stenographic shorthands, contrasting with alphabetic shorthands, below. Stenographic shorthands can be further differentiated by the target letterforms as geometric, script, and semi-script or elliptical.
Geometric shorthands are based on circles, parts of circles, and straight lines placed strictly horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The first modern shorthand systems were geometric. Examples include Pitman Shorthand,
Boyd's Syllabic ShorthandBoyd's syllabic shorthand is a system of shorthand invented by Robert Boyd, published originally in 1903, and updated in 1912. In this system, symbols are distinguished both by orientation and shape, with the shape representing the vowel and the orientation the consonant...
, Samuel Taylor's Universal Stenography, the French Prévost-Delaunay, and the
DuployéThe Duployan shorthand, or Duployan stenography, , was created by Father Émile Duployé in 1860 for writing French. Since then, it has been expanded and adapted for writing English, German, Spanish, Romanian, and Chinook Jargon. The Duployan stenography is classified as a geometric, alphabetic,...
system, adapted to write the
Kamloops WawaThe Kamloops Wawa was a publication of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kamloops in British Columbia, Canada, in the 1890s and 1900s. The contents of the Kamloops Wawa were near-entirely written using an adaptation of the French Duployan shorthand writing system...
(used for
Chinook JargonChinook Jargon originated as a pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest, and spread during the 19th century from the lower Columbia River, first to other areas in modern Oregon and Washington, then British Columbia and as far as Alaska, sometimes taking on characteristics of a creole language...
) writing system.
Script shorthands are based on the motions of ordinary handwriting. The first system of this type was published under the title
Cadmus Britanicus by Simon Bordley, in 1787. However, the first practical system was the German Gabelsberger shorthand of 1834. This class of system is now common in all more recent German shorthand systems, as well as in Austria, Italy, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Russia, other Eastern European countries, and elsewhere.
Script-Geometric, or
semi-script shorthands are based on the ellipse. Semi-script can be considered a compromise between the
geometric systems and the
script systems. The first such system was that of George Carl Märes in 1885. However, the most successful system of this type was the one introduced by John Robert Gregg in 1888, who had studied not only the
geometric English systems, but also the German Stolze stenography, a
script shorthand. The semi-script philosophy gained popularity in Italy in the first half of the 20th century with three different systems created by Cima, Meschini, and Mosciaro. Other examples include
Teeline ShorthandTeeline is a shorthand system accepted by the National Council for the Training of Journalists, an organisation for training journalists in the United Kingdom. It was developed in 1968 by James Hill, a teacher of Pitman Shorthand...
and
Thomas Natural ShorthandThomas Natural Shorthand is an English shorthand system created by Charles A. Thomas which was first published in 1935. Thomas described his system as "designed to meet the existing need for a simple, legible shorthand that is based on already familiar writing lines, and that is written with a...
.
Systems resembling standard writing
Some shorthand systems attempted to ease learning by using characters from the Latin alphabet. Such non-stenographic systems have often been described as
alphabetic, and purists might claim that such systems are not 'true' shorthand. However, these alphabetic systems do have value for students who cannot dedicate the years necessary to master a stenographic shorthand. Alphabetic shorthands cannot be written at the speeds theoretically possible with symbol systems—200 words per minute or more—but require only a fraction of the time to acquire a useful speed of between 60 and 100 words per minute.
Non-stenographic systems often supplement alphabetic characters by using punctuation marks as additional characters, giving special significance to capitalised letters, and sometimes using additional non-alphabetic symbols. Examples of such systems include
Stenoscript-Stenoscript:Stenoscript or Stenoscript ABC is a shorthand system, originating in London 1607.It is a phonetic system using longhand characters and punctuation. For this reason it has been criticised as not being a true shorthand system....
, Stenospeed,
SpeedwritingSpeedwriting is a shorthand writing system developed in 1924 by Emma Dearborn, an instructor at the University of Chicago. It uses alphabetic characters and was originally designed so that it could be written by pen, or on a typewriter....
,
Forkner shorthandForkner Shorthand is an alphabetic shorthand created by Hamden L. Forkner and first published in 1952. Its popularity grew to its apex in the 60s through the 80s as those who needed shorthand every day began to favor the lower learning curve of alphabetic systems to the more difficult ...
, Quickhand and Alpha Hand. However, there are some pure alphabetic systems, including
Personal ShorthandPersonal Shorthand, originally known as Briefhand in the 1950s, is a completely alphabetic shorthand.There are three basic categories of written shorthand. Best known are pure symbol shorthand systems...
,
SuperWriteSuperWrite is an English shorthand system based largely on previous shorthand systems and largely intended for people who need to increase their writing speed without devoting months to learning more complicated systems. It is an alphabetic system, as it uses cursive forms of the letters of the...
, Easy Script Speed Writing, Agiliwriting and Keyscript which limit their symbols to
a priori alphabetic characters. These have the added advantage that they can also be typed—for instance, onto a
computerA computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
,
PDAA personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
, or cellphone. Early editions of Speedwriting were also adapted so that they could be written on a typewriter, and therefore would possess the same advantage.
Varieties of vowel representation
Shorthand systems can also be classified according to the way that vowels are represented.
- Alphabetic
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
- Expression by "normal" vowel signs that are not fundamentally different from consonant signs (e.g., Gregg, Duployan).
- Mixed Alphabetic
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
- Expression of vowels and consonants by different kinds of strokes (e.g., Arends' system for German or Melin's Swedish Shorthand where vowels are expressed by upward or sideway strokes and consonants and consonant clusters by downward strokes).
- 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....
- No expression of the individual vowels at all except for a dot before the word for any initial vowel and a dot after the word for any ending vowel (e.g., Taylor).
- Marked 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....
- Expression of vowels by the use of detached signs (such as dots, ticks, and other marks) written around the consonant signs.
- Positional 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....
- Expression of the first vowel by the height of the word in relation to the line, no necessary expression of subsequent vowels (e.g., Pitman, which can optionally express other vowels by detached diacritics).
- Abugida
An abugida , also called an alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is obligatory but secondary...
- Expression of a vowel by the shape of a stroke, with the consonant indicated by orientation (e.g., Boyd).
- Mixed Abugida
An abugida , also called an alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is obligatory but secondary...
= Expression of the vowels by the width of the joining stroke that leads to the following consonant sign, the height of the following consonant sign in relation to the preceding one, and the line pressure of the following consonant sign (e.g., most German shorthand systems).
Machine shorthand systems
Traditional shorthand systems are written on paper with a stenographic pencil or a stenographic pen. Some consider that strictly speaking only handwritten systems can be called shorthand.
Machine shorthand is also a common term for writing produced by a
stenotypeA stenotype, stenotype machine or shorthand machine is a specialized chorded keyboard or typewriter used by stenographers for shorthand use...
, a specialized keyboard. However, there are other shorthand machines used worldwide, including:
VelotypeVelotype is the old trademark for a type of keyboard for typing text known as a syllabic chord keyboard, an invention of the Dutchmen Nico Berkelmans and Marius den Outer. The current tradename is Veyboard...
; Palantype in the UK; Grandjean Stenotype, used extensively in France and French-speaking countries; Michela Stenotype, used extensively in Italy; and Stenokey, used in Bulgaria and elsewhere. See also
Speech-to-Text ReporterThis article is about Speech-to-Text Reporters who are human beings reproducing speech into a text format onto a computer screen at verbatim speeds for deaf or hard of hearing people to read...
a person using a form of realtime shorthand originally designed to assist deaf people.
Common modern English shorthand systems
One of the most widely known forms of shorthand is still the Pitman shorthand method described above, originally developed by
Isaac PitmanSir Isaac Pitman , knighted in 1894, developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand. He first proposed this in Stenographic Soundhand in 1837. Pitman was a qualified teacher and taught at a private school he founded in Wotton-under-Edge...
in 1837. Isaac's brother Benn Pitman, who lived in Cincinnati,
OhioOhio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, was responsible for introducing the method to America. The method has been adapted for 15 languages. Although Pitman's method was extremely popular at first and is still commonly used, especially in the UK, its popularity has been superseded especially in the U.S. by the method developed by J.R. Gregg in 1888.
In the UK,
Teeline ShorthandTeeline is a shorthand system accepted by the National Council for the Training of Journalists, an organisation for training journalists in the United Kingdom. It was developed in 1968 by James Hill, a teacher of Pitman Shorthand...
is now more commonly taught and used than Pitman, being a spelling based system as opposed to one based on phonetics. Teeline is also the most common method of shorthand taught to New Zealand journalists, who typically require 80 words per minute to obtain certification. Teeline is the recommended system of the
National Council for the Training of JournalistsThe National Council for the Training of Journalists was founded in 1951 as an organisation to oversee the training of journalists for the newspaper industry in the United Kingdom and is now playing a role in the wider media.-Purpose:...
. Other less commonly used systems in the UK are Pitman 2000, PitmanScript, Speedwriting and Gregg.
Notable shorthand systems
- Alpha Hand
- AgiliWriting
- Bezenšek Shorthand
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 , so it is often referred to as the Gabelsberger–Bezenšek Shorthand...
(Anton BezenšekAnton Toma Bezenšek was a Slovene linguist, publicist, shorthand expert, and lecturer, who spent most of his life in Bulgaria...
, German)
- Boyd's Syllabic Shorthand
Boyd's syllabic shorthand is a system of shorthand invented by Robert Boyd, published originally in 1903, and updated in 1912. In this system, symbols are distinguished both by orientation and shape, with the shape representing the vowel and the orientation the consonant...
(Robert BoydRobert Boyd , of Russell, Ontario, Canada, was the inventor of a system of shorthand, Boyd's Syllabic Shorthand. The system was first published in 1903, with a later publication in 1912....
)
- Current Shorthand
Current Shorthand was developed beginning in 1884 and published in 1892 by Dr. Henry Sweet. It shares some similarities with the Gregg system, with which Current is contemporary...
(Henry Sweet)
- Century 21 Shorthand
- Caton Scientific Shorthand (Thomas Jasper Caton)
- Dacomb Shorthand (B. E. Dacomb), 1934
- Deutsche Einheitskurzschrift
Deutsche Einheitskurzschrift is a German stenography system. The original version was officially introduced in 1924. In 1936 and 1968, revised versions were introduced. Since the 1968 reform the shorthand is written in three levels: Verkehrsschrift, Eilschrift and Redeschrift...
, used in Germany
- Dutton Speedwords
Dutton Speedwords , sometimes called rapmotz, is an international auxiliary language as well a shorthand writing system. It was invented by Reginald J. G. Dutton in 1922. It was first published in 1935 under the title International Symbolic Script and a year later using the name Speedwords...
, a shorthand with the dual function of an International auxiliary languageAn international auxiliary language or interlanguage is a language meant for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language...
(Reginald J. G. DuttonReginald J.G. Dutton, . Reginald John Garfield Dutton was born in Nottingham, England, the eldest son of George H.J. Dutton. He was the inventor of the auxiliary language and stenographic system known as Dutton Speedwords. Dutton studied Pitman Shorthand and other shorthand systems as an aid to his...
)
- Duployé Shorthand
- Easy Script Speed Writing
- Eclectic Shorthand
Eclectic shorthand is an English shorthand system of the 19th century...
(J.G. Cross)
- Forkner shorthand
Forkner Shorthand is an alphabetic shorthand created by Hamden L. Forkner and first published in 1952. Its popularity grew to its apex in the 60s through the 80s as those who needed shorthand every day began to favor the lower learning curve of alphabetic systems to the more difficult ...
(Hamden L. ForknerHamden L. Forkner was an American educator and writer who created Future Business Leaders of America, an educational organization for high school and college students, and developed the Forkner shorthand system for taking dictation....
)
- 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...
(Franz Xaver Gabelsberger)
- 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...
(John Robert GreggJohn Robert Gregg was an educator, publisher, humanitarian, and the inventor of the eponymous shorthand system Gregg Shorthand.-Childhood:...
)
- Gregg Computer Shorthand/Productivity Plus
- Groote (A.W. Groote) (Dutch)
- Herout-Mikulík's system, used in the Czech parliament (Alois Herout and Svojmír Mikulík)
- Malone Shorthand
- Melin Shorthand
The Melin system of shorthand is the dominant shorthand system used in Sweden. It was created by Olof Werling Melin , an officer in the Swedish army...
, the dominant Shorthand system used in Sweden (Olof Werling Melin)
- Merrill Shorthand
Merrill Shorthand is a shorthand system invented by Albert H. Merrill, published in 1942.The system is described in Merrill's book as "A shorthand system built on an original principle of connecting consonant-indicating positions by vowel-indicating curves and straight lines." The system differs...
(or ABC shorthand)
- Munson Shorthand
The Munson Shorthand system was a form of shorthand devised by James Eugene Munson, who was an official court stenographer in New York State. It is a slightly revised version of Pitman shorthand designed to make it more systematic....
(James Eugene Munson)
- National Simplex Shorthand (Rev. Percival Hubert Chase), 1919
- New Art of Real Shorthand (John Malham-Dembleby), 1919
- New Rapid (C.E. McKee), 1890
- Paragon Shorthand (A. Lichtentag), 1895
- Personal Shorthand
Personal Shorthand, originally known as Briefhand in the 1950s, is a completely alphabetic shorthand.There are three basic categories of written shorthand. Best known are pure symbol shorthand systems...
, originally called Briefhand
- 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...
(Isaac Pitman)
- Polygraphy (Aulay Macaulay
Aulay Macaulay was an 18th century English tea-dealer, based in Manchester, who invented a system of shorthand which could be used in English and many other languages. He died on 19 March 1788, in Manchester....
), 1747
- Reformed Phonetic Short-Hand
Reformed Phonetic Short-Hand is an obscure form of shorthand described in a book entitled Marsh's Manual of Reformed Phonetic Short-Hand: Being a Complete Guide to the Best System of Phonography and Verbatim Reporting published by H.H...
(Andrew J. Marsh), 1868
- Simson Shorthand
Simson Shorthand is a system of shorthand invented by James Simson, originally published in his 1881 book, Compend of Syllabic Shorthand: Being a Synopsis of the System, and in more detail in his books, Syllabic Shorthand...
(James SimsonJames Simson 1740-1770 was a medical academic and the second Chandos Professor of Medicine and Anatomy at the University of St Andrews, from 1764-1770. He was born on 21 March 1740, son of Thomas Simson and Margaret Simson. He was awarded the degree of MD...
)
- Speedwriting
Speedwriting is a shorthand writing system developed in 1924 by Emma Dearborn, an instructor at the University of Chicago. It uses alphabetic characters and was originally designed so that it could be written by pen, or on a typewriter....
(Emma Dearborn)
- Stiefografie
Stiefografie, also called Stiefo or Rationelle Stenografie , is a German shorthand system. It was invented by Helmut Stief , a German press and parliamentary stenographer, and first published in 1966....
, used in Germany
- SuperWrite
- Teeline Shorthand
Teeline is a shorthand system accepted by the National Council for the Training of Journalists, an organisation for training journalists in the United Kingdom. It was developed in 1968 by James Hill, a teacher of Pitman Shorthand...
(James Hill)
- Thomas Natural Shorthand
Thomas Natural Shorthand is an English shorthand system created by Charles A. Thomas which was first published in 1935. Thomas described his system as "designed to meet the existing need for a simple, legible shorthand that is based on already familiar writing lines, and that is written with a...
(Charles A. Thomas)
- Tironian notes (Marcus Tullius Tiro), 63 BC
- Universal Stenography (Samuel Taylor), 1786
- Wang-Krogdahl's system, used in the Norwegian parliament (Leif Wang and Olav Krogdahl), 1945
See also
- Abbreviation
An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...
- Breviograph
A breviograph is a type of scribal abbreviation in the form of an easily written symbol, character, flourish, or stroke based on a modified letter form used to take the place of a common letter combination, especially those occurring at the beginning or end of a word...
- Captioned telephone
- Closed captioning
Closed captioning is the process of displaying text on a television, video screen or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information to individuals who wish to access it...
- Court reporter
A court reporter, stenotype reporter, voice writing reporter, or transcriber is a person whose occupation is to transcribe spoken or recorded speech into written form, using machine shorthand or voice writing equipment to produce official transcripts of court hearings, depositions and other...
- Internet slang
Internet slang is a type of slang that Internet users have popularized, and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting and instant messaging, and social networking websites...
- Modi script
' is one of the scripts used to write the Marathi language& Rajasthani language, which is the primary language spoken in the state of Maharashtra & Rajasthan in western India respectively. MoDiis also known as MuDiya, MuDi & VañiyāvaTi...
- Quikscript
Quikscript is an alphabet specifically designed for the English language. Quikscript replaces traditional English orthography, which uses the Latin alphabet, with completely new letters. It is phonemically regular, compact, and comfortably and quickly written...
- Shavian alphabet
The Shavian alphabet is an alphabet conceived as a way to provide simple, phonetic orthography for the English language to replace the difficulties of the conventional spelling. It was posthumously funded by and named after Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw...
- Shorthand Language
- Stenomask
A stenomask is a mouth mask with a built-in microphone. The purpose of a stenomask is to allow a person to speak without being heard by other people, and to keep background noise away from the microphone....
- Transcript
Transcript may refer to:* Transcript , a copy of a student's permanent academic record* Transcription , the process of creating an equivalent RNA copy of a sequence of DNA* Transcript , a record of all court proceedings...
External links