Stiefografie - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Stiefografie, also called Stiefo or Rationelle Stenografie (Rational Shorthand), is a 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....

shorthand

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. It was invented by Helmut Stief (1906–1977), a German press and parliamentary stenographer, and first published in 1966.

Helmut Stief was dissatisfied with the Deutsche Einheitskurzschrift

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...

so he created a much simpler alternative system. According to Stief the eponym

Eponym

An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...

ous shorthand system Stiefografie can be quickly learned within a very short time. There are only 25 characters to learn in the first level Grundschrift (business script). Stiefografie is in Germany

Germany

Germany , 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...

the most popular form of the new stenography systems published since the 1950s.

Writing

The system has only a minimum number of rules. Like most systems of shorthand, Stiefografie is a phonetic system. Sounds and words are written as they are spoken. Silent letter

Silent letter

In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word's pronunciation...

s are ignored.

The consonant

Consonant

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...

signs are made by simplifying the features of cursive

Cursive

Cursive, 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...

Latin

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

letters. Vowel signs are only used when a vowel stands at the end of a word. Vowels in the beginning or in the middle of words are represented symbolically by varying the position of the following consonant signs.

Stiefografie does not employ shading (variation of thickness of strokes) to distinguish vowel

Vowel

In 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...

symbols. Shading 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...

.

The punctuation

Punctuation

Punctuation marks are symbols that indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences...

marks full stop

Full stop

A full stop is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of sentences. In American English, the term used for this punctuation is period. In the 21st century, it is often also called a dot by young people...

, semicolon

Semicolon

The semicolon is a punctuation mark with several uses. The Italian printer Aldus Manutius the Elder established the practice of using the semicolon to separate words of opposed meaning and to indicate interdependent statements. "The first printed semicolon was the work of ... Aldus Manutius"...

and comma

Comma

A comma is a type of punctuation mark . The word comes from the Greek komma , which means something cut off or a short clause.Comma may also refer to:* Comma , a type of interval in music theory...

are not used because they look like some brief forms of very frequent German words in Aufbauschrift (speed script and speech script) and could be confused with these words. These punctuation marks are replaced by different space intervals between the sentences and phrases.

Division of the system

Stiefografie shorthand is written in three levels: Grundschrift (business script), Aufbauschrift I (speed script) and Aufbauschrift II (speech script).

Grundschrift can be produced at a rate of 100 to 120 syllables per minute

Minute

A minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle. The minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the UTC time scale, a minute on rare occasions has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second. The minute is not an SI unit; however, it is accepted for use with SI units...

. There are only 24 characters for consonants and combinations of consonants (e.g. sch, sp, st). Contrary to the practice in many English shorthand systems (e.g. Pitman Shorthand

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...

), vowels are never omitted. There are no brief forms for the most frequent syllable

Syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...

s and words of the German language in this first level.

Aufbauschrift I can be produced up to 160 syllables per minute. There are 54 brief forms for the most frequent words and syllables in the German language and rules for forming free abbreviations. These brief forms are distinguishable by size and position (three of them: above, below, or on the base line). Special endings and syllables can be omitted.

There are more than additional 120 brief forms in Aufbauschrift II to write up to about 400 syllables per minute. It is possible to omit special consonants, vowels and syllables.

External links (German language pages)

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