Pitman Shorthand
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Pitman Shorthand is a system of rapid writing developed by Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897). It was first presented in 1837. It is a phonetic system using symbols for various sounds in the language.
One characteristic feature is that voiceless and voiced sounds (such as /p/ and /b/) are represented by the same symbol except for using darker lines for the voiced sound (this is usually accomplished by using light or heavy pressure on the page). Doing this requires a writing instrument which is responsive to the user's drawing pressure: specialist fountain pens (with a fine flexible nib) or pencils are often used.
Another feature is the distinction between symbols drawn on the line, over the line, or under the line. For example, a small circle drawn above the line translates to as/has and the same circle drawn on the line translates to is/his.
Vowels are generally indicated by dots or small dashes drawn close to the stroke of the previous consonant. The type of vowel is dependent on the relative position of the dot or dash to the stroke (beginning, middle, or end).
There are at least three "dialects" of Pitman's shorthand: the original Pitman's, Pitman's New Era, and Pitman's 2000. The later versions dropped certain symbols and introduced other simplifications to earlier versions. For example, strokes "rer" (heavy curved downstroke) and "kway", (hooked horizontal straight stroke) are present in Pitman's New Era, but not in Pitman's 2000.
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History
Pitman was asked to create a shorthand system of his own in 1837. He had used Samuel Taylor's system for seven years, but his symbols bear greater similarity to the older Byrom system. The first phonetician to invent a system of shorthand, Pitman used similar-looking symbols for phonetically related sounds. He was the first to modify the line to indicate voicing (voiced consonants were written with heavier lines), and consonants with similar place of articulation were orientated in similar directions, with straight lines for plosives and arcs for fricatives. For example, the dental and alveolar consonants are upright: "|" [t], "|" [d], ) [s], ")" [z], "(" [θ] (as in thigh), "(" [ð] (as in thy).
Pitman's brother Benn settled in Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States, and introduced Pitman's system there. He used it in the 1865–67 trial of the conspirators behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. In Australia the system was introduced by another Pitman brother, Jacob. Benn Pitman is buried in Sydney's Rookwood Necropolis, in Australia. The epitaph is (of course) in shorthand.
At one time, Pitman was the most commonly used shorthand system in the entire English-speaking world. Part of its popularity was due to the fact that it was the first subject taught by correspondence course. Today in many regions (especially the U.S.), it has been superseded by Gregg Shorthand, developed by John Robert Gregg.
Writing
Like Gregg Shorthand, Pitman's shorthand is completely phonetic; words are written exactly as they are pronounced. There are twenty-four consonants that can be represented in Pitman's shorthand, and twelve vowels. The consonants are indicated by strokes, the vowels by interposed dots.
Consonants
The consonants in Pitman's shorthand are: pee, bee, tee, dee, chay, jay, kay, gay, eff, vee, ith, thee, es, zee, ish, zhee, em, en, ing, el, ar, ray, way, yay, and hay. When both an unvoiced consonant and its corresponding voiced consonant are present in this system, the distinction is made by drawing the stroke for the voiced consonant thicker than the one for the unvoiced consonant. (Thus, es is ")", whereas zee is ")".) Note that there are two strokes for /r/: ar and ray. The former assumes the form of the top right-hand quarter of a circle, whereas the latter is like chay (/), only less steep. There are rules governing when to use each of these forms.
Vowels
The twelve vowels found in Pitman's shorthand are: ah, ay, ee, aw, oh, oo, ă, ě, i, ǒ, uh, and ŭ. The first six are long, and the rest are short. The long vowels may be remembered by the sentence, "Pa, may we all go too?", and the short vowels may be remembered by the sentence, "That pen is not much good."
The vowels are represented by dots and dashes, which are placed against the consonant strokes. The dots and dashes representing long vowels are darker than the ones representing short vowels. For example, say is written as ")•", but seh (if it did exist) would be written as ")·"; see is written as ").", but sih (if there were such a word) would be written as ").". There is another, more implicit, way of indicating vowels: placement of the stroke above, on, or below the line.
Grammalogues
In shorthand, frequently or commonly occurring words are represented in a single outline which are termed as Grammalogues and the shorthand outlines that represent the grammalogues are called logograms.
Grammalogues facilitate speed and is convenient to use when taking a shorthand dictation. These are an essential part of shorthand transcription.
Common words like and,because,can,it,shall,think,to,with,thank,the and many more are all represented by Grammalogues.
Hooks
The halving principle
Many strokes (both straight and curved) may be halved in length to denote a final "t" or "d". The halving principle may be combined with an initial or final hook (or both) to make words such as "trained" appear as a single short vertical light stroke with an initial and final hook.
The doubling principle
References