Shorthand
The shortenography or stenography is any fast and concise writing system that allows a speech to be transcribed at the same speed at which it is spoken. To do this, short strokes, abbreviations, and special characters are often used to represent letters, words, and even phrases.
Around the world there are various stenographic systems, different from each other, even within the same language or the same country and even in the same legislative body we find stenographers using different systems. While all shorthand systems are standardized and should be readable by all stenographers using the same system, in most cases, stenographers make their own adaptations or modifications based on convenience or their way of drawing signs.
There are alphabetic systems, meaning that the signs record all the letters, and syllabic systems, in which each sign represents a syllable. In the latter, the vowels of each syllable are not generally recorded, and in some cases only the initial or final vowels of the word are recorded, and the same sign can represent more than one word.
In some systems, shorthand writing omits parts of the texts and a text collected by a stenographer cannot always be easily understood by another who has not previously heard the original. Therefore, the same stenographers must later transcribe the shorthand text that they have taken into normal writing.
Learning shorthand is relatively easy, but using it quickly requires a lot of practice.[citation needed]
It is important to highlight that each stenographer has their own way of writing their shorthand signs, so it is impossible to standardize their exact size and shape.
History
The origins of shorthand go back to the time of the Greek historian Xenophon, who used this technique to transcribe the life of Socrates.
Shorthand; from the Greek words taxos ('speed', 'speed') and grafos ('writing'), it uses simpler signs than those of ordinary writing to write as fast as you speak. It was used by the Phoenicians and Greeks, and in Rome since the time of Cicero, according to Plutarch. In Rome it was called «notae tironianae», since it was used and perfected by Marco Tulio Tirón, a slave and later freedman of Cicero, from about 70 BC. C. A system similar to that of Tiro seems to be attributed to Maecenas, according to Dio Casio. Shortly after the system was arranged in the form of a dictionary by Seneca, calling it «Notes of Tirón and Seneca». However, it fell into oblivion with the invasion of the barbarians[citation needed].
Subsequently, it has been reestablished in the Modern Age. It started again in England, in 1588 by Timothy Bright. It continued through France, the Netherlands, Germany from the 17th century. It arrived in Italy in the 18th century and in Spain in 1800. The inventor of Spanish shorthand is considered to be the Valencian Francisco de Paula Martí, in 1802. His system is considered the most perfect of those known until the 19th century.
The term was first used by Thomas Shelton in 1641, then by Coulon de Thévenot in 1776 and finally adopted by Martí. The Englishman John Willis, inventor of the first geometric system, had called it stenography.
Uses
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Stenography was commonly used in trials, in which case stenographers or stenographers were used to record what was said in writing. It was also used by secretaries and administrative assistants to write down the notes, letters, messages and orders they receive. Likewise, its use was common to record parliamentary debates, and for the live transmission of television programs that require subtitling, for example, with the closed subtitle system (Closed Caption). Interpreters also used to use shorthand as a memory aid when they had to pass a message from one language to another. Theoretically it was a very useful tool for a student when attending classes to take notes.
Systems
Pitman Shorthand
The Pitman method uses the lines of a sheet; this means that the position of the symbols is important in relation to the horizontals of the writing tablet.
Isaac Pitman was born in Trowbridge Wiltshire in 1813 and died in Bath in 1897. He learned Taylor's system, and planned to edit it with the reforms he had introduced, but a friend of his, Bagsters, suggested the idea of creating a system own.
In 1837, Pitman released his famous work Stenographic Soundhand. Although the signs of both authors may be similar, they are very different systems.
Although he used resources that had already been used by other authors —phonetic writing had already been used by Tiffin (1750), Lyle (1762), Roe (1802) and Towndrow (1831); similar signs for similar sounds had been used by Hervey (1779); the positions had been used by farr (1819) and Taylor; the thin and thick strokes date from the time of Tiro (50 BC); and he wasn't even the first to use the small circle to represent the S—he was the first to order them systematically, based on a scientific analysis of his language.
In 1840 the second edition appeared, with the title Phonography, or Writing by Sound; being a natural method of writing, applicable to all languages, and a complete system of Short-hand, with an alphabet of 36 signs. In 1842 the first number of the Phonetic Journal was published and in 1846 the first Pythmanian society, called the Phonetic Society, was created in London.
In 1863 the 11th edition of his work appeared in London: A manual of Phonography, or, Writing by Sound: a natural method of writing by signs that represent spoken sounds; adapted to the English language as a complete system or Phonetic Short-hand. In it, its author says: "Who, who is in the profession of writing, has not wanted at some point to express through two or three strokes of the pen what currently requires so much time and work to bring it to the paper?».
Pitman's work has been adapted into all languages. Isaac Pitman says of his work: «Strong propaganda and cheap methods have contributed to earning him this distinction, although his merit over other systems has been appreciated by the public. My little method has been sold for a penny, and my book Phonografic Teacher sold over one million six hundred thousand copies». In his system, the consonants form pairs represented by the same line, which differ in thickness. Represent vowels with dots, commas, and thin and thick dashes. The placement of the consonants, in the line, above or below the line, indicates the vowel that accompanies them and calls for the union of two or more words without lifting the pencil. The consonants R and L that follow the base consonant of the syllable are represented by a modification at the beginning of the syllable. The Pitman's Shorthand-Phonography Manual - New Era Edition contains a total of 189 rules.
Pitman's biography was written in 1902 by his brother Benn and in 1908 by Alfred Baker.
The maximum speed reached is 360 words per minute (for two minutes), by Nathan Behrin in 1922 (according to the Guinness Book of Records).
Garriga Shorthand
In 1864 the Spanish priest and philosopher Pedro Garriga Marill published his work «The systematic shorthand» in which he detailed the, later known as, Sistema de Taquigrafía Garriga. This system together with the one developed by Francisco Martí, called Martí Shorthand System, were the most widely used in Spain given the institutional support that both received and their special adaptation to the Spanish language.
In 1872, the first Spanish shorthand society was founded in Barcelona, the Corporación Taquigráfica del Sistema Garriga, formed by Garriga himself, Professor José Balari Jovany and other followers of the system in order to promote and expand its use in Spain.
Gregg Shorthand
The Irishman John Robert Gregg published Light Line Phonography in Liverpool, which translates into Spanish as “Fonografía de escritura simplella” in 1888, when he was barely twenty years old. He was sued for plagiarism by Thomas Malone, a former fellow student of his, and his book failed to be sold in England. For this reason, in 1893 he traveled to the United States, where he was able to spread his system and achieved great resonance.
Gregg shorthand is based on the ellipse, following the slant of current writing. The vowels are written in their natural order, not differentiating the signs by thickness or position, but only by different sizes. The writing is essentially horizontal.
The first adaptation of the Gregg system into Spanish was made by the Mexican Camilo E. Pani in 1904, which appeared under the title Gregg-Pani phonetic shorthand. This was followed by another in 1921 entitled Gregg Shorthand, which is more like the writing of the English version. A revised edition by Louis Leslie was published in 1923. This edition, known as the Gregg Shorthand Anniversary Edition, spread throughout Latin America. After the death of John Robert Gregg in 1948, a revision of the system, known as Simplified Gregg Shorthand, was published in 1953, containing changes to the English version of the system intended to reduce the mental load of the system. stenographer and simplify learning shorthand. In 1969 the Diamond Edition Gregg Shorthand appeared, a new edition with numerous simplifications intended to lighten writing and learning. In this edition, the use of shorthand is refocused exclusively on the commercial area. The Anniversary edition was reprinted in 1970 under the title Gregg Shorthand Course, which, in addition to the basic text, contains an exercise manual (Gregg Shorthand Progressive Exercises) and a reading book (Graduated Exercises). A new edition was released in 1978, called Gregg Shorthand Series 90, with even greater simplifications. The last edition in Spanish published in 1990, Gregg Shorthand Centennial Edition, retains the principles of the 90 Series and includes updates to the vocabulary for the electronic office, as well as a rearrangement in the presentation of the principles of the system.. Each simplification of the system brings with it not only an increase in the ease of learning and writing, but also a decrease in the potential for speed in dictation, since the strokes become longer and slower with the elimination of rules. For this reason, although the Anniversary Edition is the most difficult to learn and master due to the many abbreviations and rules it contains, it is considered the fastest of all versions and the most suitable for parliamentary and legal work.
Other adaptations of the Gregg system have been published. In 1931, Salvador F. Seguí published Seguí Shorthand, a system based on Gregg. In 1932, Ana María O'Neill published her Exposition of Gregg Shorthand, revised in 1974 (Revised Exposition of Gregg Shorthand) and in 1984 (New Revised Exposition of Gregg Shorthand, Gold Edition).
Gregg's system has been adapted to many languages, including Afrikaans, Esperanto, French, German, Hebrew, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Catalan, and Tagalog. With a few adaptations, it can be used in almost any language. After English, the Spanish adaptation is the most popular.
With the Gregg system, speeds of up to 280 words per minute have been recorded in English.
Larralde Shorthand
Gabriel Hilario Larralde (1853-1941) was the creator of the Argentine Stenography, also called Larralde Shorthand or "Larralde System", which It has been used since the end of the XIX century and up to the present by most of the stenographers of the Chambers of Senators and Deputies of the Congress of the Argentine Nation. Gabriel H. Larralde, who was director of the Corps of Stenographers of the H. Chamber of Deputies of the Nation, was a disciple of Guillermo Parody, who instructed him in the Pitman system, which Larralde adapted to Rioplantense Castilian obtaining an optimal system for the countries del Plata, although it is used exclusively in the Argentine Republic in most legislative bodies. In the province of Santa Fe there are stenographers who still maintain the tradition of the Martí-Escobar system. President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was one of the promoters of the study and the use of shorthand in Argentina, since he wanted to read in the morning at home what had been discussed the night before in the Chambers of Congress. . 4; The Larralde system, which is a phonetic-syllabic system, has been taught for more than seven decades in business schools and shorthand teachers in high school in Argentina. Currently, October 2022, the Larralde system is still in force in several provinces of Argentina, so some stenographers, who work in parliamentary spheres, limit themselves to teaching shorthand, in order to prepare qualified personnel to work. in the aforementioned areas, given the absence of this art in formal education.
Carissimi Shorthand
The Carissimi system was invented in Uruguay in the 1940s. This system was composed based on three systems: Gregg, Pitman and a third system of English origin. It is made up of straight signs, such as the sounds K, P, D, and F, half-circle signs, such as the sounds J, CH, Ñ, and quarter-circle signs, such as the sounds L, T, S, and B. This system is the most used in Uruguay.
Teeline Shorthand
Teeline is a shorthand accepted by the NCTJ, an association of UK journalists. It is adaptable to different languages, but it is mainly used in the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Developed in the 1970s by James Hill, a Pitman Shorthand teacher, it basically consists of removing unnecessary letters and making the letters faster to type. Vowels are generally dropped when they are not at the beginning or end of the word, and silent letters are also ignored. Prefixes, suffixes, and "even" letters (such as "pr" or "bl") are reduced to a single symbol. The symbols are derived from the letters of the Western alphabet, removing the most unnecessary parts.
Teeline differs from Pitman and Gregg in that Teeline is an alphabetic system, while Pitman and Gregg are phonetic. Therefore, Teeline is much easier to learn, but it is not as fast as phonetic systems.
Teeline closely resembles the graffiti used with the stylus on Palm-style PDAs.
The speed that can be reached is 140 words per minute.
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