Table of Content

I. The Consonants II. The Vowels III. Intervening Vowels and Position Grammalogues, Punctuation IV. Alternative Signs for r and h V. Diphthongs Abbreviated w VI. Phaseography Tick the VII. Circle s and z—Left and Right Motion VIII. Stroke s and z IX. Large Circles sw and ss or sz X. Loops st and str XI. Initial Hooks to Straight Strokes and Curves XII. Alternative Forms for fr, vr, etc. Intervening Vowels XIII. Circle or Loop Preceding Initial Hook XIV. n and f Hooks XV. Circles and Loops to Final Hooks XVI. The shun Hook XVII. The Aspirate XVIII. Upward and Downward r XIX. Upward and Downward l and sh XX. Compound Consonants XXI. Vowel Indication XXII. The Halving Principle (Section 1) XXIII. The Halving Principle (Section 2) XXIV. The Doubling Principle XXV. Diphonic or Two-Vowel Signs XXVI. Medical Semicircle XXVII. Prefixes Negative Words XXVIII. Suffixes and Terminations XXIX. Contractions XXX. Figures, Etc. Proper Names XXXI. Note-Taking, Transcription, etc. XXXII. Essential Vowels XXXIII. Special Contractions XXXIV. Advanced Phraseography XXXV. Intersections XXXVI. Business Phrases XXXVII. Political Phrases XXXVIII. Banking and Stockbroking Phrases XXXIX. Insurance and Shipping Phrases XL. Technical and Railway Phrases XLI. Legal Phrases XLII. Theological Phrases XLIII. Special List of Words XLIV. Shorthand in Practice Outlines for the Names of Some Chief Cities and Towns Grammalogues Arranged Alphabetically Grammalogues Arranged Phonetically Special List of Contractions

Salient Features

Pitman's system has a number of useful features:

• It is phonetic. Using very simple strokes of the pencil, sounds are written down and not the letters themselves.
• Vowel sounds are optional and are written with small dots, dashes or other shapes next to the main strokes. This saves time in writing when the consonants alone make clear what the word is. In the majority of cases, the consonants alone can clearly identify an English word.
• The strokes used vary in sound depending on a number of rules. It matters whether the strokes are thick or thin and whether the first stroke of a word is above, on or through the line on the paper. Halving or doubling the length of a stroke is also significant.
• The system developed a large number of "short forms". For example, the letters "th" can represent two sounds (called "unvoiced" and "voiced" th). In Pitman Shorthand they are represented by a curved stroke similar to an open bracket: ( . The thin stroke ( represents the sound of "th" as in the words "thank" and "think", and in fact the single stroke is also used as a short form for these words. The thick stroke ( represents the sound of "th" as in the words "though" and "they"/"them" and is likewise used as the short form for those words as well.