Editing Shorthand (section)

=== Europe and North America ===

An interest in shorthand or "short-writing" developed towards the end of the 16th century in [[England]]. In 1588, [[Timothy Bright]] 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 Peter Bales' '' The Writing Schoolemaster'' in 1590, John Willis's ''Art of Stenography'' in 1602, Edmond Willis's ''An abbreviation of writing by character'' in 1618, and [[Thomas Shelton (stenographer)|Thomas Shelton]]'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 [[Isaac Newton]] in some of his notebooks.<ref>{{citation |author=[[Richard S. Westfall]] |title=Notes and records of the Royal Society, Volume 18, Issue 1 |year=1963|pages=10–16|publisher=Royal Society |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SGQSAAAAIAAJ |chapter=Short-Writing and the State of Newton's Conscience, 1662}}</ref> 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 Rich]]'s system of 1654, which was published under various titles including ''The penns dexterity compleated'' (1669). Rich's system was used by [[George Treby (judge)|George Treby]] chairman of the House of Commons Committee of Secrecy investigating the [[Popish Plot]].<ref>McKenzie, Andrea. "Secret Writing and the [[Popish Plot]]: Deciphering the Shorthand of Sir George Treby." ''Huntington Library Quarterly'' 84, no. 4 (2021): 783-824.</ref>  Another English shorthand system creator of the 17th century was William Mason ([[floruit|fl.]] 1672–1709) who published ''Arts Advancement'' in 1682.

[[File:Heinrich Roller Grabstein.jpg|thumb|upright|Tombstone of [[Heinrich Roller]], inventor of a [[German language|German]] shorthand system, with a sample of his shorthand]]

Modern-looking geometric shorthand was introduced with [[John Byrom]]'s ''New Universal Shorthand'' of 1720. [[Samuel Taylor (stenographer)|Samuel Taylor]] published a [[Taylor shorthand|similar system]] in 1786, the first English shorthand system to be used all over the English-speaking world. [[Thomas Gurney (shorthand writer)|Thomas Gurney]] published ''Brachygraphy'' in the mid-18th century. In 1834 in [[Germany]], [[Franz Xaver Gabelsberger]] published his [[Gabelsberger shorthand]]. Gabelsberger based his shorthand on the shapes used in German cursive handwriting rather than on the geometrical shapes that were common in the English stenographic tradition.
[[File:קצרנות בשפת יידיש.jpg|thumb|[[Yiddish]] shorthand]]
[[File:שיטות קצרנות בשפה העברית.jpg|thumb|[[Hebrew]] shorthand]]
Taylor's system was superseded by [[Pitman shorthand]], first introduced in 1837 by English teacher [[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 language|Latin]].{{citation-needed|date=November 2021}} Pitman's system uses a [[phonemic orthography]]. 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 [[vowel]] sounds are optional when only consonants are needed to determine a word. The availability of a full range of vowel symbols, however, makes complete accuracy possible. Isaac's brother Benn Pitman, who lived in [[Cincinnati]], Ohio, was responsible for introducing the method to America. The record for fast writing with Pitman shorthand is 350 [[wpm]] during a two-minute test by Nathan Behrin in 1922.<ref>{{cite web | work = The new York times |url= https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/12/30/102911691.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180926234747/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/12/30/102911691.pdf |archive-date=2018-09-26 |url-status=live |title=New World's Record for Shorthand Speed | date = December 30, 1922}}</ref>

In the [[United States]] and some other parts of the world, it was largely superseded by [[Gregg shorthand]], which was first published in 1888 by [[John Robert Gregg]]. 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.<ref>{{cite web|title= Guide to the John Robert Gregg Papers | work = Manuscripts and Archives Division | publisher = [[New York Public Library]]|url= http://legacy.www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/rbk/faids/greggj.pdf|date=27 July 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110727084212/http://legacy.www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/rbk/faids/greggj.pdf |archive-date=27 July 2011}}</ref> 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'.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://archive.org/stream/scriptphonograph00maloiala#page/10/mode/2up |title=Script phonography| via = Archive |url-status=live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160306205113/http://www.archive.org/stream/scriptphonograph00maloiala#page/10/mode/2up|archive-date=2016-03-06}}</ref>

Andrew J. Graham was a phonotypist operating in the period between the emergence of Pitman's and Gregg's systems. In 1854 he published a short-lived (only 9 issues) phonotypy journal called ''The Cosmotype,'' subtitled ''"devoted to that which will entertain usefully, instruct, and improve humanity"'',<ref>{{Cite journal |title=The Cosmotype | volume =1 | number = 1–9 |url= https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/cosmotype-Vol-vol-Graham-Andrew-J/30364474019/bd |access-date=2022-11-08 | via = Abe books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | via = NYPL |url= https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/bib/b15415610 |title=The Cosmotype: devoted to that which will entertain usefully, instruct, and improve humanity |editor-last=Graham |editor-first=Andrew J. |location=New York}}</ref> and several other monographs about phonography.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book | via = World catalogue |last=Westby-Gibson |first=John |url= https://worldcat.org/title/2032721 |title=The Bibliography of Shorthand |publisher=I. Pitman & Sons |year=1887 |location=London}}</ref> In 1857 he published his own Pitman-like "Graham's Brief Longhand" that saw wide adoption in the United States in the late 19th century.<ref name= ":0" /> He published a translation of the New Testament. His method landed him in a 1864 copyright infringement lawsuit against Benn Pitman in Ohio.<ref name=":0" /> Graham died in 1895 and was buried in Montclair's [[Rosedale Cemetery (Orange, New Jersey)|Rosedale Cemetery]]; even as late as 1918 his company Andrew J. Graham & Co continued to market his method.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sexton |first= Chandler |title=Graham's Business Shorthand. An Arrangement of Graham's Standard or American Phonography for High and Commercial Schools |publisher=Andrew J. Graham & Co |year=1916 |location=New York}}</ref>

In his youth, [[Woodrow Wilson]] had mastered the Graham system and even corresponded with Graham in Graham. Throughout his life, Wilson continued to develop and employ his own Graham system writing, to the point that by the 1950s, when the Graham method had all but disappeared, Wilson scholars had trouble interpreting his shorthand. In 1960 an 84-year-old anachronistic shorthand expert Clifford Gehman managed to crack Wilson's shorthand, demonstrating on a translation of Wilson's acceptance speech for the 1912 presidential nomination.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jackson |first=James O. |date=January 21, 1974 |title=Presidential Papers Snarl Began in 1797 |work=[[The Chicago Tribune]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=February 8, 1960 |title=People |url= https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,828640-2,00.html |work =[[Time Magazine]]}}</ref>