416 



SHORTHAND 



mural that there is no error in the conclusion 

 to which he will be drought 



The number of pen-strokes and dots or short 

 vowel marks in the following specimen of reporting 

 in phonetic shorthand (Phon. Jour., 1st February 

 1879) is 425. The number of words which these 

 signs represent is 319, or 1J strokes per word : 



C f I-' " U?' ) 



JTw. An enterprising reporter had heard that the 

 late Lord Palmemton WM to be present at an archery 

 meeting in a smnll village in Hampshire, and lie accord- 

 ingly pouted down to the place, and waited for some- 

 thing to torn up. JjorA Palmeraton'ii tank was to 

 distribute prize* to tome half-doccn blaihing young 

 ldi, and the whole company prcwnt didn't number 

 much abore a aoore. HU lonUliip performed the task 

 witli hit uraal grace and good humour, giving the young 

 ladiea a paternal pat on the head, but making only the 

 inort oommonplaoe obcerrations. Our reporter waited 

 anxinnnly until, to hi horror, he saw the proceedings 

 brought to a clone without a iipeech from the Premier. 

 Thi wu more than he could iiUnd. He nmhed from 

 his corner to the noble lord, who wan getting out of the 

 room M fart a* he could : ' My lord, I beg your pardon. 



but really this will not do.' 'What do you mean?' was 

 the reply of the astonished statesman. 'Why, yon 'TO 

 made no speech ; I 've come all the way from London 

 to report it, and I must have a speech of some sort.' 

 Whereupon it is on record that the good-tempered old 

 gentleman turned back, and detained the audience for 

 twenty minutes while he gave them a genial dissertation 

 on the good qualities of English women in general, and 

 Hampshire lasses in particular. On another occasion, 

 however, he made up for thin. He was attending an agri- 

 cultural dinner, and saw a large gathering of reporters, 

 for the times were critical, and a speech of his certain 

 to be valuable. But he had made up his mind not to 

 speak no man knew better when to hold his tongue 

 and accordingly he slyly sent down to the 'gentlemen 

 of the press a slip of paper, on which, in his bold, 

 round hand, were the words : ' This fish won't bite !' 



\\V have seen that the pen can produce 1J strokes 

 per word uttered at the rate of 120 per minute. 

 The pen is therefore ahead of the speaker, and 

 in a hurst of oratory could record 2(X) words in 

 a minute. In this calculation the reporter has 

 the further advantage that this estimate is based 

 on the number of separate strokes which the pen 

 can make in a minute, whereas joined strokes can 

 be written more rapidly than single ones : thus 



take less time than 



&c. In the nl MI vi- specimen only 130 words are 

 written by single strokes, and the remaining 295 

 words or phrases (for several words are often linked 

 together in one shorthand outline) are composed 

 of from two to four strokes combined in one steno- 

 graphic form. 



Words can be recognised, either in longhand or 

 shorthand, by their consonants alone ; and the 

 simple strokes employed in shorthand to represent 

 the consonants may be placed in three positions, 

 above, on, or through the real or imaginary line on 

 which the writing is placed. The twelve simple or 

 pure vowels and five diphthongs in the English 

 language may be arranged in three classes, according 

 to the nature of the sounds, as below. The vowel 

 of any given won), or rather the class of vowels to 

 which it belonjfs, may therefore be understood by 

 the position which the consonant part of the word 

 takes with respect to the line. The alphabet of 

 phonography is : 



CONSONANTS. 



\ \ II / / 



p b t d ch j kg 



^V_ ( ( ) ) J J 



f v th th B z 

 (thin) (then) 



r ~\ ^ (np) ,-> ^ ^, 



VOWELS. 



I I I -I I i 



Long. I ah, ' | eh, ,| ee, | aw, -| oh, J 55 



palm pott peat pall bone pool 



ih zh 



Short | a, 

 pat 



pet 



.1 I, I -1 

 pit poll 



DrPBTHONOS. 



"I *. J * 



bun pull 



'I ei, ,| en, *| ou, | ai, | oi, | wl 

 pine new now ay (yei) boy vide 



The vowel and diphthong signs are the dots, dashes, 



