1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



695 



SHORT LONG-HAND. 



Something for Those who are Burdened with 

 Heavy Correspondence. 



SOME SENSIBLE SUGGESTIONS IN REGARD TO CUT- 

 TING OFF USELESS LETTERS IN OUR LANGUAGE. 



tE clip the following from one of our 

 county papers:— 

 By the application of seven simple rules, a 

 larg-e part of the labor, time, and vexation of 

 the pen-user is saved, also the reader's time; 

 for when words r (are) abbreviated the eye can take 

 in more at a glance. Letters standing- alone, as u 

 for you, r more legible than words. We easily read 

 the a & I of the worst scribe, because the form of 

 the letter is not changed by joining with others. 

 This is why ordinary print is so much plainer than 

 even engraved script. 



The nveraffc penman writing seven hours a day writes "the" 

 700 times .V MviiMl otlii-r words nearly as frequently. Some 

 of the.«e w.irils occur IIKIO times as otten as words to which 

 abbrevintiuns have Idhj;; been given. The frequent recurrence 

 iif 20 words makes u]> H of English. These words repr^s'^nted 

 by single letter-" would b (be) as plain as a & I, & would effect 

 enormous economy of time & save many millions of dollars 

 annually in printing. They occur so frequently that reading 

 a few pages of a book thus printed Axes them in the memory. 

 We write I instead of ei or eye; why not u.you: r, are; &, 

 and; b, be.etc.J Script circulates most among the intelligent 

 classes, yet 99 persons write "you"' 90,000 times a year for fear 

 1 dull person will not understand u. Better for the 1 dull per- 

 son to ask some 1 to help him read. Even the majority of ed- 

 itors still write y-o-u & a-n-d altho the printers would under- 

 stand u and &. 



These word signs (u, r, &, etc.) we call arbitraries, 

 but most of the brevity of to (tonoscribing) results 

 from the rules for omitting the letter e wherever it 

 has its short sound (as in get) ; & from the omission 

 of silent and useless letters as ot, ought, tho, though. 

 These two rules alone cut down about '-:, of the 

 words in the language. E is not omitted where it 

 begins a word unless followed by x. 



Rule 1. Omit short e except where it begins a 

 word or accented sylable: tl, tell; Itr, letter; evr, 

 ever. But c is always omitted before x ; xtra, extra. 

 The rules r not applied to words v infrequent oc- 

 currence. 



If you wish to commence using fo in your daily 

 work, without preliminary practice, u should take 1 

 rule at a time & pay no regard to others till u have 

 acquired the habit v (of) applying that rule to all 

 words which it covers. In practicing on fo with 

 printed matter (as already recommended), u should 

 read 1 rule carefully; go over the printed matter 

 applying to it; then another rule & so on. 



Rule 3. Omit useless letters; tho, though; ot, 

 ought; laf, laugh; hi, high; vu, view; thru, through; 

 wa, weigh. 



Illustrations v useless letters. H is everywhere 

 omitted after x, xaust. H is omitted after c where 

 c has the sound v k. caractei-, character. C7 is ev- 

 erywhere omitted after q. Ql, quell; qil, quill. 7v 

 is everywhere omitted after c. Loc, lock ; stic, stick. 

 B is silent in many w^ords. Dout, doubt; dt, debt. 



O is generally silent in final unaccented syllables 

 when preceded by a consonant. Buttn, button; 

 ben, beckon. There is no more sound of o in prison 

 than in prism. (See W^ebsfer or Wood.) 



This leads to omit as useless any vowel before m, 

 n, r, I, or sh in any unaccented syllable, unless the 

 vowel begins the word. 



To .remember m, n, r, 1, think v the word minrl 

 (mineral). Examples: Colm, column; ben, beckon; 

 rumr, rumor; morl, moral. 



Only 1 syllable in a word is considered as accent- 

 ed; a secondary accent is disregarded. 



Words V 1 syllable r accented syllables. Words r 

 governed by their primitives; we omit a in moral, 

 hence it is also omitted in morlity (m(irality), altho 

 it is in an accented syllable in iiKirality. Many fo- 

 noscribes do not omit anything but short c. 



It is not considered advisable at present to change 

 who, whose, whom, hour, & a few other words carry- 

 ing dead letters. Ai, ei, oo (as in vain, veil, moon, 

 soon) r left undisturbed. 



A good many who write our system do not follow 

 rules 3, 4, & 5, but u r earnestly recommended to do 

 so. They make writing more legible, as well as 

 briefer. 



Rule 3. Change ph to f wherever those letters 

 have the sound v F, fotograf , photograph. 



Rule 4. Change G to J wherever it has the sound 

 y J; hj, hedge; rij, ridge; juj, judge. D is silent 



before g, but can not be omitted unless g is changed 

 toj. 



Rule .5. The plural v words ending in y is formed 

 by adding s, ponj', ponys. Y is also retained in the 

 comparative and superlative degree v adjectives, 

 as holy, holyr, holyst, & in the past tense v verbs; 

 hurrj'd, hurried. 



There are two reasons for this rule. 1st, The im- 

 pulse is to add s to y as the plural is generally so 

 formed. 2d, y suggests the short sound v i, because 

 it rarely, at the end v a syllable, has any other 

 sound. But i is as likely to b long as short. Hence 

 if we, instead v ponys, holyst, etc., shd write ponis, 

 holist, it would not be so suggestive. 



Rule 6. Any vowel before nd, ng, nk, or nt is 

 omitted unless it begins a word or is preceded by 

 another vowel; hnd, hand; sng, sing; bnk, bank; 

 wnt, want. 



Rule 7. Omit all vowels from any unaccented syl- 

 lable or any word v 1 syllable, which, in the singu- 

 lar, has 4 or more consonants, thnk, think. 



This in some cases produces an outline which rep- 

 resents 3 words, but the connection shows which 

 word is intended. The word box has in English 8 

 different meanings, & many words have several 

 meanings. 



The following is the list v arbitraries which exper- 

 iment has shown can b read without previous ex- 

 planation : 



&, and; abt, about; b, be;bt, but; bn, been; en, 

 can; e, the; f, if ; 4, for; frm, from; gd, good;gv, 

 give; hd, had; hm, him; hv, have; hs, has, his; n, 

 in; nt, not; r, are. or; t, it; tht, that; 3, to, too; thn, 

 than, then; thr, there, their; ths, this; u, you; ur, 

 your; 1, will; mch, much; sch, such; upn, upon; 

 ws, was; wht, what; wh, which; whr, where; wth, 

 with; y, why; yr, year; cd, could; shd, should; wd, 

 would; z, as, is. Notice the single-letter abbrevia- 

 tions: &, and; b, be; e, the; f, if; 4, for; n, in; r, 

 are, or; t, it; 3, to, too; u, you; 1, will; y, why; z, 

 as, is. 



V these, n, ui ; t,it; I, will; z,as, is, r the least 

 suggestive, but when any v them is pronounced 

 with the preceding word, the word it "stands" for is 

 indicated. Thus, hc'l (he will); she'l (she will); thcy'l 

 (they will); ijo'n the house (go in the house); he'z go- 

 ing (he is going) ; do't now (do it now). In reading 

 fo u should not pronounce the word u think any v 

 these letters may "stand" for, but merely utt^r the 

 ordinatTj soimdv that letter. For instance, u do not 

 say 2, but give utterance to the huzzing smindvz. 

 This sound indicates as or is equallj' well, but the 

 name v Z would not. But with ti and r one must ut- 

 ter the name v the letter. In reading fo 1 never 

 reads "will u go or not?" but "will u go r not?" 



A period after an abbreviation is useless, because 

 those who know the abbreviation will know it with- 

 out a period. It is not only useless but misleading, 

 especially in matter printed entirely in capitals. 

 Many paragraphs need to be printed in capitals, & 

 thousands v the w ritiiig machines now rapidly com- 

 ing into use can not \n-int anything else. It is often 

 impossible to tell whether or not the period after 

 the abbreviation is intended to end the sentence. 



A punctuation point is useless after a skip or 

 drop, as the skip indicates a pause. Thus we write 

 J G BLAINE ESQ 



Do- Sr 

 Vr cstemd favr rcevd 



Urs truly 



.iNo A Logan. 



SAMPLE OF SHORT LONG-HAND. 



Some persons alter rcdng a litl v fo sa, "T wd tak 

 me som tim :.' f;t fniilr wth al e wrds." Most v e 

 wrds wh mak u]) onlnry spch ocr so ofn tht a f u 

 hours red nji inaks thm fmilr. A list v 800 wrds wh 

 u en red n 4 mints maks up 4-.5 ordnry English. F u 

 shd rit al otlu- w ids n ful vi wd stil efct grat savng. 



V (of) shd be mad smal & lik a prnt v (an invrtd 

 caret.) Ths /, phiinst & "qicst." U shd drop al 

 "curlicus," wh dmnsli sped & impair Ijibility. Ritng 

 wh 7. nerst "strt up \- down" (vrticl) z plainst. 



Evi-y divinity, law \- mdicl seool shd tech som sys- 

 tni \- lad' Inji-lmd. I.t ech pupl rit a sntnc n e blac- 



Bijsiniss colleges, instd v gving pupis a parshl 

 eoiirs n fonoyrat.w altr wh, n most coljs, nt 1 n 50 en 

 rt t at e spedv'tiil lnf,'--linil, shd tech e authrs r 

 rportrs styl v to v som otlii- .systm v bref Ing-hnd. A 

 LITL FONOGKAKV 7. \ I'si.sTHNG, bt a sngl rul r 

 abreviashn basd on e ordnry alfabt speds e pnmu. 

 He wd hv 3 liv anothr lit 3 becom z familr wth an- 

 othr alfabt z he z wth tht he hs usd frm infncy. F 



