A Manual Of Linear Shorthand

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Excerpt from Manual of Linear Shorthand, Vol. 1: An Original Scientific Alternating System This system is described as an original Scientific Alternating System. Perhaps these terms require some explanation. Linear Shorthand was not founded, as most of its predecessors have been, upon some older system. It is based directly upon investigations undertaken by the author for the purpose of certain papers read before the Shorthand Society of London, under the title "The Science of Shorthand." These papers, which form the introduction to the present volume, were three in number, and dealt with an Analysis of the Sounds of Speech, an Analysis of the Signs of Writing, and with the rules and principles of their combination. Very early in the preparation of the second of these papers, in 1894, the author was led to the conviction that the best basis for a system of Shorthand was the "alternating" method, and he was led to abandon a system of the "cursive" or "script-geometrical" type which he was then using, and to formulate the alphabet and leading rules of Linear Shorthand. These were found to bear out the correctness of the principles upon which they were based by the manner in which they worked out in practice, and during the three years that the system has been in constant use, no change has been found necessary except in the smallest details. The Alternating method depends, as is explained on page 13, upon the alternation of significant downstrokes, or characters, and non-significant upstrokes, or liaisons. In Longhand, and in the English systems of Bordley, Roe, Oxley, Adams, &c., the upstrokes have no meaning whatever, and therefore the writing is somewhat lengthy. Gabelsberger in his system, published in Germany in 1831, first showed how the upstrokes, though unsuited to bearing any meaning in themselves, might be used to indicate the vowel sounds by modifying the relative positions of the consonants. The existing systems, however, formed on this plan are so irregular and unscientific that the principles which really underlie the method are rather concealed by them than elucidated, and it was therefore necessary to proceed ab initio, and discover, if possible, what there principles were, before the foundations of Linear Shorthand could be laid down. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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