Shorthand - what is it? Basics and signs of shorthand

Almost every one of us has heard or met in the literature this mysterious word - "shorthand". What is this and what is needed, few know, and very few people have tried to master it. And this, it turns out, is an extremely useful thing for a person not only of the past, an uncomputed age, but also of the modern.

Shorthand is the ability to record information very quickly with the help of special symbols. In other words, this is a speedy recording of human speech at the time of its utterance. There will be a puzzling: why to have such a skill? However, students, and even students, he would be useful in lectures, where the teacher does not particularly care about whether the listener is able to write down everything that is necessary.

About the appearance of shorthand

The symbols of shorthand, which can be considered the first or one of the first, were found among the monuments of Egyptian civilization. The Egyptians invented their own cursive writing. With her help, the holy Pharaoh words were recorded. Shorthands (as a convenient way of recording) paid attention to other ancient civilizations. So, the Greeks and Romans, very observant and striving for perfection, also actively used special signs for the fastest fixation of valuable knowledge. It is precisely the period of Ancient Rome and Greece attributed to the flourishing of stenography. According to historical data, the ancient Roman shorthand was created by Tyrone, the assistant to the great orator of Cicero.

Ancient Roman shorthand, whose signs numbered almost 5,000 units, was difficult to master. If the modern shorthand is alphabetic, that is, each symbol means a certain letter, then the ancient system was a word, that is, one sign denoted a word. Therefore, it was extremely difficult to study it.

The official birthday of the stenographic letter is December 5, 63 BC. E. - The time Tiron worked on his system of signs.

Interesting from the history of shorthand

Thanks to the shorthand method of writing, today we have the opportunity to read the works of William Shakespeare. The competitors of the theater of the famous and successful already then the playwright were sent to his performances of stenographers, so that they recorded verbatim dramas right at the time of the performance. And, no matter how protested the author of the dramatic works, they were written down, and it was thanks to this that they reached us. At that time shorthand was still verbal.

But the letter shorthand appeared after the events in the "Globe". John Wills created an alphabetical system in which each shorthand symbol was attached to the sign of the alphabet. From that moment a new era of shorthand development began, much simpler and easier to learn.

A well-known zoologist, Alfred Brehm, wrote with the help of shorthand information his book Animal Life. Studying animals in their natural environment, he did not have all the conditions for ordinary writing. In the field, on the road, for example, riding a horse, he used the language of stenography to keep a diary. When enough information was gathered, Brem sent a diary to his wife, and she decrypted the records and handed them over for printing. From this example we see that shorthand helped people not only to record in the most extreme conditions.

Shorthand in Russia

At the time of the appearance of the cursive in Russia, there was no more or less complete system of shorthand. In the 15th century, people's canticles were recorded in Pskov and Novgorod. In the 17th century, shorthand was used with the first Romanov tsars. Peter the Great also often resorted to the help of stenographers.

Great Russian writers recognized the superiority of speedy writing before the simple. Among them are F. B. Dostoyevsky and L. N. Tolstoy. Full recognition was also from the Russian scientists N. Ye. Zhukovsky and D. I. Mendeleyev. The works of these great men were composed of stenographically recorded lectures.

In the days of tsarist Russia, only a few knew shorthand. Such specialists were mainly in large cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Minsk.

The Soviet period was marked by the fact that a small group of stenographers worked on recording the historical events of October, for which in the future received the approval of famous figures. Later this method of writing became more in demand, as it became clear that with its help any written work becomes at times more effective. For science it was an invaluable help.

Types of shorthand

The shorthand systems existing at the moment are subdivided according to several features: by the features of the visual inscription of the signs and depending on which unit of speech the single sign of the system stands for (word, morpheme, sound). According to one of them, the systems belong to italic or geometrical, morphological or phonetic - according to another sign.

Cursive and Geometrical Systems

In geometrical systems, stenographic signs are formed from geometric figures: a circle and semicircles, a point and a straight line. Cursive systems are signs formed from parts of the letters of the usual alphabet, inclined to the right and having an oval in their base. Italic signs are considered to be more aesthetic and comfortable in the outline.

Signs in italic and geometric systems are relatively diverse in their outlines: the lines are more subtle, or less, the signs have different heights, sizes, slopes. Therefore, records made with the help of such systems are more pleasant and easier to read.

Morphological and phonetic systems

Morphological systems are characteristic of Western countries, because in their languages the established order of words, respectively, the meaningful parts of sentences have an unchangeable position. The proposals of the Russian language are dynamic, so the morphological system of shorthand in it has not gained popularity. Instead of an inadequate language, the system was offered an alternative, called phononography.

Phonostenography (phonetic systems) is represented by the shorthand system of Terne-Alexandrova. It is a way of fast recording of speech in different languages, using for this purpose special signs. Signs of the system form a phraigraph - a sign designating the whole sentence.

The alphabet of Patkanova-Alexandrova contains 40 characters, which make it possible to take into account the meaning of the sentence in the recording, regardless of the language in which the speech is presented. In these two systems, conditional reductions are not taken into account. This feature helps to master faster phrasalography - one of the systems that includes shorthand. Signs of phonetic systems in general represent a more accessible skill for mastering.

Modern tendencies

Shorthand, whose training is not so common as the usual language, as well as all the language systems of the world, strives for simplification, in order to make it easier for users to apply and master it. It strives to unite all systems together on the basis of rational considerations. The goal of the transformation and development of cursive writing is the unification of all systems in order to achieve conciseness, richness and universality.

Today shorthand studies use scientific methods and connections with other sciences, primarily with research on the physiological characteristics of human speech. If earlier, in past centuries, the creators of stenographic systems acted at their own discretion, now innovations are introduced taking into account the peculiarities of the use of language by a person. Another important factor is that when changing the census system from one language to another, there is always a need for its changes. This greatly complicates the creation of a universal system.

About signs of shorthand

We have already learned what shorthand is, what are different cursive systems. Also, their main differences were disassembled. But the signs of shorthand for the Russian language have their own interesting features.

Visually they consist of parts of the familiar alphabet. They are easily and beautifully connected with each other. Even with a quick letter to the stenographer it is important to remember that the signs should not be distorted.

They denote vowels and consonant letters of the alphabet, but their writing is very specific. Vowels are not written between consonants, but are placed only at the end, at the beginning of a word or separately. The consonants are also connected according to special rules, and depending on this they can be read or not read.

Writing shorthand symbols

In an unusual way, writing of stenographic signs with respect to a line occurs. There are three levels of writing: in the line, above and below the line. The levels change depending on how the signs are connected. The connections themselves are always short, because the most important thing in cursive writing is the simplicity for the speed of recording. In addition, thanks to short connections, the recording is compact, and this is also important.

Now that there is enough information about such a sign system as shorthand, what it is and how it has evolved over time - we represent. Also there is an idea of how it was used before. But now the era is quite different than when shorthand was more common. Where is the shorthand system used today?

Shorthand in our time

The urgency of the shorthanding of information is preserved in our time. Studies have shown that human speech is five times faster than the ability to record it manually, and writing a person can only do about 20 words per minute, while saying about 100-120.

Getting the skills of fast writing today would be useful in the work of secretaries-referents, students, high school students, journalists who prefer manual entries - to all people who need to write something quickly and accurately, for example, at lectures, seminars, press conferences And other public appearances. For students, stenography of information can have another, extremely important application - writing cheat sheets. They turn out to be compact and incomprehensible to others, therefore, even when found, cheat sheets can simply not be recognized as such.

The advantages of shorthand knowledge are not limited to the convenience of quick fixation of speech. Mastering the skills of writing speedily saves time and effort, improves the quality of work. In addition, it is proved that shorthanding develops thinking, the ability to clearly and meaningfully formulate their thoughts.

How to learn shorthand

Today, there is nothing difficult in mastering the useful skills that shorthand gives. Training can take only a few weeks. If possible, you can sign up for special courses. Here, professional stenographers will introduce you to the basics of shorthand and teach you how to do it yourself.

You do not need any special training to attend shorthand. The only thing that is required of you is a presence, readiness to learn and writing accessories (notebook, pen or pencil). With a shallow study of shorthand, you can learn to write 60-70 words per minute (instead of 20 words in ordinary language), and if you study seriously, then 100-120 words per minute. Great results will no longer be so urgent, because people do not speak with greater speed.

The stenographic record seems unusual for a beginner. At the beginning of training it is always difficult to get used to the new principles of writing, however after a certain number of hours of practice, it usually gets used to it.

Lows of shorthand writing

For all positive moments, shorthand is not ideal. With very fast recording, there is always the risk of writing characters so that it will be extremely difficult to disassemble them later.

A more serious shortcoming of cursive writing is that it practically does not adhere to spelling rules. The simplest example is writing in the prefixes "a" instead of "o" because the connection with "a" is easier. To compose verbatim notes for your own use, this does not pose any inconvenience. However, this principle of writing can be so used that you continue to adhere to it when you need to write in plain language. After all, no one in it has canceled spelling.

New direction

For centuries, people were only available in the classical, hand-written shorthand. What it is, we have already studied in detail. But now there is a new look. What is computer shorthand and what is it created for, if modern technologies have many other ways of fast recording of speech?

First of all, this system concerns the field of information security. For a long time after the discovery of this direction, it did not develop a single terminology. Different concepts were created, and in the end, the main difference was from cryptography: if the latter implies the encryption of information, then the concealment of the very fact of its transmission is the task that shorthand solves. Programs of varying complexity are designed for this purpose. Simple and affordable in terms of use, and at the same time free of charge, - Fox Secret 1.00. With it, you can hide information in popular text formats, graphics and sound. As a result, the user receives a container with hidden information. The file in which it was hiding is naturally increased in size. From the container, information is retrieved using a password.

conclusions

Shorthand is a way of quickly recording information that has been used for many centuries. It evolved and transformed until our time, until such a system was created that could meet the needs of many languages, and be compact and easy to learn. This development of shorthand, like any other language, did not stop, because much more needs to be done to make it become even more universal. It is to this that all the stenographers of our day aspire.

We understood the basic concepts that include shorthand, what it is and for what it would be necessary for us in life, learned about classifications of stenographic systems, the features of their signs and connections.

Now that we have an idea of this unusual for us system of writing, we can weigh all the arguments in favor of doing it. We hope that our article was informative and useful for you.