Shorthand: Summary Index

Now that I’m feeling more comfortable with the raw notations of shorhand and many of its core abbreviations, I’m working to understand some of the more advanced concepts and abbreviations (intersection, “k” for con-, cum-, contr- prefix, etc.)

To help things out, I thought I’d create a table that logs what happens in many of these core “statements” of the Anniversary edition. I love the way the Gregg is written, it reminds me of my logic book or my Latin grammars (dating from the same era) where rules were given with identifying numbers and very little else. They didn’t do a lot of text in _text_books of that era.

Location	Type	Summary
1	General	Shorthand is written by sound
2	Letter	Inventory of consonants
3	General	Writing motion
4	General	Phrasing of short forms allows for speed and is permissible
5	Punctuation	Period, Paragraph, Interrogation, Dash, Hyphen, Parenthesis
6	Drill
7	Letter	a and e
8	General	Marking vowels
9	General	Writing motion
10	General	Left motion versus right motion
11	Joining	At the beginning or end of a curve, the circle is placed inside the curve
12	Motion	At the beginning or end of a line, circle is written with right motion
13	Practice
14	Joining	Where an angle or a point is formed at 2 consonants, circle goes outside; its leftmost extreme rotating counterclockwise to “free” it
15	Joining	Where two straight strokes, or similar motions join, retain flushness of the circle
16	Omission	Non-contributing vowels may be dropped (although this is rather arbitrary — sgh)
17	Motion	Between straight strokes, circles are joined with right motion
18	Joining	Between opposite curves, the circle is bent back on the first curve
19	Joining	kr and gl are equal length curves and have their “ess” flattened
20	Joining	gr and kl, uneven lengths, look like cursive y and h
21	Joining	rk and lk, even lengths, look flattened
22	Letter	th is curved and, so common, takes a left curve and a right curve
23	Brief Forms	Preliminary List
24	Business Abbreviations	Mr., Market (mr) & Yours Truly (yt) & Dear Sir, desire (ds)
25	Practice
26	Blended Consonant: d, t	d and t blend thus: ded, ted, det
27	Blended Consonant: m,n	men, mem, min, and mun
28	Frequent Word Drill
29	Brief Forms
30	Phrasing Principles
31	Phrase Drill
32	Reading Practice
33	Writing Practice
34	Downward Characters
35	Downward Characters	s and sh are very short
36	Important Blendings
37	Important Blendings	pr, pl
38	Important Blendings	br, bl
39	Important Blendings	fr, fl
40	Frequent Word Drill
41	Brief Forms
42	Brief Forms	As prefixes: every and after are shortened from their normal word usage to ev and af
43	Brief Forms	been after a helping verb is abbreviated with b
44	Business Abbreviations	Dear Madam (dm); Very truly yours (vyu); Yours very truly (uvt)
45	Reading Practice
46	THE SIGN FOR s	Two motions: right-s and left-s
47	THE SIGN FOR z	Use s, but if you need to show, a down left dash underneath means ‘z’
48	S and the line of writing	When ’s’ opens a word, before a consonant, the consonant starts on the line of writing
49	INITIAL AND FINAL S	MEMORIZE: Before and After: PBRL; After: TDNMO (Lauren drinks PBR with Ted (Cruz) and Mo Tucker)
50	Frequent Word Drill
51	S BETWEEN STROKES	MEMORIZE: When a circle vowel precedes ’s’, treat the ’s’ as part of the previous consonant; when a circle vowel follows an ’s’, treat the ’s’ as part of it
52	Blend	“ses” sound is a blend of two ’s’ tokens; this is poorly explained in the book: the secret is follow the rule for placing your final ’s’ and then after it put the opposite s. Consider ‘case’ which ends with a left-s, therefore add a right-s; consider ‘senses’ here the ’n’ occasions left-s and then right-s
53	Brief Form List
54	Abbreviation	-thing is expressed by ·
55	Rule	Plural of a brief form ending in ’s’ requires you simply to double the previous motion
56	Practice
57	Letter	‘x’ is expressed by ’s’ with a modified slant (closer to horizontal)
58	Abbreviation	-shun is expressed by ‘ish’ or /
59	Abbreviation	Past tense is expressed by a disjoint t, else a t, d, or disjoint d
60	Brief Form List
61	Rule	Brief forms can be prefixes
62	Frequent Phrases
63	Practice
64	Practice
65 (Here: 2019-03-16)	Letter	The “O”-Hook: rot / raw / wrote
66	Frequent Word
67	Rule	IMPORTANT: O-hook before n, m, r, l modifies to a 1 o’clock dip aligned o
68	Frequent Phrases
69	Brief Form List
70	Practice
71	Rule	Before and after straight consonants or between straight consonants, a left-motion vowel indicates vowel + r
72	Note
73	Frequent Word
74	Rule	Pluralize left-motion vowels by making them loops
75	Brief Form List
76	Abbreviation	After abbreviated words OR those ending with left motion strokes, disjoined r expresses “-er,” “-or”
77	Practice
78	(Here: 2019-04-29) Rule	Before and after o,r,l use left-motion th
79	Note
80	Abbreviation	con, com, coun, cog → k
80	Abbreviation	ly → small circle à la e
80	Abbreviation	-ily, -ally → loop
81	Abbreviation	‘common’, ‘connote’ are very long mm and nn
82	Abbreviation	After a circle vowel, -ly is a small loop opposite
83	Some brief forms ending in a loop are pluralized by s at the terminus of the loop
84	Abbreviation	Phrasing Before words beginning with (1) a downward character or (2) o, r, l the word ’to’ is expressed by t
85	Abbreviation	Phrasing in phrases ‘as’ is s
86	Abbreviation	Phrasing in phrases ‘able’ is a
87	Frequent Phrases
88	Brief Form List
88	Practice
89	Practice
90	Practice
91	Letter	The OO Hook
92	Frequent Word
93	Brief Form List	The combination us is written without an angle at the beginning of words, or when it follows a downstroke or k, g, as in us, shoes, campus, cousin, etc.
94	Abbreviation	OO-hook is turned under (1) after -n, -m OR (2) -k, -g when followed by -r, -l
95	Brief Form List
96	Practice
97	Letter	METHOD OF “W”
98	Word Drill
99	Letter	W in Words: a dash beneath the following vowel
100	Rule	W before h or a or u is a · close to the next character
101	Frequent Phrases
102	Brief Forms
103	Practice
104	Letter	Y Y has the sound of the long e, as in yacht, yoke, and when followed by a hook vowel is expressed by the small circle. Ye, as in year, yet, is expressed by a small loop; ya, by a large loop.
105	Letter	-NG and -NK are two slants like \
106	Abbreviation	The vowel is omitted in the prefixes en, in, un, em, im when the prefix is followed by a consonant
106	Abbreviation	The suffix ings is expressed by a left s
106	Abbreviation	Suffix ingly by a small circle substituted for the ing-dot
107	Abbreviation	Negative words beginning with in, un, im in which the n or m is doubled are distinguished from the positive forms by omitting one of the doubled consonants and inserting the initial vowel
108	Frequent Phrases
109	Brief Forms
110	Practice
111	Practice
112	Letter(Here: 2019-08-12)	DIPTHONGS: FUME: e with a w
112	Letter	DIPTHONGS: NOW: a with a w
112	Letter	DIPTHONGS: OIL: u with a long right arm to an e
112	Letter	DIPTHONGS: DIE: Big I
113	Drill
114	Rule	Life, line, quite, might, use a big circle for their e
115	Brief Forms
116	Rule	When word forms end with the diphthong i, the double circle is used to express the diphthong and the termination ly
117	Practice
118	Rule	When vowels follow each other, do the natural thing
119	Rule	Any vowel following the diphthong i is expressed by a small circle within the large circle e.g. ‘science’
120	Rule	Short i followed by a, as in mania, is expressed by a large circle with a dot placed within it; e followed by the large circle vowel, as in create, is expressed by a large circle with a dash in it. These distinctions are seldom necessary, however:
121	Rule	Drop minor vowels
122	Brief Forms
123	Practice
124	Abbreviation (Here: 2019-11-15)	In the body of a word short u and ow are omitted before n and m, and short u before straight downstrokes.
125	Rule	Between n-n, ow is indicated by a jog, as in announce; short u is inserted between n-n, n-m, as in nun and numb; moun is expressed by the men blend, as in mountain.
126	Rule	The u is omitted in the termination sume
127	Abbreviation	The syllables per, pro, pur, are expressed by pr
127	Abbreviation	The syllable ble, by b
127	Abbreviation	The syllable ple, by p
127	Abbreviation	The syllable ment, by m
128	Rule	When pro occurs before an upward character or k, it is more convenient to insert the vowel, as in:
129	Rule	Two or more simple prefixes may be joined
130	Brief Forms
131	Practice
132	Practice
133	Letters	BLENDED CONSONANTS: nt → a swoop up and right; nd a longer swoop
134	Letters	Length of blends
135	Word Drill
136	Abbreviation	The combination ld is expressed by giving l a swinging upward turn at the finish
137	Rule	Days and Months
138	Brief Forms
139	Practice
140	Letter	BLENDS: JENT / PENT; DEF / TIVE: Up horseshoe, down horseshoe
141	Word Drill
142	Business forms
143	Brief forms
144	Practice
145	Abbreviation	The vowel is omitted in the syllables be, de, re, dis, and mis
146	Abbreviation	The vowel is retained when de precedes k and g, as in decay and degrade.
147	Abbreviation	The vowel in re is omitted only before a downward character, as in replace, repent, review, repair, resign, and reception
148	Rule	Phrasing is a thing
149	Rule	he phrases was-not and is-not are expressed easily and legibly by using the blending principle:
150	Brief Forms
151	Practice
152	Practice
153	Letter	BLENDS: By blending t or d with n or m → ten/den ; tem/dem
154	Word Drill
155	Rule	Don’t use blends when vowel is strong
156	Rule	Prefer right motion
157	Rule	Phrasing
158	Abbreviation	When do-not is preceded by a pronoun, use den
159	Rule	don't can be expressed by d-o-n
160	Practice
161	Abbreviation	METHOD OF EXPRESSINAGA ‘R’: A circle or loop is written with the left motion to express r following the vowel.
162	Word Drill
163	Rule	Between a horizontal and an upward stroke the circle is turned with a left motion on the upward stroke to express r following the vowel
164	Rule	Before straight lines, s in ser, cer, sar, and th in ther, thir, may be written contrary to the usual method of joining to express r
165	Rule	In many words containing ar, er, or, ir, as in the words large, serve, warm, sort, firm, circle, and corner, the r is omitted
166	Word Drill
167	Abbreviation	The termination worthy, as in noteworthy and trustworthy, is expressed by thi; worth, by uth, thus:
168	Abbreviation	he syllable ther, as in either and other, is conveniently expressed by the sign for th
169	Practice
170	Abbreviation	for, fore, and fur are expressed by f
170	Abbreviation	The suffixes ful and ify are expressed by f
170	Abbreviation	Suffix self by s
170	Abbreviation	Suffix selves by ses
170	Abbreviation	Suffix age by j
171	Rule	In phrases, the words ago, early, few, him, hope, sorry, want, sure, and possible are modified
172	Practice
173	Practice
174	Rule	When slightly enunciated, t is omitted at the end of many words.
175	Drill
176	Drill
177	Practice

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