current-shorthand

Henry Sweet’s Current shorthand

Phonetic Current Shorthand

The Sounds of English
- Consonants
- Vowels
- Stress
The Alphabet
Contraction
Marks
Specimens

The Sounds of English

As the ordinary spelling of English does not always show its real pronunciation, it is necessary to use a phonetic spelling, which we enclose in (parentheses).

Sounds are classed as Vowels and Consonants.

Consonants

Consonants are classed according to the place in the mouth where they are formed as:

back: (k, g), (ng) in sing, think (thingk)
front: (y) in you
point (tongue-point): (t, d, n); (th) in thin, (dh) in then; (s, z); (sh), (zh) in measure; (r, l)
lip: (p, b, m; f, v; w).

By ‘form’ they are classed as:

stopped (stops): (k, g; t, d; p, b)
nasal: (ng, n m)
open: (th, dh; s, z; sh, zh; f, v), which are hiss-consonants, and (r, l; w, y) which are vowel-like consonants.

The stop and hiss consonants go in pairs of breath and voice consonants:

breath: k, t, p; th, s, sh, f
voice: g, d, b; dh, z, zh, v.

The nasals, vowel-like consonants, and vowels occur only voiced.

The vowel-like consonant (y) has nearly the same sound as the vowel (i), and (w) has nearly the same sound as (u) in full.

(h) is something between a breath vowel and a throat consonant.

Vowels

Vowels are short, long, and diphthongic. In phonetic spelling long vowels are doubled, except (ɔ) in fall, and diphthongs are expressed by writing two different vowels together.

In the following list some of the vowels are bracketed together in pairs of short and long; but in English the long vowels never have exactly the same sounds as any of the short vowels. Thus the vowel in sun, which we write (a), really has a sound between (aa) in father and (əə) in further. Sometimes the nearest approach to a long vowel is a diphthong.

a: as in sun, son (san)
aa: as in father, farther (faadhə)
ai: as in time (taim)
au: as in house (haus)
æ: as in man (mæn)
the bracketed pair:
- e: as in bred, bread (bred)
- ei: as in tale, tail (teil)
eə: as in there, their (dheə)
ə: as in together (təgedhə)
əə: as in fir, fur (fəə)
the bracketed pair:
- i: as in city (siti)
- ii: as in see, sea (sii)
the bracketed pair:
- iə: as in carrier (kæriə)
- iiə: as in here, hear (hiiə)
the bracketed pair:
- o: as in follow (folo)
- ɔ: as in fall (fɔl)
the bracketed pair:
- oə: as in narrower (næroə)
- ɔə: as in soar, sore (sɔə)
oi: as in boy (boi)
ou: as in no, know (nou)
the bracketed pair:
- u: as in full (ful)
- uu: as in too, two (tuu)
uuə: as in poor (puuə)

There are also triphthongs, ending in (ə), such as (aiə) in fire.

Stress

Syllables are uttered with three degrees of stress (loudness):

strong
medium
weak.

Thus in contradict the first syllable is medium, the second weak, the last strong. Strong stress is marked by (ˈ) before the beginning of the strong syllable, thus (kontrəˈdict). We call such vowels as (ə) ‘weak vowels,’ because they occur only in weak syllables.

The Alphabet

General Principles

Consonants are expressed by full-sized characters, such as (t), (s), vowels by small characters, as in city (siti). Some vowels, such as (i) , are written on the ‘high-mid’ level, others on the ‘low-mid’ level, such as (ai), as in (nait) night. Long vowels are expressed by lengthening, as in seen, scene (siin).

The only consonant that is written small is (L), expressed by low-mid before a vowel, as in (i) lit, (i) line, by high-mid after a vowel, as in (tail) tile.

The other consonants are distinguished by projection. ‘Short’ consonants, such as (t) , do not project at all. Of the ‘long’ consonants some are ‘high’, such as (b), some are ‘low’, such as (k), and some are ‘tall’, such as (tsh). Examples:

beat
sick
teach

If the vowel before or after a consonant is not written, the simple stroke is used to show the presence of a vowel – generally (e) or (ə): ate (et), (dh-siti) the city. [Note that the is generally run on to the following word.]

If two consonants come together without any vowel between, forming a ‘consonant-group,’ they are, if possible, joined together without any stroke between, as in bless, little, , being ‘ligatures.’

If this cannot be done, they are ‘crowded’ together as closely as possible, or written detached with the smallest possible space between, as in (bitn) written with crowded tn , (bitn) written with detached tn bitten, or else ‘grafted’ together, as in (ængshs) written with grafted ngsh anxious.

But many consonant-groups are expressed by simple characters, such as (tsh). Such groups as (st, ts) are expressed by joining the loop of the (s) directly on to the (t), as in stile, style, sits.

A consonant-character standing along is used as a ‘sign,’ that is, a contraction of some special word or of several words having the same sound: = to, too, two, = twice.

Some contractions are made by writing ‘in position’ – ‘raised’ or ‘lowered.’ Thus raised = it, raised ts = its, lowered n = than.

Letters and sounds are distinguished as initial, medial, and final, according as they occur at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word.

When we express short-hand outlines by ordinary letters, we use (-) to denote the stroke, as in dh-n = then.

Vowels

‘short stroke; long stroke’ (e, ə; ei): men, a pen; name. When the short stroke expresses (ə), it is written as short as possible. Medially, all weak vowels are expressed by the stroke, as in phonetic, settling.

The ‘low stroke’ is used to express (h), as in head, hit, because (h) is a kind of vowel.

Contractions:
- by itself, detached, = are, and occasionally a, which is generally distinguished from are by being joined to the following word in the same way as the.
- = how
‘high up-hook’ (i, ii): sit; seat. Initial and final weak (i) are always written in full, as in (imit) emit, city, distinguished from omit, sitter (əmit, sitə), medial weak (i) being expressed by the simple stroke.

Contractions:
- = he
- Raised (i) expresses the ending ‑ly: merrily, namely.
‘low up-hook’ (ai; aa): I, eye, aye, mighty; fast, star. It will be observed that as there is no short (aa) in English, the short low up-hook is utilized to express the very frequent dipthong (ai). After some consonants – especially the high down-loop (v) – these vowels may be written inside the curve: vast, shine.
‘double up-hook’ (yu, yuu; u, uu): unite, unit; cook, moon. In ordinary writing it is not necessary to lengthen the stroke of (yuu): unit, duty.

Contractions:
- = you
- = who
‘high down-hook’ (e; ei): These characters are only occasionally written instead of short and long strokes, but it is often useful to write them when special distinctness is required. Thus is clearer than , which might be taken for (əb) as well as (eb). is sometimes more convenient than the long stroke, as in babe.

‘low down-hook’ (æ): add, cab.
‘double down-hook’ (yuə, yuuə; uə, uuə): fewer, dual, duel; poor.

Contractions:
- = you are
- = who are
; ‘high up-loop’ (o; ɔ): sorrow; autumn. The first form of the short vowel – the ‘round curve’ – may be written initially, and is necessary when the vowel is detached, so as to distinguish it from – the detached form of the down-loop .
; ‘low up-loop’ (au; ou): now; own. These vowels may be written inside the curves of certain consonants in the same way as the low up-hook (ai) : shout, vote.

Contractions:
- Detached = out
; ‘high down-loop’ (ə; əə). The short vowel is written only in contractions, such as her, being otherwise expressed by the simple stroke. The long vowel always keeps its shape when final, as in cur. Before a consonant the curve may be straightened, as in , written with the curve of the vowel flattened to readily continue into (d), rather than , written with a pause before arcing into (d), for bird. Before t, n, etc. the loop is joined directly on to the consonant, the stroke being shortened, as in assert, burn. Before an up-loop consonant it may be expressed by an up-loop run on: burst, curse.

Contractions:
- = her
; low down-loop (a; eə): dull; care, , airy.
following an up-loop or up-hook with another up-loop is used to add ə to many vowels:
- (iə, iie) as in carrier, career
- (aiə) as in fire
- (oə, ɔə) as in follower, gnawer, Noah
  - However, (ɔə) differs so slightly from (ɔ) that it is generally written in the same way: saw, soar, sore
- (auə, ouə) as in sour, shower, lower
In the rare combinations (iio, aiau) etc. the detached forms of (o, au) are used, as in Iolic.

Detached Vowels

In the rare cases in which it is necessary to write a low vowel immediately after a high one, the low vowel is written detached under the high one: (pompiiai) Pompeii. [Jeremy: Sweet’s vowel choices here might sound odd to you. Modern English and Latin pronunciations of “Pompeii” would be different. Pronunciation differences aside, it still serves to show how to write a low vowel right after a high vowel. Thanks to Reddit user u/cruxdestruct for clearing up the pronunciation confusion.]

Vowels and strokes may be detached in other cases when convenient. Thus weigher may be written (w--.-) or (weiə) , where the first uses the long and short strokes and detaches the short stroke so it might clearly be read, while the second explicitly writes out both (ei) and (ə) and avoids any need to detach a vowel.

Arbitraries

The following marks are written small, like vowels, to express certain very common words:

and. Compare the use of the hyphen as a joiner.
or
an
of

Examples:

now and then
now or never
an ear of corn

Consonants

Size and Projection Show Place

The place of a consonant is shown by its size and projection.

Short Point Consonants

The most numerous class of consonants — the point — are written short:

(t, d, n)
(s, z)
(th, dh)
(r)

High Lip Consonants

The lip-consonants are all written high, as being formed high up in the mouth:

(p, b, m)
(f, v)
(w)

Low Back Consonants

The back- and throat-consonants and the front consonant (y) are written low:

(k, g, ng)
(h)
(y)

As (sh, zh) are formed further back in the both than (s, z), they are written low:

(sh, zh)

Tall Consonant Clusters

The tall characters are assigned to consonant-groups or compounds, mostly containing (sh, zh) or (y), such as:

(tsh)
(dzh)
(ny)

Shape Shows Form

The form of consonants is shown by their shape.

Sharp-Stemmed Breath Stops

Breath stops are expressed by a ‘sharp stem’ or bar, to symbolize their sharp, hard sound and the stoppage of the breath:

(t)
(p)
(k)
(tsh)

Examples:

typical
touch

(tsh) may also be expressed by the ligature (t+sh), as in (t+shitsh-st-) Chichester.

Signs:

= to(o), two
= up
= because

Round-Topped Voice Stops

The corresponding voice stops are expressed by rounding the tops of these stems to symbolize the greater softness of the voice stops, giving the ‘down-hooks’:

(d)
(b)
(g)
(dzh)

Examples:

double
guide
ridge

(dzh) may also be written (d+sh), as in (d+shadzh) judge.

Signs:

= but
= again

Round-Bottomed Nasals

The consonants most allied to the voice stops are the nasals, which are accordingly expressed by inverting the voice-stop characters, giving the ‘up-hooks’:

(n)
(m)
(ng)
(ny)

Examples:

meaning
union

Signs:

= on
= in

Table: Shape and Form

The following table shows the relations of these three classes of consonants:

	point	lip	back
breath stop	t	p	k
voice stop	d	b	g
nasal	n	m	k

Up-Looped Hisses, Down-Looped Buzzes

The breath hisses are expressed by up-loops, the corresponding voice consonants or ‘buzzes’ by down-loops:

	point	lip
breath hiss	s	f
voice hiss	z	v

Examples:

safe
visit

Signs:

= is
= for, fore, four

Consonants Requiring Special Notice

Sh, Zh

(sh, zh) are reversed, the more easily written low down-loop being assigned to the more frequent (sh), the tall forms of these characters being used to express their combination with preceding (n):

(sh)
(zh)
(nsh)
(nzh)

Examples:

ship
rouge
inch
singe

Th, Dh

As (dh) is very frequent initially in such words as the, then, it is expressed by the round curve , which is a good initial, but does not join so well to a preceding character. The breath (th) is expressed by :

(th)
(dh)

Examples:

thin
then
the south

The stroke may be drawn through the middle of (th), as in (thai) thigh. Observe the distinction between (thii) (thii) and (th--) (thei).

Signs:

= thing
= the, thee
= this

W, Y, Wh

The two vowel-like consonants (y, w) are mainly initial and are therefore expressed by the ‘flat curve’:

Like (dh)’s round curve, the flat curve is best as an initial.

Examples:

wine
year

The distinction between voice (w) and breath (wh) may generally be neglected in writing as it usually is in pronunciation; thus:

= whine as well as wine.

When necessary (wh) is expressed by:

(wh), as in Whiston.

Signs:

= one, won
= you

The vowel-stroke before these characters is for convenience written flat:

a way, away
a year

R, L, Ry

The likeness of sound between (r) and (l) is shown in the likeness of their symbols, (r) being expressed by the ‘double hook’, (l) by the flattened double hook or ‘wave’, the tall being used, similarly to (ny) , to express (ry) or (ri) before a vowel:

(r)
(l)
(ry)

Examples:

rearing
lyric
burial

An Alternative Initial R

Initial (r) may also be expressed by the flat curve , which is however liable to be confused with the round curve :

rain [ the rain]

Final R Is Always Dropped

In English, final (r) is always dropped except before a word beginning with a vowel; so, as in Shorthand we always write the shortest forms, we ignore final (r) altogether, writing not only (kaad) card but (faa) far, even when a vowel follows, as in (faa) (-w--) far away.

L

As first stated in ‘General Principles’, the only consonant that is written small is (l). Before a vowel, it is expressed by the low-mid ‘wave’ , as in:

lit
line

After a vowel, it is expressed by the high-mid wave , as in:

tile

Signs:

= all

Lei, Eil

Long low wave is used to express (lei), long high wave to express (eil):

let
late
pleasant
plate
tell
tale, tail
Welsh
Wales

A vowel-stroke is added to final (lei) and prefixed to initial (eil):

lay, play
ale, ail

High Vowel + High L

When a high vowel is written before high (l) , the length of the vowel is best shown by lengthening the wave of the (l), as in (fiil) feel compared with (fil) fill.

Stroke + Low L

A vowel-stroke before low (l) must be written under the line:

a letter
allay [ elm]

Stem-Wave L, -Lə, Il-

In some cases (l) is expressed by the ‘stem-wave’ (l) , which always implies a following vowel. It is necessary when consonant + vowel + (l) is followed by a low vowel, as in (m-lain) malign, unless a break is made by writing (m-l.ain) with detached (ai) .

Final stem-wave (l) expresses (lə), as in:

seller, cellar
sailer, sailor

Initially it is utilized to express (il), so as to avoid inconvenient joins:

elate
illumine

H, Ch

(h), the open throat consonant, is expressed by the low circle , but oftenest by the low stroke . The circle is, however, sometimes more convenient, as in the combination (hei):

haste.

It is also used to express Scotch ch in loch (loch) .

Consonant Groups

As there are more simple characters than are required for the simple consonants, the superfluous ones are used to express consonant-groups. Of these, the tall characters have alreadg been described.

nt, mp, nk; nd, mb

As the ‘indented down-hooks’ etc., and the ‘back-round curves’ etc. are good finals and bad initials, the are assigned to the groups (nt, nd) etc, which never occur initially, the sharp ending of symbolizing the sharp (t):

indented down-hooks: (nt, mp, ngk);
back-round curves: (nd, mb).

Examples:

went, empire, ink;
send, nimble.

Signs:

= unto
= into
= under

ngg

The low back-round curve being inconvenient, (ngg) is expressed by looped-up (ng):

linger
tangle

kw, ly

The ‘double hook’ has been previously introduced as the short double-hook (r) and the tall double-hook (ry). In its high and low forms, it is used to express:

(kw)
(ly)

Examples:

quick, liquid
alien, value

Signs:

= quite

consonant + (t)

The combination consonant + (t) is expressed by waving stems and notching curves:

, (pt, kt)
, (mt, ngt)
, (ft, sht)

Examples:

apt, tact
empty, instinct
left

These characters are used chiefly where the t is radical, that is, forms part of the body of the word.

combinations with (s, z)

Combinations with (s, z) are expressed by loops:

, , , (st, sp, sk, stsh)
, , (ts, ps, ks)
, (pts, kts)
(lz)

Examples:

state, quartz, quarts
speak, copse
sky, six
mischief
adopts, tracts
tells, - tales

As there is no such combination as hiss + (s, z), the loop after hiss-consonants is used to express weak vowel + (z): (tsh-z): riches, teaches.

, (zb, sw)
, , (sn, sm, sf)

Examples:

husband, swift
snow, smoke, sphere

Signs:

= its, it is (it’s)
= twice
= some, sum

Consonants ending in an open loop add (s, z) by looping up the curve. As a general rule the simple loop means (z), the stroke being drawn through the curve to express (s), thus (nz) (ns). Combinations in which (z) is impossible are written with the simple loop, such as (fs).