Isaac Pitman

Sir Isaac Pitman (January 4, 1813 – January 12, 1897), knighted in 1894, developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman Shorthand. He first proposed this in Stenographic Soundhand in 1837. Pitman was a qualified teacher and taught at a private school he founded in Wotton-under-Edge. He was the vice-president of the Vegetarian Society. He was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire in England.

Pitman Shorthand

Pitman Shorthand is a system of shorthand for the English language developed by Sir Isaac Pitman (1813–1897), who first presented it in 1837. Like most systems of shorthand, it is a phonetic system; the symbols do not represent letters, but rather sounds, and words are, for the most part, written as they are spoken.

One characteristic feature of Pitman Shorthand is that voiceless and voiced sounds (such as /p/ and /b/) are represented by strokes that differ only in thickness (the thick stroke representing the voiced consonant).

Another distinguishing feature is that there is more than one way of indicating vowels. The main vowel of a word or phrase is indicated by the position of the stroke with respect to the rules of the notebook. (For example, a small circle drawn above the line translates to as/has and the same circle drawn on the line translates to is/his.) However, there is a more straightforward way of indicating vowels, which is to use dots or small dashes drawn close to the stroke of the preceding consonant. The type of vowel is dependent on the relative position of the dot or dash to the stroke (beginning, middle, or end).

There are at least three "dialects" of Pitman's shorthand: the original Pitman's, Pitman's New Era, and Pitman's 2000. The later versions dropped certain symbols and introduced other simplifications to earlier versions. For example, strokes "rer" (heavy curved downstroke) and "kway," (hooked horizontal straight stroke) are present in Pitman's New Era, but not in Pitman's 2000.

History

Pitman was asked to create a shorthand system of his own in 1837. He had used Samuel Taylor's system for seven years, but his symbols bear greater similarity to the older Byrom system. The first phonetician to invent a system of shorthand, Pitman used similar-looking symbols for phonetically related sounds. He was the first to use thickness of a stroke to indicate voicing (voiced consonants such as 'b' and 'd' are written with heavier lines than unvoiced ones such as 'p' and 't'), and consonants with similar place of articulation were orientated in similar directions, with straight lines for plosives and arcs for fricatives. For example, the dental and alveolar consonants are upright: "|" [t], "|" [d], ) [s], ")" [z], "(" [θ] (as in thigh), "(" [ð] (as in thy).

Pitman's brother Benn settled in Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States, and introduced Pitman's system there. He used it in the 1865–67 trial of the conspirators behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. In Australia the system was introduced by another Pitman brother, Jacob. Benn Pitman is buried in Sydney's Rookwood Necropolis, in Australia. The epitaph is (of course) in shorthand.

At one time, Pitman was the most commonly used shorthand system in the entire English-speaking world. Part of its popularity was due to the fact that it was the first subject taught by correspondence course. Today in many regions (especially the U.S.), it has been superseded by Gregg Shorthand, developed by John Robert Gregg.

Writing

Like Gregg Shorthand, Pitman's shorthand is completely phonetic; words are written exactly as they are pronounced. There are twenty-four consonants that can be represented in Pitman's shorthand, twelve vowels and four diphthongs. The consonants are indicated by strokes, the vowels by interposed dots.

The consonants in Pitman's shorthand are: pee, bee, tee, dee, chay, jay, kay, gay, eff, vee, ith, thee, es, zee, ish, zhee, em, en, ing, el, ar, ray, way, yay, and hay. When both an unvoiced consonant and its corresponding voiced consonant are present in this system, the distinction is made by drawing the stroke for the voiced consonant thicker than the one for the unvoiced consonant. (Thus, es is ")," whereas zee is ")".) There are two strokes for /r/: ar and ray. The former assumes the form of the top right-hand quarter of a circle, whereas the latter is like chay (/), only less steep. There are rules governing when to use each of these forms.

Vowels

A vowel is represented by a dot or a dash, which can be written either lightly or heavily depending on the vowel needed. As this only gives four symbols, they can be written in three different positions - either at the beginning, middle or end of a consonant stroke - to represent the 12 vowels.

The dots and dashes representing long vowels are darker than the ones representing short vowels. For example, say is written as ")•," but seh (if it did exist) would be written as ")·"; see is written as ").," but sih (if there were such a word) would be written as ").."

Another feature of Pitman's shorthand allows most vowels to be omitted in order to speed up the process of writing. As mentioned above, each vowel is written next to the consonant stroke at the beginning, middle or end of the stroke. Pitman's shorthand is designed to be written on lined paper and when a word's first vowel is a "first position" vowel (ie. it is written at the beginning of the stroke), the whole shorthand outline for the word is written above the paper's ruled line. When it is a second position vowel, the outline is written on the line. And when it is a third position vowel it is written through the line. In this way, the position of the outline indicates that the first vowel can only be one of four possibilities. In most cases, this means that the first and often all the other vowels can be omitted entirely.

Isaac Pitman is the grandfather of Sir James Pitman, famous for developing the Initial Teaching Alphabet.

His memorial plaque on the north wall of Bath Abbey reads ' His aims were stedfast, his mind original, his work prodigious, the achievement world-wide. His life, was ordered in service to God and duty to man.'

Quotes

• "Well-arranged time is the surest mark of a well-arranged mind."
• "I have no intention of becoming a shorthand author."

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Pitman, Sir Isaac (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved February 12, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online

Pitman, Isaac. Pitman Shorthand Instructor and Key: A Complete Exposition of Sir Isaac Pitman's System of Shorthand. Carlton, Victoria (Australia): Pitman Australia. ISBN 0-85896-065-6. 

External links

• Learn and practice the skills of shorthand.
• The Joy of Pitman Shorthand
• What is Pitman shorthand?
• Shorthand website that has general information on all strains.

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