Gregg shorthand is a system of shorthand developed by John Robert Gregg in 1888. Distinguished by its phonemic basis, the system prioritizes the sounds of speech over traditional English spelling, enabling rapid writing by employing elliptical figures and lines that bisect them. Gregg shorthand's design facilitates smooth, cursive strokes without the angular outlines characteristic of earlier systems like Duployan shorthand, thereby enhancing writing speed and legibility.
Over the years, Gregg shorthand has undergone several revisions, each aimed at simplifying the system and increasing its speed and efficiency. These versions range from the Pre-Anniversary editions to the more recent Centennial version, with each adaptation maintaining the core principles while introducing modifications to suit varying needs and preferences.
Despite the advent of modern recording and dictation technologies, Gregg shorthand remains a valuable skill, particularly in fields requiring fast, accurate note-taking, such as journalism and court reporting. Its efficiency, once mastered, allows for speeds upwards of 280 words per minute, demonstrating its potential as a powerful tool for rapid written communication. The system's adaptability to both right- and left-handed writers further underscores its versatility and enduring relevance in the digital age.
Background
Gregg shorthand, invented by John Robert Gregg in 1888, is a form of shorthand that, like cursive longhand, primarily uses elliptical figures and lines that bisect them.[1] The advent of dictation machines, shorthand machines, handheld tape recorders, digital voice recorders, voice recording applications on smartphones, and the trend of executives drafting their own letters on personal computers has led to a gradual decline in shorthand usage in business and reporting contexts.[2]
Gregg shorthand is often compared with Pitman shorthand due to their significant dominance over other English shorthand systems. While Pitman shorthand differentiates between similar sounds through line thickness and position,[3] Gregg shorthand maintains uniform line thickness and uses stroke length to distinguish between sounds.[4]
Initially, John Robert Gregg taught an adaptation of Duployan shorthand for English, a system that was predominant in France and characterized by uniform stroke thickness and attached vowel representation.[5] However, he found the angular outlines of Duployan-based systems to be detrimental to speed.[6]
Gregg shorthand is distinguished by its cursive strokes that blend smoothly, avoiding sharp angles, and its symbols are specifically designed for English, offering a better fit than the Duployan system. For example, Gregg shorthand has a unique symbol for the "th" sound (/θ/ and /ð/), in contrast to Duployan systems, which use a dotted "t," resulting in slower writing.[7]
Writing
Gregg Shorthand Alphabet
Gregg shorthand is a system of phonography, or a phonemicwriting system, which means it records the sounds of the speaker, not the English spelling.[4] For example, it uses the f stroke for the /f/ sound in funnel, telephone, and laugh[8], and omits all silent letters.[4] The system is written from left to right and the letters are joined. Sh (= /ʃ/) (and zh = /ʒ/), Ch (= /tʃ/), and J (or Dzh, = /dʒ/) are written downward,[8] while t and d are written upward.[4]X/ks/ is expressed by putting a slight backward slant on the s symbol, though a word beginning ex is just written as if spelt es (and, according to Pre-Anniversary, ox is written as if os).[9]W when in the middle of a word, is notated with a short dash under the next vowel.[10] Therefore, the digraph qu (= /kw/) is usually written as k with a dash underneath the next vowel.[10] In the Anniversary edition and before, if z need be distinguished from s, a small tick drawn at a right angle from the s may be written to make this distinction.[11]
Sample of text from A Christmas Carol, published in Gregg shorthand, 1918
Many of the letters shown are also brief forms, or standard abbreviations for the most common words for increased speed in writing.[12] For instance, instead of writing kan for "can", the Gregg stenographer just writes k.[4] These brief forms are shown on the adjacent image. There are several others not shown, however. For instance, "please" is written in Simplified and before as simply pl,[13] and "govern" as gv.[14]
Phrasing is another mechanism for increasing the speed of shorthand writing. Based on the notion that lifting the pen between words would have a heavy speed cost, phrasing is the combination of several smaller distinct forms into one outline.[15] For example, "it may be that the" can be written in one outline, "(tm)ab(th)a(th)".[16] "I have not been able" would be written, "avnba" (note that to the eye of the reader this phrase written in shorthand looks like "I-have-not-been-able", and so phrasing is far more legible than a longhand explanation of the principle may lead one to believe).
The vowels in Gregg shorthand are divided into groups that very rarely require further notation. The a is a large circle, and can stand for the sounds in trap/æ/, palm/ɑː/, and face/eɪ/.[17] The e is a small circle, and can stand for the sounds in dress/ɛ/, fleece/iː/, kit/ɪ/, and nurse/ɜːr/.[17]ī represents the sound in price/aɪ/.[18] The o is a small hook that represents the sounds in goat/oʊ/, lot/ɒ/, thought/ɔː/, and north/ɔːr/.[19] The u is a tiny hook that represents the sounds in strut/ʌ/, foot/ʊ/, and goose/uː/.[20] It also expresses a w at the beginning of a word.[21] In Anniversary and before, short and long vowel sounds for e, a, o and u may be distinguished by a mark under the vowel, a dot for short and a small downward tick for long sounds.[22]
There are special vowel markings for certain diphthongs.[18] The ow in how/aʊ/ is just an a circle followed by a u hook. The io in lion/aɪ.ə/, or any diphthong involving a long i and a vowel, is written with a small circle inside a large circle.[23] The ia in piano/i.æ/ and repudiate/i.eɪ/ is notated as a large circle with a dot in its center.[23] In Anniversary and before, if ea need be distinguished from ia, it is notated with a small downward tick inside the circle instead of the dot.[23] The u in united/juː/ is notated with a small circle followed by an u hook above it.[18]
Due to the simple alphabet, Gregg shorthand is very fast in writing; however, it takes a great deal of practice to master it. Speeds of 280 WPM (where a word is 1.4 syllables) have been reached with this system before, and those notes are still legible to others who know the system.[24]
Some left-handed shorthand writers have found it more comfortable to write Gregg shorthand from right to left.[25]
Versions
Throughout its history, different forms of Gregg shorthand have been published. All the versions use the same alphabet and basic principles, but they differ in degrees of abbreviation and, as a result, speed. The 1916 version is generally the fastest and most abbreviated version. Series 90 Gregg has the smallest degree of abbreviation, but it is also generally the slowest standard version of Gregg. Though each version differs in its level of abbreviation, most versions have expert and reporting versions for writers who desire more shortcuts.
Many versions of this system were published.[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][excessive citations] Several of these versions were given names: Anniversary (published in 1929), Gregg Shorthand Simplified (1949), Diamond Jubilee (1963), and Series 90 (1978). The last version was Centennial, published in 1988.[33] Versions published before 1929 are often referred to as Pre-Anniversary. These versions are described below in this article. Besides the main editions, a number of simpler, personal-use editions were published from 1924 to 1968. These included "Greghand" in 1935, and "Notehand" in 1960 and 1968.[34]
Pre-Anniversary Gregg shorthand
Gregg Shorthand was first published in England 1888 by John Robert Gregg under the title Light Line Phonography; however, it was in a very primal stage. Due to its rough-and-ready character and the fact that Pitman shorthand was well established there, it did not gain much success. Five years later, in 1893, a second edition of the manual with an improved version of the system was published in the USA, then in a third edition titled Gregg Shorthand in 1897. The fourth edition, published in 1902, developed more shortcuts. The fifth edition, published in 1916, is the version most commonly referred to as "Pre-Anniversary" Gregg shorthand; this version has the largest number of brief forms, phrases, and shortcuts.
Gregg Shorthand Anniversary Edition
In 1929 another version of Gregg shorthand was published. This system reduced the memory load on its learners by decreasing the number of brief forms and removing uncommon prefixes. It was intended to have been published in 1928 on the 40th anniversary of the system, but it was published a year afterward due to a delay in its production.
Gregg Shorthand Simplified
Gregg Shorthand Simplified was published in 1949. This system drastically reduced the number of brief forms that needed to be memorized to only 181. Even with this reduction in the number of brief forms, one could still reach speeds upward of 150 WPM. The system was simplified to directly address the need of business stenographers, who only needed to produce 100–120 WPM transcription. The creator of an advanced reporting version of Gregg Shorthand, Charles Lee Swem, wrote in The National Shorthand Reporter, "An abbreviated, simplified edition of our system has been published and accepted for the purpose of training office stenographers, and not necessarily reporters." He also advised, "I do not believe any young student should hesitate to study Simplified for fear it will jeopardize his chances of becoming a reporter. It is fundamentally the same system as we reporters learned from the Anniversary edition. Once Simplified is learned, the change-over to the reporting style is comparatively simple and can be made by any writer."[35]
Gregg Shorthand Diamond Jubilee Edition
The Diamond Jubilee series was published through most of the 1960s and the 1970s (1963–1977). It was simpler than the Simplified version, and reduced the number of brief forms to 129. For Diamond Jubilee students who wanted to increase speed for reporting, an edition of "Expert" Diamond Jubilee was available to push speeds upward.
Gregg Shorthand Series 90
Series 90 (1978–1987) was an even simpler version, which used a minimal number of brief forms and placed a great emphasis on clear transcription, rather than reporting speed. Although it introduced a couple of new abbreviations and reintroduced some short forms that were missing in Diamond Jubilee, it eliminated several other short forms, and was in the main simpler, longer, and slower than the previous editions. Shorthand was dwindling in popularity during this series' usage.
Gregg Shorthand Centennial Edition
Published in 1988, this is the most recent series of Gregg shorthand. It was the only version since the Pre-Anniversary edition of 1916 to increase the complexity of the system from the previous one, having 132 brief forms.
Other versions
The above versions of Gregg shorthand were marketed for professional use, such as business and court reporting. Gregg Shorthand Junior Manual, designed for junior high school students, was published in 1927 and 1929. Greghand, A Simple Phonetic Writing for Everyday Use by Everyone was published as a pamphlet in 1935. The 1960 and 1968 editions of Gregg Notehand focused on how to take effective classroom and personal notes using a simple form of Gregg shorthand.
The Shavian alphabet is a constructed alphabet conceived as a way to provide simple, phonemic orthography for the English language to replace the inefficiencies and difficulties of conventional spelling using the Latin alphabet. It was posthumously funded by and named after Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw.
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek stenos (narrow) and graphein. It has also been called brachygraphy, from Greek brachys (short), and tachygraphy, from Greek tachys, depending on whether compression or speed of writing is the goal.
Sir Isaac Pitman was a teacher of the English language who developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand. He first proposed this in Stenographic Soundhand in 1837. He was also the vice-president of the Vegetarian Society. Pitman was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894.
Dutton Speedwords, transcribed in Speedwords as Dutton Motez, is an international auxiliary language as well as an abbreviated writing system using the English alphabet for all the languages of the world. It was devised by Reginald J. G. Dutton (1886–1970) who initially ran a shorthand college promoting Dutton Shorthand, then offered a mail order (correspondence) self-education course in Speedwords while still supporting the Dutton Shorthand. The business was continued by his daughter Elizabeth after his death.
Pitman shorthand is a system of shorthand for the English language developed by Englishman 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.
For centuries, there have been movements to reform the spelling of the English language. It seeks to change English orthography so that it is more consistent, matches pronunciation better, and follows the alphabetic principle. Common motives for spelling reform include quicker learning, cheaper learning, and making English more useful as an international auxiliary language.
Thomas Natural Shorthand is an English shorthand system created by Charles A. Thomas which was first published in 1935. Thomas described his system as "designed to meet the existing need for a simple, legible shorthand that is based on already familiar writing lines, and that is written with a minimum number of rules." The system has fallen into disuse with the decline of pen shorthand in the later 20th century, but the spirit of the system lives on in Teeline shorthand, with which it shares a number of characteristics.
John Robert Gregg was an Irish educator, publisher, humanitarian, and the inventor of the eponymous shorthand system Gregg Shorthand.
In a featural writing system, the shapes of the symbols are not arbitrary but encode phonological features of the phonemes that they represent. The term featural was introduced by Geoffrey Sampson to describe the Korean alphabet and Pitman shorthand.
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Bezenšek Shorthand is a shorthand system, used for rapidly recording Bulgarian speech. The system was invented by the Slovene linguist Anton Bezenšek c. 1879. It is based on the Gabelsberger shorthand, so it is often referred to as the Gabelsberger–Bezenšek Shorthand.
Forkner Shorthand is an alphabetic shorthand created by Hamden L. Forkner and first published in 1955. Its popularity grew through the 1980s as those who needed shorthand every day began to favor the easier learning curve of alphabetic systems to the more difficult symbol-based ones. Forkner was taught in high-schools and colleges throughout North America along with comparable shorthands such as AlphaHand, Speedwriting, Stenoscript and Personal Shorthand.
The Munson Shorthand system was a form of shorthand devised by James Eugene Munson, who was an official court stenographer in New York State. It is a slightly revised version of Pitman shorthand designed to make it more systematic.
Benjamin Pitman, also known as Benn Pitman, was an English-born author and popularizer in the United States of Pitman shorthand, a form of what was then called phonography (shorthand). He was also active in the arts and crafts movement in the United States.
Stiefografie, also called Stiefo or Rationelle Stenografie, is a German shorthand system. It was invented by Helmut Stief (1906–1977), a German press and parliamentary stenographer, and first published in 1966.
Stenoscript or Stenoscript ABC Shorthand is a shorthand system invented by Manuel Claude Avancena (1923–1987) and first published in 1950. Encyclopædia Britannica, perhaps erroneously, claims it was based on a system published in London in 1607. An unrelated project also called Stenoscript was written by George A.S. Oliver and published in London in 1934.
The Duployan shorthand, or Duployan stenography, was created by Father Émile Duployé in 1860 for writing French. Since then, it has been expanded and adapted for writing English, German, Spanish, Romanian, Latin, Danish, and Chinook Jargon. The Duployan stenography is classified as a geometric, alphabetic stenography and is written left-to-right in connected stenographic style. The Duployan shorthands, including Chinook writing, Pernin's Universal Phonography, Perrault's English Shorthand, the Sloan-Duployan Modern Shorthand, and Romanian stenography, were included as a single script in version 7.0 of the Unicode Standard / ISO 10646
Eliza Boardman Burnz was a nineteenth century American shorthand inventor and promoter. Her simplified alphabet, arranged in the basis of Isaac Pitman's Phonography, was the subject of Mark Twain's essay A Simplified Alphabet.
Gregg, John Robert (1930). Gregg Shorthand Dictionary(PDF) (Anniversaryed.). The Gregg Publishing Company. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
Horn, Ernest (1931). Gregg, John Robert (ed.). 5,000 Most-Used Shorthand Forms(PDF) (Anniversaryed.). The Gregg Publishing Company. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
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