History of Shorthand: A select list of shorthand systems

(Arranged in order of the date of publication.)

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Many of the following systems (mostly English) have been of particular influence in the development of shorthand. This is a short annotated list - there are literally hundreds of shorthand systems known - and details of other systems may be added later. Your own comments and suggestions regarding future inclusions will be very welcome.

Tiro

The first shorthand system of significance was devised by Cicero's secretary, Marcus Tullius Tiro (b. 103bce). It was an abbreviated longhand system with diacritic marks used for vowels. The system was in use until the Middle Ages and has had lasting influence. Tiro compiled a shorthand dictionary but apparently did not produce a textbook. Other Romans developed the system, notably Vipsanius (Agrippa) and Filagrius who produced a textbook. The Roman army used shorthand as a form of secret writing - an early example of military cryptography. At least two emperors wrote Tiro's shorthand, Titus Flavius Vespasianus (81-39bce) and Julius Caesar (100-44bce).

Bright

Timothy Bright (1588) was one of the first to design an English system. In 1588 he published ‘Characterie; an Arte of Shorte, Swifte and Secrete Writing by Character’. This was an early geometric system using straight lines, circles and half-circles to represent words. His alphabet consists of signs with various ‘precursor’ marks to a consistent downward stroke. Each character stands for a word. There are 4 slopes for each letter and 12 different ways of altering the base letter, thus each letter could represent 48 words. His intention was to create an international sign language. He dedicated his system to Queen Elizabeth I and consequently was granted a monopoly to publish it for fifteen years. The only known copy of this work is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Willis

John Willis (b.1575) may be described as the father of modern shorthand. He designed a geometric system based on a complete alphabet and used diacritical marks for vowels. The latter were placed in musical order, a descending scale - i,e,a,o,u. Willis published his work under the title "Art of Stenographie" about 1600, this appears to have been the first use of the word stenography to denote shorthand. The only extant copies are in the British Museum and the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Folkingham

William Folkingham, b. 1575, published his ‘Brachygraphie Post-Writt or the Art of Short Writing’ in 1620. Butler regarded him as “the most inventive shorthand author in history”. The letters in his alphabet are selected portions of ordinary longhand forms and he uses combinations of consonants for FL, FR, TR and RM. This is a precursor of blended consonants. Words were written in positions to indicate vowels.

Bales

Peter Bales sought to escape Bright’s monopoly of shorthand publishing by using ordinary letters of the alphabet with a system of dots and commas which he termed ‘pricks’ and ‘tittles’. These marks were arranged in a vertical line of 5 marks preceding a letter, 5 marks following a letter and one mark above and one mark below the letter. He copied Bright’s list and arrangement of words (some 2700 words). There appears to be no evidence that anyone ever used this system.

Shelton

Thomas Shelton (b.1601) issued his system "Short Writing" around 1626 and shows the influence of Willis. He used double consonant combinations for TH, SH and CH. The best known writer of this system was Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) who wrote his famous diairies and also his first-hand account of the Great Fire of London (1666) in Shelton's shorthand. Pepys appears to have been the first to use the term 'longhand' as a distinction from 'shorthand'. Subsequently Shelton's system was adapted to Swedish and Sweden was the first country to use shorthand in parliamentary proceedings.

Mason

William Mason published his shorthand system under the title ‘Pen plucked from an Eagles Wing’ in 1672 and followed this with ‘Plume Volante’ in 1707. He has been regarded as the greatest of the shorthand authors of the seventeenth century. His alphabet was formed from Rich’s system, ‘Charactery’, 1646. Words are written as they sound. Initial vowels were written by their alphabetical character and final vowels were represented by dots written in 3 positions. Medial vowels were indicated by writing the following consonant in one of 3 positions. For double vowels he used the dominant vowel sound. There was extensive use of abbreviated words, ‘deficient’ writing; each letter of the alphabet, except ‘c’, stands for a particular word. There are 423 symbolical and arbitrary characters. He appears to have been the first to use a small circle to represent the letter S; more than twenty subsequent shorthand systems have followed this practice. Mason’s influence is seen later in the work of John West (1784) and Thomas Gurney (1750) whose systems were based on Mason.

Gibbs

The Reverend Phillip Gibbs published his system "An Essay towards a Further Improvement of Short-hand" in 1736. This appears to have been the first attempt to use a phonetic approach in British shorthand instead of the earlier orthographic based systems. He introduced a method of distinguishing between long and short vowels. The 5 vowel diacritic marks, or tittles, could be placed in one of 5 positions in relation to the consonant stroke. He assigns 2 characters to each consonant.

Jeake

Samuel Jeake, 1748, was the first to create an alphabet of single strokes for consonants in his ‘Elements of a Short Hand’.

Gurney

Thomas Gurney published his shorthand system as "Brachigraphy" in 1750; this was an adaptation of the earlier system devised by William Mason (1672). A copy of this work is held in Chetham’s Library, Manchester. The most famous writer of Gurney's shorthand was Charles Dickens when he was a reporter in the British House of Commons. Gurney used an alphabet of 36 symbols to represent the consonants and vowels. His method of vowel indication followed Mason’s technique of placing the consonant following the vowel in one of 3 positions. A single dot was written to represent the words, of, the and they.

Byrom

John Byrom (b. 1690) devised his system “Universal English Short-hand” which was introduced in 1767 although owing to lack of funds it was not formally published until after his death. Vowels were indicated by diacritical marks. These were placed in 5 positions before or after the consonant to represent the five vowel sounds, a, e, i, o, and u. Byrom begins to make an analysis of vowel and consonant sounds closer to modern English pronunciation and sets out a reasonable theory describing the foundation for his method. The letter S ( – ) represents the suffix '-tion', “ … the commonest termination in our language”; as a horizontal straight line it is also the fastest symbol to write. Byrom has been well-named “The father of rational shorthand”.
Byrom opened shorthand clubs in London, Manchester and Cambridge where the system was taught. Two well-known pupils were John and Charles Wesley. This system was taught also in North America. Chetham’s library, Manchester, holds the John Byrom library of shorthand and includes a copy of Byrom’s Universal English Shorthand, 1767 (see Library Collections).

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