Tachygraphia

A few weeks ago, I decided it’s high time I learnt shorthand. When I was a child, I had typewriting classes, and I got a book on typewriting that also had shorthand lessons; I’d no idea what shorthand was before, but I got fascinated by it. Yet, it felt really hard to acquire it back then and, although I’ve returned to that book time and again, I never got myself to get past the very basics.

For some reason this year, though, I decided I wanted to give it a serious try yet again. I’d gathered more information and bookmarked a few websites on it in the past, so, although I’ve still got my childhood book about shorthand, I had other places I could start from and walk myself through this time around.

The system I’m studying for Portuguese is called Leite Alves, which happens to be the same one taught in my book. It was developed by Dr Oscar Leite Alves specifically for Portuguese and first presented in 1929. The system is mostly phonemic, having distinct consonantal and vocalic signs, all derived from geometry; it also distinguishes between light and heavy lines, which was probably the point I had most problems adjusting to as a child learning it on my own.

There are many other systems that can be used for Portuguese, both designed by native speakers and adapted from foreign systems. All the data I’ve had access to present Leite Alves as the most common system in Brazil, with Martí, Taylor and Maron given as other popular alternatives.

Being so interested in foreign scripts as I am, though, I couldn’t help reading a lot about shorthand methods used in other languages, especially Pitman, Gregg and Teeline for English, and Gabelsberger and Deutsche Einheitskurzschrift (DEK) for German.

I wanted to give studying a system for English a try as well, but I didn’t know how to pick one; although I think Gregg looks extremely beautiful, it’s mostly restricted to the USA (and perhaps Canada), and so, being as systematically stubborn as I am, I turned myself mostly to Pitman and Teeline, which are the most commonly used methods in the UK.

Pitman is a traditional heavy-line geometric system based on phonetics, which would fall more in line with my studying Leite Alves (although there are many, many differences in their design overall, such as how Pitman indicates vowels using dots and dashes in relative positions); Teeline, on the other hand, is a contemporary semi-script spelling-based system, which I don’t really find anywhere as appealing. Yet, as I happened to find some nice materials about Teeline, it’s Teeline I’ve been studying for the past couple of days after all.

I don’t necessarily aim for speed in Portuguese. My job is hugely secretarial in nature, and my typewriting skills have always been a plus, having transferred nicely from typewriters to computer keyboards, so shorthand may have its place in my daily life; however, it’s not a requirement per se, so that, for now, I’m enjoying the road (but I wouldn’t pass a job opportunity based on it if I excelled at it – the pay is often very good in the civil service for such a position).

When it comes to English, though, it’s all but a fancy intellectual hobby anyway, so Teeline or Pitman – or even Gregg – is something I could move around at will indefinitely after all, so let’s see how much dabbling awaits.