Lesson 1: The Theory of "Graphic" Shorthand, 1-14, Lessons in Graphic Shorthand (Gabelsberger), Lippmann

by Corry Shores
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C. R. Lippmann

Lessons in Graphic Shorthand

(Gabelsberger)

Prepared for the American Public

Lesson 1:

The Theory of "Graphic" Shorthand

1-14

Lippmann will begin first by looking at how we normally write the word Vine.

He will not treat it as though it were made of Roman letters. Rather, he will pretend that it is really made of short-hand figures. Now he will analyze those characters out of the formation.

The left arm of the V is the shorthand upright line for t.

We may make the t stroke upward or downward.

The stroke for i is

So this makes the first upward swing of V's right arm.

If this were just shorthand, we would have the formation for t-i which is shorthand for the word "tie." For, we do not write mute phonetics, and the final e in tie is mute.

When we are spelling words, it is best to use the phonetic sounds. So we would not say "te-ee" for the letter t. Rather, we would say "t(eh)", just the sound of t alone.

Now, to finish the right arm, we will make another upstroke, that is the t form. But we will not waste motion by making the line upright, so we just continue it at the same angle as for i.

What we have now is the shorthand for the word tight, because it is the characters t-i-t.

Now consider when we write out the letter l in longhand. It is an upright loop. But let's tighten it more and more until it is a little up-looping dot.

The l character blends nicely with the others. So we will attach it to the t-i-t formation to get t-i-t-l or title.

Notice that the l character by itself has a little hairstoke coming out the right end. But here we omit it to save motion.

We also omit l's initial hair-stroke in l-i-t or light.

As well, we omit the initial hairstroke in t-i-l or tile

When shorthanding, we connect one character just where the preceding one ends. But we do need them to all look like they normally do when written alone. So we don’t try to keep the characters in a rigid alignment. This will save us time.

(Pages 6-7)

Lippmann, C.R. Lessons in Graphic Shorthand (Gabelsberger) Prepared for the American Public.Philadelphia: J.B. Lippencott Company, 1899.

Available online at:

http://www.archive.org/details/lessonsingraphic00lipp