Shorthand

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Ever since there has been a written word, scribes have devised ways to transcribe the spoken word into a written form with the greatest ease. Dating as far back as the ancient Egyptians, archeologists have discovered traces of shorthand among scribal texts and artifacts. In fact, their shorthand became the normal writing style; leaving hieroglyphics for ornamental scrolls and decoration on temple and tomb walls.

Ancient And International Stenography

The Ancient Egyptians placed the scribe on an elite level and training to become one was met with extreme rigor. The scribe would, "Begin to study at five years of age. The rigours and harsh training of these young apprentices was well documented. Note the connotation of the egyptian word for teach, seba, which also means to beat." (Kreitzman 1)

The concept of Stenography (not the writing itself) was remediated throughout history in Eastern and Western cultures. Caligraphy has evolved as the formal, correct, way to write letters and words, whereas everyday handwriting is arguably a form of shorthand. Much like the alphabet itself, Stenography can be seen as a digital interpretation of an analog idea.

During the Han Dynasty (207BCE – 220CE), the Chinese developed two forms of rapid writing known as xingshu (running script) and caoshu (grass script). Still used today, the different strokes in the former are combined and others left out whereas in the latter the entire character is written in one continuous stroke. This has made these forms of stenography incredibly difficult to read without extensive training. Over the years there has been an effort made to standardize these forms of Stenography but they have been met with a deal of opposition. This can be seen as a pop and whistle of this technology. No matter how much training in the writing one can have, every piece transcribed will be inconsistent with the others in the basic structure of the physical construction of the words themselves. Unlike using the Western alphabet (which is standardized) to make a group of manuscripts, using xingshu and caoshu is a lot riskier because the message will fundamentally change from scribe to scribe.

The ancient Romans also used shorthand and Stenographic techniques but in different ways. Vital military messages would be written in shorthand and, combined with Steganography (meaning "covered writing" [Dunbar 2]), they could successfully be transmitted as far as the messenger could travel. The information would be tattooed onto the bald head of the messenger and, after the hair grew back, they would travel with a fake message to their destination. Upon arrival their heads would be shaved and the true message would remain intact.

Contemporary and Western Stenography

There are many forms of shorthand being used in contemporary Western culture. However, the two most used are Pitman Shorthand and Gregg Shorthand. Sir Isaac Pitman in England developed Pitman Shorthand in 1837. Over the years it has been altered and adapted into over 15 different languages, but is used mostly by secretaries in the UK and America. Acting as a remediation of the Chinese scripts, Pitman Shorthand relies heavily on the thickness, length, and placement of each stroke. This, again, has made it hard to decipher; even among other stenographers because the width of each “letter” can be contested by anyone. Because of this inconsistency, this style began to loose favor after the invention of the mini tape recorder.

John Robert Gregg invented Gregg Shorthand in 1888. To this day Gregg is primarily used in the US, although it has been adapted into some other languages. Unlike the Pitman style that has characters assigned to every letter, Gregg is phonetic. For example, form, elephant, and rough would all use the same stroke for the F sound even though they are spelled differently.

Today we can see how the ancient esteemed profession of the scribe has been recreated into the court reporter. Just like in antiquity, the court reporter has to be extremely skilled with their tools in order to be accurate enough to transcribe every word said while maintaining a high level of ethical pride. Their tools are also designed to copy information as fast as possible making their machine a remediation of the physical motions of the hand.

We can also see traces of the ancient Roman's strategic techniques in contemporary international espionage and information transferring. Vital data has been transfered hidden in other data streams using encrypted languages and forms of digital shorthand. The Cold War can be seen as an example of the measures governments went through in order to relay a message. The United States invested millions of dollars in Stenographic techniques and technologies in order to counter Soviet transmissions and intercept some information for themselves. In fact, this war can be seen as built upon nothing more than the fear and proper usage of Stenography.