Page:Stenotypy- or, Shorthand by the typewriter .. (IA stenotypyorshort00quin).pdf/16



Grammalogues may be used to form the part of the words they phonographically express. as "4t7 meaning comfortable"; 4G, meaning "foregoing"; wndr5. wonderfully: rt-J artfulness. Logorams that take s to form their plural require a space after the s, but no space before the grammalogues, 'housWRs ntl ystrD; meaning "the house was ours until yesterday." (Note space between Rs and ntl.)

If we except the small letters, c, n, o, p, x, and initial capital letters of proper names and prefixes, it may be taken as a rule without an exception, that wherever a grammalogue, suffix, punctuation mark or figure, used as an abbreviation as also a vowel, occurs, there will be no space before or after such character.

The punctuation marks " ; . ? retain their normal use. The semi-colon and inverted commas (“) when used for punctuation, have a space to the left; when used as prefixes, there is no space.

The chief impediment to fast typewriting is the frequent use of the spacer or space key, which requires a tap of the finger just like a letter of the alphabet, and is consequently very tedious where words of one syllable occur. The system of stenotypy is based on the principal of elimination, or getting rid of space whenever this economy does not cause confusion in the reading of the subject matter. Accordingly the author has found it expedient to group, under the headings of grammalogues, prefixes and suffixes, the words of most frequent use in the language, especially those words and suffixes difficult to be read without vowels. It must be carefully borne in mind that wherever a grammalogue, figure, stop, suffix or capital vowel occurs, there must be no space either before or after the next letter. All these when used as abbreviations, as also vowels indicate space (or the end of a word) as readily as a blank which requires the tap of a spacer. Prefixes must have one space to the left, except the inverted commas, and semi-colon, which have no space to the left or right.

The capital vowels when used retain their long sounds: A, in alms, ale, all; E, in eel; I, in ice and oil; O, in ode, U, in pure, food. The dipthongs oi, ou, oo, au, are expressed by small vowels. There must be no space before or after capital vowels. 10