Pitman Shorthand
Pitman Shorthand is a system of rapid writing developed by Sir
Isaac Pitman (
1813-
1897). It was first presented in
1837. It is a
phonetic system using symbols for various sounds in the language. Its most characteristic feature is that
voiceless and
voiced sounds (such as /p/ and /b/) are represented by the same symbol except for using darker lines for the voiced sound. This requires a pen or pencil that can distinguish light from dark lines.
Sir Isaac Pitman's brother Benn settled in Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States of America, spreading Pitman's system to the U. S., and at one time Pitman was the most commonly used shorthand system in the English-speaking world. It has, however, been superseded in this ranking by Gregg Shorthand, developed by John Robert Gregg.
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