The great end of short-writing being to convey the sounds of words by the fewest, as well as the most simple characters, all those letters, which are not distinctly sounded in pronunciation, are to be omit. ed, except in a few cases, where either the word would be rendered ambiguous, or present an unsightly appearance, with out certain of its quiescent letters : for instance, it is evident that the letters m a ke, properly joined together, might be allowed to represent walked, provided the reader could always remember to sound the a broad as in wall; but as the word, so contracted, might easily be mistaken for the word waked, it is always best to spell it with the letter 1; thus, walkd. This example will suffice for other words of the like nature. The omission of vow els, especially in the middle of words, has been a fault too common with writers on the present subject: yet it must generally be observed, that in short-writing it is proper to insert those vowels only, which are absolutely necessary in the pronunci ation, which is a great saving of time, as well as conducive to the beauty of the writing. It is sometimes convenient, for the sake of facility in joining, to substitute one letter for another: ask for g, ks, x, &c.
yet this should never be resorted to, be for some obvious advantage of beauty or brevity.
The short-hand alphabet, as some sup pose concerning the Hebrew, consists of consonants only, the vowels being suppli ed by dots differently placed. These con sonants running neatly into each other, will form the marks for words, never lift ing the pen in writing a word, except in a very few instances, and for the sake of preserving the beauty of the writing. which will always be attended with a cor respondent degree of brevity and legi bility ; a circumstance, perhaps, peculiar to the method of Mr. Byrom, where beauty, brevity, and legibility, are hap pily combined.
The twenty-one consonants which com pose the short-hand alphabet are formed out of simple lines, to some of which are attached small loops or twirls. These lines derive their respective powers and properties by their difference of posi tion, and by some of them being made curvilineal.
The horizontal characters are always to be written from left to right ; the per pendicular ones are invariably written downwards; and with respect To the ob lique characters, it is to be observed, that those which lean to the left are generally written upwards, while those having their inclination to the right hand are always written downwards. Not any of the twirl ed letters (the duplicate characters de noting h, j, w, and sh, which are never joined to any other letters, but simply stand for the words had. just, would, and should, excepted) ought never to be writ ten so as to end with the loop. This ob servation must not be forgotten by the learner, and he will never be at a loss about the manner of joining the looped characters to other letters.
It will be observed that some of the let ters are denoted by two, and the letter even by three different Characters; but as these characters are formed in the same manner, having only a simple change of position, and as they will be found to be of singular advantage in the joining of them to some letters, no ambiguity can possi bly arise by their occasional use. The little mark, denoting the abbreviation for the two Latin words is formed out of the letters t and a, and is well calculat ed for the purpose to which it is applied. It is the only character (if we except the little mark for the very common termina tion o kg) which has the apparance of an arbitrary mark in the whole system ; and even this is formed not strictly upon an arbitrary but an alphabetical principle.
We have already observed that the vow els are expressed in short-hand by means of dots, distinguished by their relative si tuations with respect to the consonants to which they are supposed to be joined. Although it is proper, in the spelling of words, to use no more vowels than are strictly necessary to convey the sound: yet as all writing must be rendered extremely illegible by their total omission in the mid dle of words, we will here lay down pro per directions for their use and applica tion. Whenever a vowel constitutes aper feet syllable in any word, whether that syllable be incipient, radical, or termina tive, it must always be inserted, unless in the case of following a ve ry rapid speaker; and the vowels which are then unavoida bly omitted should be inserted as soon as convenient afterwards, while the sub ject is fresh in the writer's memory ; by which means the legibility of the writing will be effectually secured and preserved.
The manner of placing the vowels in this system is, of all others, the most natu ral, and the freest from amb igu ity.A simple stroke, however placed, will naturally sug gest the idea of supplying five different places for the five vowel points : viz. the top, the middle, the bottom ; and the cen tres of the halves, when so divided. Care, however, must be taken not to place the dot for the vowel a, over the perpendicular or oblique characters ; nor the same vow el point before the horizontal ones. By a very slight attention it will be observed, that in this plan of short writing the same general method is to be observed as in common writing; i. e. not to write per pendicular letters from the bottom up wards, nor any letters from the right to the left; consequently all the vowel points belonging upright consonants are to be placed immediately before or after the consonant, as the case may require ; those connected with the horizontal characters exactly over, when they precede, and solder, when they follow the consonant.