The vowels are always reckoned from the beginning of the consonant. When, therefore, any inclined consonant is begun at the bottom of the short-hand line, and written upwards, the vowels are always counted from the bottom, on each side of the character, upwards. A due attention to the manner of placing the vowel points, in the cases of curved or semicircular let ters, as it is exhibited in the annexed plate, will explain the matter, beyond the possibility of misconception or embarrass ment. With respect to the Ion; and short sounds of vowels, it is convenient, when time will allow of it, to express the broad sound of a vowel by making its represen tative dot a little larger than in the usual method of expreising the vowels. When two, or more, different vowels occur, without any intervening consonant, they may be distinguished by making the first a little thinker and stronger, diminishing their respective strengths until the last vowel is expressed, by being made of the usual thickness. Two e s, or two o s, may be expressed by two dots of the same size. In swift writing, we know, these minutia cannot always be strictly attend ed to. It is, nevertheless, convenient to have a method so simple and useful to resort to, when time will allow ; and it is one of the many excellencies peculiar to this system, that it will admit of these or thographical attentions.
The letter y, at the beginning of words, is a consonant ; but at the end of words, or when it follows a consonant, it is a vowel, and, as such, is represented, in short-hand, by a dot in the i's place, as in the word burl, beauty.
As the horizontal characters may be written at the top, or middle, or bottom, of the line, the vowels may be sometimes indicated by their situation between the parallels, as lame, at the top : sin, in the middle ; and sun, at the bottom of the line.
There are few monosyllables, begin ning with a vowel, that are immediately followed with either h or w; for which reason the following rule, peculiar to these two letters, will seldom occasion any ambiguity, and affords a convenient method of expressing a great variety of very common words. The letters h and w, having a vowel point before them, are to be considered as denoting, by one mark, the two letters, ht, wt, respectively, with the prefixed vowel between as in the words, hat, hit, hot, hut ; wag, wet, wit, wet, &c.
Having said thus much concerning the nature and use of the vowel points, we will proceed to give some further direc tions relative to the form and proportion of the short-hand characters ; the various ways of joining the curvilineal ones with the greatest ease and elegance ; together with some rules, desired to obviate a few apparent difficulties which may be supposed to occur, more or less, to every learner of short-hand.
1. All the perpendicular and inclined letters arc made to touch, as it were, two imaginary parallel lines, whose distance is supposed to be adjusted by the length of the short-hand it is sometimes necessary, in order to preserve a perfect lineality in the writing, to make these letters only half their usual size ; as in the words foot, form, gold, &c. In a very few instances, where lineality cannot be preserved, even by thus curtailing the size of the letters, it is always best to lift the pen, and write the word at twice, taking care to place the detached parts very near to each other, to denote their connection. Instances of this kind oc cur so very seldom in practice, that no perceptible difference will be experi enced in the brevity of writing, while a very material advantage will be gained on the score of beauty and legibility ; considerations never to be lost sight of by the lovers of useful and rational ste nography.
2. The diameter of the horizontal se micircular letters is the short hand — and their height is rather more than one third part of the letter I t.
3. As both the beauty and the brevity of short-hand writing depend 'very much on avoiding, as much as possible, the making of angles, and on the general uniformity of the writing, it is proper, in joining such letters as m and n, m and f, m and p, &c. together, to deviate a little from the correct form of each letter: so that they may readily and naturally run into each other. The learner will .easily discern where it is necessary to preserve the predise point of concurrence, as in the case of md, hb.
4. The letter I t is occasionally used for tA, writing the adjoining letter only half its usual size ; as in thr, tlmt, he.
5. Except in the foregoing case, a let ter of half size, when it is made optionally, always indicates that the adjoining character is to be resolved into two let ters. When it is requisite to double the letters r or f, and no consonant is re quired to be joined with them, they are generally lengthened by a greater incli nation of the stroke than usual. Double ‘, and double a, when necessary, may be made by a little break in the middle, which may be done, without taking off the pen, by only a very alight movement of it from the line it was describing. There are one or two cases, where it is better entirely to lift the pen, and make a small stroke through the letter, nearly in the manner we usually cross the t in long hand. This expedient is requisite in writing the words idler, butler, stiller, &c.