From: "Tom Gewecke" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >There are interesting signs and symbols in this script, which could still
> >have their use today for other applications than "live transcriptions". I
> >have a couple of books (published in 1972 and 1974) which describes the
> >system (in business environements), and wonder if someone was sponsoring a
> >proposal to encode it...
>
> Not to my knowledge. However some space has been noted for them in the
> "roadmap" starting at 1E000.
> http://www.unicode.org/roadmaps/smp/
Thanks for pointing this block. But will it be enough to support at least the most
wellknown variants that were (and sometimes are still) tought ? I see a
"pre-allocation" at U+11E00..U+11EFF (i.e. 256 symbols, also extensible on the next
256 codepoints) within the descriptive range defined on the roadmap as:
00011800-00011FFF African and other syllabic scripts.
This is quite strange, and I wonder if it was defined only for the rarely used US
method, and there may also exist other methods adapted to Russian (or Chinese: is it
Bopomofo?) which also got a good standardization so that they were integrated in
training cursus and diplomas, or learning books were (and probably are still)
published and sold.
It's true that there exists quite a lot of shorthand systems, but some were quite
highly used (and are still tought today in special training programs), notably in the
North of France or Belgium, and in Germany or Austria. There seems to exist at least 2
French methods, and one of these also has a "simplified" version. There seems to exist
another German method, and another historic method in UK and US (which gave also some
variants, but were probably less used and standardized as the French and German
methods).
It's true that today the invention of the audio-tape, and the now widespread use of
word-processors with autocorrection facilities or the recent recognition of
handwriting on notepads, have deprecated much of its use in business activities.
Notebook and pad computers can now be used more easily in meetings, but there are
still some places where such "shorthand" scripts (named "stenography" when it has some
standardization) are useful (notably within public meetings, judiciary trials, simply
because it's much easier to search immediately in written notes than on a audio-tape,
and because audio records will be difficult to use without good recording conditions),
this is the only way to fidely transcript the flow of many oral discussion groups
(really needed for public testimonies in trials)... Some also learn such system to
take their notes without missing important words and quotations (notably medical or
legal students, and searchers).
I can even find training books on Amazon and other online shops, or auction sites for
such stenographic systems. The most widely used French stenographic method is based on
a set of consonnantal syllables with optional vowel signs that may have several forms
(depending on their horizontal or vertical attachment to the consonnanat syllables).
It works in a way that has large similarities to some Brahmic scripts, or to the
handwritten simplified Arabic script (except that it is written from left to right,
and use ligated forms is favored to the use of points or detached diacritics).
The particularity of this system is that the baseline of some syllables may be moved
up or down to adapt to the previous syllables. It also includes common ligatures for
frequent word terminations or prefixes, or recurrent words, plus some glyph metrics
rules to mean a repetition.
-- Philippe.
