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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for July 23, 1999
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When was the first system of shorthand writing invented?
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Shorthand writing uses condensed symbols for words and phrases, making
it possible to take notes or dictation very quickly. The first such
system was "Tironian annotation," invented in 63 BC by Tiro, a freed
Roman slave who used it to write down the speeches of Cicero.
One of Tiro's symbols is still in use today: the ampersand (&), which
means "and." He also was one of the first writers to use initial
letters to create acronyms, like "AD" for "Anno Domini."
Various other shorthand systems have since been used. In 1588,
the first phonetic system was devised by Timothe Bright. Another
system by Thomas Gurney was published in 1750. Modern written
shorthand uses two systems. One was invented in 1837 by Isaac Pitman,
and the other was invented in 1888 by John Robert Gregg.
Modern court reporters use stenotype machine shorthand, a phonetic
system:
http://www.vgrs.vic.gov.au/public/stenograph.html
http://www.bestfuture.com/index.html
Today's Cool Word is ampersand:
http://www.cool-word.com/archive/1999/07/23.html
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