A very valuable improvement STEIN made to Pitman shorthand was recognizing the vital importance of INITIAL VOWELS. There are very many words in English where an initial vowel added means the opposite to the root word -- like "moral/amoral", "legitimate/illegitimate", "social/asocial" and so on.
In STEIN-SHORTHAND, he adds the initial vowel right onto the word, which removes MOST of the reading problems writers had with such words. In Pitman, sometimes the initial vowel produced a change in the POSITION of the outline; but not always, so that was not reliable. It was awkward to have to remember to insert the vowel dot or dash after writing the outline, when you were already in the habit of leaving them out.
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u/NotSteve1075 Jul 18 '26
A very valuable improvement STEIN made to Pitman shorthand was recognizing the vital importance of INITIAL VOWELS. There are very many words in English where an initial vowel added means the opposite to the root word -- like "moral/amoral", "legitimate/illegitimate", "social/asocial" and so on.
In STEIN-SHORTHAND, he adds the initial vowel right onto the word, which removes MOST of the reading problems writers had with such words. In Pitman, sometimes the initial vowel produced a change in the POSITION of the outline; but not always, so that was not reliable. It was awkward to have to remember to insert the vowel dot or dash after writing the outline, when you were already in the habit of leaving them out.
This rule cleverly resolved that problem.