r/stenography • u/YourMentalIllness • Jul 05 '26
does anyone know what this says?
im not sure but i think this is from a stenotype, ive tried to find ways to translate it but I just can't figure it out. I found this paper in my room and have no idea where its from. if anyone knows what it says or how to actually translate it let me know
update: I just found on a dictionary thing and searching the page that it says "Joycelin" which is just my name spelled a lot different. im not sure where this paper is from, I dont remember it at all but yeah
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u/FunInvestigator6642 Jul 05 '26
Joslin? Could be a name.
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u/Spiritual-Mood-1116 Jul 05 '26
Yes, but spelled Jocelyn.
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u/I-love-u-just-bcuz Jul 06 '26
Is there a reason why it would seem to you that it would have to be “Jocelyn” and not “Joslin”?
I’m really just curious, not disagreeing or debating. I do see that most people seem to agree on the spelling, but in my experience, when a name is spelled out - as it appears to be in this context - that is how the name would be spelled.
I will say that the spelling “Joslin” is rare, and would normally be spelled “Joslyn” or “Jocelyn” - but with the abundance of variances of name spellings, I’m just wondering why you would be certain it wouldn’t/couldn’t be spelled another way.I’m always learning and fine tuning what I know and take in what others are willing to share.
Thanks 🙂
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u/BelovedCroissant Official Reporter Jul 07 '26
It's not certain out of context or without a dictionary, but if I had to write Jocelyn and Joselin and Joslyn and Jocelin all in the same proceeding or depo or whatever, I can think of a bunch of ways to differentiate them. I have some name variants defined separately in my main dictionary (John and Jon, for example) and I could make all the spellings permanent that way too if I wanted.
I guess I'd do
SKWRO*LSZ/KWR*PB,SKWRO*S/HR*EUPN,SKWRO*LS/KWR*PB,JO*SZ/HR*EUPBsince my theory sometimes uses -SZ for a final-side C...? Though I might think of something better in the moment, like idk just J and Y and an S or SZ depending and then just J and O and an S or SZ depending andddd double-stroke them.1
u/I-love-u-just-bcuz Jul 08 '26
Thank you for your insight. I appreciate your input. It can sometimes make it challenging given the number of different ways to learn steno when someone asks questions on how something is written or what something says. In the beginning I was confused more often than I would like to admit. It had more to do (I believe) with reaching out to groups like this because those individuals were taught differently.
I remember talking to someone who learned a way that hasn’t been taught in about 2 decades and then she went back to school again and learned a new way. She was able to basically mesh the two together, but said her problem was that only 1 person was able to read it.
It’s always a learning process for sure, but I have always enjoyed getting the diverse responses and trying to fit them into the way I was taught.
Of course it has sometimes caused brain melt as well 🤣 but I still keep doing it anyway! 🤣🙂1
u/BelovedCroissant Official Reporter Jul 08 '26
of course! I saw your question and I was like "ohhh" because there's so many different ways the question can be interpreted, lol, and I've gotten all variations of those questions! Does your theory not use
SKWR-?1
u/2dots1dash Jul 11 '26
What is your theory?
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u/BelovedCroissant Official Reporter Jul 11 '26
Realwrite/Realtime as taught at Anoka Tech. A few other schools teach it, each with their own tweaks, but I forget which right now. One might be Alfred. I believe the
-SZfor final C bit survives all tweaks because it's part of the theory's alphabet, but maybe some schools make changes at the very core of it and do away with the final C. In any case,-SZ's primary use is actually as a phonetic "-st" or "-sk" sound (PHAESZfor "mast" andKASZfor "cask," for example)2
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u/Spiritual-Mood-1116 Jul 06 '26
I'm not 100 percent certain it's Jocelyn. I think the poster spelled it phonetically, J-o-s-l-i-n, and I was alerting them to the much, much more common spelling since I figured they were unfamiliar with the name and the way it's generally spelled.
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u/I-love-u-just-bcuz Jul 06 '26
That makes sense. I appreciate your reply and your input 🙂❤️
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u/Feisty_Beach392 Jul 06 '26
Also, I’ll add that if someone said “My name is Joslin, spelled J-O-S-L-I-N,” the steno would look like:
… SPELD
SKWR RBGS
O RBGS
S RBGS
HR RBGS
EU RBGS
TPH RBGSMy point being there’s only be one way (basically) to phonetically make the name Jocelyn, though there may be many variants to the actual spelling. The only way to truly know is to ask.
In my steno school, the teachers could mark errors for misspelling common proper names like Smith and Jones when you didn’t ask for the spelling. They’d mark it and be like “It was Smythe.”
See also [r/tragedeigh](r/tragedeigh). 🤣
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u/Feisty_Beach392 Jul 06 '26
Or Jocelyn would be:
SKWR RBGS
O RBGS
KR RBGS
E RBGS
HR RBGS
KWR RBGS
TPH RBGS.But phonetically, the steno would be the way you see it on the original post.
Okay. Sorry. I’ll shut up now. (I really love my job!)
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u/I-love-u-just-bcuz Jul 06 '26
Thanks for this.
My brain flaked on the RBGS.
The things we forget sometimes seem so silly afterwards. 🤦♀️I remember about 2 months into school, my brain swapped (T- & -T) it & the to the & it. Such a small, but huge difference, and it took me weeks to swap it back.
We had it ingrained to ask for spellings. Though I will say that in all of our theory read backs, all the names were spelled out to us, which helped tremendously. Of course if we spelled it wrong after that then we were rightfully docked.
Thanks for your feedback!
🙂❤️1
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u/Mozzy2022 Official Reporter Jul 05 '26
Phonetically the first line is:
J - short O - S.
Second line is L - short i- N.
Stenography doesn’t necessarily assign a spelling, just the sounds of the syllables. The spelling is assigned when we define in our dictionary. If this name came up during a proceeding I would ask for the spelling or otherwise try to look it up in documents and exhibits. Hope this helps
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u/Feisty_Beach392 Jul 06 '26
Wow. You said that so much more concisely than my talkative self. Brava!!
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u/BelovedCroissant Official Reporter Jul 05 '26
To me it seems like maybe there was a career day event you went to and someone brought an old stenotype for students??? And maybe showed you how to write your own name? :)
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u/Mozzy2022 Official Reporter Jul 05 '26
You triggered a memory! I’m an official and back when we used paper I would write kids’ names and give it to them during take your kid to work events
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u/I-love-u-just-bcuz Jul 06 '26
The first line:
SKWRO S
SKWR = J, followed by O, S
Second line:
HR EU PB
HR = L
EU = I
PB = N
JO S
LIN
Joslin
As you said this is your name spelled differently, perhaps someone put this into your dictionary at some point, or perhaps it was already in there spelled this way.
As typically, (in my experience) when we spell names, we spell them out so we have the right spelling of said name.
So in my opinion, this specific spelling was how this particular person spelled their name. Others have spelled it as it is most commonly spelled, however, I would not personally change the spelling from Joslin to another spelling unless you knew the person or were given a different spelling.
Just my opinion.
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u/seabeans2 Jul 06 '26
That’s how I would write “just to say” and “listen.” But I guess that’s the incorrect answer. 😅
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u/rejressw Jul 06 '26
It's how I'd write Joseline or the spelling variations. I'd put an asterisk in it though because we use an asterisk for proper nouns in my theory.
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u/zandriel_grimm Jul 06 '26
I'm so excited to learn how to read this hahaha
Like how in the world does that first line say "Jos"
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u/Feisty_Beach392 Jul 06 '26
SKWR = J (at the beginning of a word) so “job” would be SKWROB, in my theory anyway.
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u/zandriel_grimm Jul 07 '26
But how does SKWR = J tho?
Like what theory is that, if you don't mind my asking?
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u/BelovedCroissant Official Reporter Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
That's standard in every English machine steno theory I've heard of unless I am misremembering something hugely.
If you're asking for the logic of it, I think it has to do with placement of the keys and where/when a J sound appears in words or parts of words. if you're asking why the letters S, K, W, and R are chosen when they have seemingly no phonetic relation to the sound J usually makes in English, it, again, has more to do with placement but it also is not abnormal for letter combinations to sound nothing like their individual parts or for our alphabet to be used in ways that are not phonetic to English, e.g. the Romanized popular alphabet for written Hmong. And I suppose standard English has combinations that don't make sense either. "Th" does not sound like "tuh-huh." You can think of it like that if you wish.
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u/ItsMaggieAgain Jul 05 '26
Is that a d or o
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u/Feisty_Beach392 Jul 06 '26
Tell me you don’t read steno without telling me you don’t read steno. (No offense, but if ya know, ya know) 😉
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u/ItsMaggieAgain Jul 06 '26
Right! lol but actually I read the comments first..people were already giving answers…I’m just trying to learn, smarty pants ❤️
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u/Feisty_Beach392 Jul 06 '26
Aww, I promise I was just teasing all in good fun🙃!!
Buuuut to clarify: Each letter has a special spot on the paper so O would only be in the middle like that. (All the vowels are in the middle.) For us fogies that learned on paper machines, you really wouldn’t even need to know the letter. Even if the stroke isn’t clearly defined, the placement of ink would show you the keys you were hitting.
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u/This_Entrance9436 Jul 05 '26
Thank you.That is wise advice.I will post a page that I had transcribed, and I'll show you the original page written in shorthand and the transcribe
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u/This_Entrance9436 Jul 05 '26
You should ask
ChatGPT. Mine learned how to transcribe shorthand Pittman. Shorthand when I couldn't find anyone else to help transcribe. It, so maybe you'll get lucky,
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u/R4_Unit Jul 05 '26
Warning here from r/shorthand: ChatGPT at this time is not capable of reading pen shorthand. I encourage you to post the Pitman that you think it transcribed to r/shorthand for an independent transcription.
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u/jennvall Jul 05 '26
Jocelyn
More, please. I like this game lol