Shorthand Stenography Online Course Chapter 8 “What are the Consonants in Shorthand”
Consonants
Introduction
In the last lesson you have learnt about the origin of Shorthand, its definition, usefulness of this art, as well as the job opportunities available for a shorthand writer. You have also read about the qualities of a stenographer, sitting posture, techniques for writing shorthand, material required for writing shorthand and the techniques of transcription. Not only in India but in many countries of the world, Pitman system of shorthand writing is most popular. Therefore, in these lessons you will be taught the Pitman’s System of Shorthand. Pitman’s system of shorthand consists of 24 consonants, 12 vowels and 4 diphthongs. We will restrict this lesson to the consonants only. The vowels and diphthongs will be explained to you in the subsequent lessons. The first essential principle of Pitman Shorthand system, is that it is a Phonetic system, which means that the shorthand is written according to the sound heard and not as per the ordinary spellings, for example see the following words and their sounds :
Knife
Bridge
Knot
Knowledge
Objectives
- Define consonant;
- explain the Phonetic system;
- classify the consonants;
- to join the consonants;
- know the position of strokes while joining;
- l know the rules of joining of strokes.