Shorthand in Spanish

Hi, y’all.  I have started learning Spanish Series 90 since I happen to own the books.  I have to laugh because some of the words you learn in the first few chapters aren’t words I come across much in my day-to-day life as a bilingual secretary – “myrrh” is not a word I have ever used at work, but it appears in one of the early lessons in Book 1.   (Maybe if I worked at the Vatican…)

I’m enjoying learning Gregg in Spanish and am continuing brushing up my English DJS during my lunch hours, too.  I do manage to actually eat some lunch, too, to avoid grumpiness and hunger pangs!
Does anyone know who wrote the plates in the Spanish S90 books?  Just wondering, was it an English speaker or a Spanish speaker?

(by troutgirl1501
for everyone)

 


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14 comments Add yours
  1. The plates for the Spanish version of Series 90 were written by Mr. Jerome Edelman. I think they are very well written.

    Actually, learning English DJS and Spanish S90 is a good combination. I don't particularly like Spanish DJS, as it uses some unorthodox brief forms for the articles and some conjunctions.

  2. Wow, thanks, Chuck, you read my mind.  I was going to ask you if I should order the Spanish DJS books, but now I'll feel confident with my Spanish Series 90 books.    I'm not quote sure what I'm going to do with my Auxiliar de Taquigrafia Gregg.  Maybe I'll read some of the exercises into a tape recorder later on if I ever locate my hubby's tape recorder.   Did Mr. Edelman speak and/or read Spanish?  It seems to me you speak Spanish from reading some of the past threads.  We have a pretty talented group of members here!        

  3. Yes, I do speak Spanish. I'm not sure if Mr. Edelman spoke Spanish, but it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't. All he needed to do was to write the words phonetically, and someone else could've told him the characters to write.

    The "Auxiliar" is good for sentence practice. I wish I could find a copy of that book!

    If I have some time, I will post differences between S90 and DJS in Spanish so that you know what you're "missing" …

  4. Chuck, thanks!  If I ever get some time, (and that is VERY IFFY (o:  ), I could maybe scan in the "Auxiliar" for you & post it here on the site.  (Would I get in "copyright trouble" for that?)    I ordered my "Auxiliar" in the early 80's through a bookstore on Long Island.  At that point in my life, I don't think I even knew what it was I was ordering.  It's been on my bookshelf all these years.   I've started taking the train to work here in CA thanks to the DREADFUL gas prices, and have been learning & practicing Spanish shorthand during my train rides.  People give me funny looks!

  5. Thanks for the offer! I actually have a photocopy of the book that I need to scan also! It has a lot of practice material, but it is more geared to the Pre- & Anniversary versions. You can get some good use out of it, nevertheless.

  6. Sorry, but I don't agree… I think Spanish DJ is better than Serie90. Why? Examples:   Well in Serie90, mostly you have to write all the sounds of a word, so outlines are extremely large; in DJ, words are shorter. DJ has more preffixes (or ending words) and this is very useful in Spanish (remember: Spanish words are longer than English ones… more syllables).   The article "EL" (the) was represented by an L in Preanniversary, Anniversary and Simplified, but it changes in DJ (represented by an E circle) and I consider that is a plus in gaining speed. because it's easier to join a circle, than an L, to a word. And this article appears so many times as THE does in English. Unfortunately, that shifted again in Serie90 going back to the L stroke.   My personal experience: I learned Pitman and Gregg (Serie90), but I didn't want to use Pitman, I prefered Gregg, but comparing them, Gregg looked so large in writing it, when Pitman was so brief. Anyway, when I learned Preann, I realised that using more preffixes (endings) I could reduce the numbers of strokes, doing my writing faster.   My two cents,   VALO

  7. To each his own, but to be honest with you, the "l" stroke is faster to write than a circle. Same thing with writing the artcle "del" as "d-l" vs "d-e": d-l is more legible and faster. Also, the use for circle for "y" and "el", and differentiating it by position is definitely odd! (I compare it to using "u-k" for "work" in DJS.) That's where I was coming from, and not from the prefixes and suffixes aspect (which indeed you are correct). However, you can incorporate those anyway in the writing. In all certainty, Spanish DJS and S90 are very longwinded!

    (Personally, I write a much more compact version of Pre-Anniversary in Spanish.)

  8. Yes.  Further abbreviations come from:   1. Heavy use of abbreviating principle.
    2. Suppression of final vowels when not needed for transcription.
    3. Conjugation of verbs only when necessary for legibility (for example, the forms "tengo", and "tiene" have the same form.)
    4. Prefixes and suffixes (of course).
    5. Phrasing, phrasing, and more phrasing!   Here are two extracts from two of the books I have. It gives you a good picture.  See if you can transcribe the passages.  🙂   (I also have changed some of the brief forms to make them consistent with Anniversary Gregg though.)

    Attachment: example1001.jpg

  9. A very good 2 cents, Valo.  I don't want to bother ordering new books right now, though.  Yes, I'm that lazy!   I am thoroughly enjoying learning Spanish S90, anyway.  I am now taking the Metrolink train back and forth to work, and have gotten to lesson 4, which is full of all kinds of important principles, such as the "-ante, -ente, -iente, -ando, -iendo" endings, etc.  I'm going to study that particular chapter for awhile.   In lesson 4 I'm a bit stumped on a couple of outlines in the Reading Practice section.  I might scan the troublesome words and ask Valo and Chuck for help.   All in all, it's been fairly easy learning S90 in Spanish because I already learned DJS in English and many of the outlines are the same for the various sounds.  A new one for me is the diphthong "ei".  Like an "ai" but smaler…   On to read the rest of the posts, since I have not had time on the computer lately.  Usually my younger son is monopolizing the computer.

  10. Today on the Metrolink train I learned the Spanish "ye" strokes, which look like the English "iths".   Egads!  My reading seems to be getting better, too.  You can "teach an old dog new tricks" after all.

  11. Working in court in Tucson, AZ, I had many opportunities to write names of a Spanish origin.  I found that some of the things I picked up from the Spanish manual were helpful in making easier to execute outlines.  My favorite is the "ll".  Gallegos, calle, valle.  I never found it difficult to spot the Spanish words and they were not easily confused with the English around them.  🙂

  12. I never liked the use of the "th' symbol for "ll" and "y"– in fact, I don't use it at all. (I don't know what Mr. Leslie was smoking that day …). I write both strokes as an "l", with a little vertical mark underneath, because it makes more sense, and it joins much better than having to remember whether it is an upper th or a lower th! Yikes.

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