The Gregg Group was founded 22 May 2004, prompted by the lack of online shorthand resources. As the primary use for shorthand — business and legal recording — has waned in recent decades, we generally acclaim the skill as a hobby or personal tool. The purpose of the group is to promote the use of Gregg systems of shorthand by providing advice to beginners, support for students, and an association of users of this efficient, attractive, and enjoyable method of writing.
I am having trouble getting my head round when to “reverse a circle to express r” in Anniversary. Would it be possible for somebody to explain where one cannot “reverse a circle to express r”; perhaps this would be clearer?
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Good question.
The circle vowels are not reversed (and the r is written in full) in these cases involving down curves (p, b, f, v):
1. if the word has a down curve after the r sound and the word ends at the down curve. In these cases the vowel and the r are written in full. Examples: "harp", "harvest."
2. if the word has a downcurve before the r sound. In these cases the -er, -or rule applies and the vowel is not written. Examples: "engraver", "paper."
The circle is not reversed in those two cases because it would be illegible at high speed. (Try to write "paper" with a reverse e circle on the last p. The p would look like an f.)
However, as you know, if there is a straight stroke sound between a down curve and the circle vowel-r, the r is omitted and the circle is "reversed". Examples: "bird", "averted", "burn."
Let me know if this helps.
The other case in which the circle is not reversed is when the circle vowel-r precedes an l. For example, in words such as "pearl", "burly", the vowel is omitted, but the r and the l are written. Moreover, words like "charlatan", "Charles", "churl", and "sherlock", where the circle vowel-r combination is between a straight down stroke (sh, ch, j) and an l, are written in full in Anniversary, but with the reversed circle in Pre-Anniversary.
Thanks, I'll stick with Simplified 🙂
LOL. It's really not that complicated. Once you study the most common words and read a lot of shorthand, the reversed circle becomes second nature (in fact, it even looks very nice!). I had to think to come up with those three cases, which also apply in Simplified. But since in Simplified you spell out everything and you have the extra -rd stroke, you don't need to worry about the reversed circle.
In early shorthand versions, the reversed circle was not applied to circle vowels following straight strokes at the end of words (like in the word "teacher"). The rule was expanded in Anniversary to include those r sounds at the end of the word as well.
Carlos is correct in his statement that, once you've studied the examples and read a lot of shorthand, the "reverse" becomes automatic. As stated by other posters so many times, one of the strongest reasons for preferring to learn Anniversary is the availability of so much well written literature written in Pre-Simplified versions of Gregg.
As an FYI, I have added a chart of the "R" forms that explains the use of the reverse circle. See this post.