vowel indicator omissions, help

I am having a problem reading some of the material in Gregg Anniversary.  What causes it is the omission of the vowel indicators, such as the word Day: d-stroke, a-circle, but no dash indicating a long-A sound. (i hope that makes sense.)

I know why it’s not put in, for speed, but it’s buggin’ me 🙂  As a former court reporting student, I’m used to the schwa syllable not being included.
I’m sure I’ll get better with practice, but does anyone have any hints to help my read back?  As with court reporting, if you can read it, you can write it.
Thanks in advance,
Mike

(by blondcherokee for everyone)


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6 comments Add yours
  1. Simply put, if there is no other word that has the outline that you are trying to read, there is no reason to add the vowel marking.  But if it helps you reading, especially when you are learning, by all means do it.  That's why "day" is just "d – a", without the short vertical dash underneath.   I put markings in some words: for example, "owe" vs "of".  Both have the same outline (o hook), but I can read them right away by marking.   The way to decipher shorthand is to spell out by sound slowly (not by letter name).  That should help you.

  2. Gotcha Chuck.  That does make sense.   But how about this?  Her, Here, Hear…  I'm using Anniversary Gregg, and they use both the E (small circle) and the R stroke for both, no vowel indicator.  I suppose I need to get used to reading a word in context also? That will be an unusual experience for me.  In today's stenomachine, everything must be exact for the darn computers to read.  Maybe it's a plus in pen shorthand that it's a bit more flexible.  Or am I just way off base? 🙂   Thanks   ~Mike

  3. you're also right that in pen shorthand it's a plus that one brief form can mean more than one thing.   I'm sure realtime reporters use context if they make a mistake in an outline. If it's not realtime, I'm sure scopists use context to figure out an unlikely note.

  4. You will find as you advance that the marking of vowels will decrease.  It is useful if you want to be sure you differentiate words in isolation, however, context is your best friend.    With familiarity, you will find it less and less necessary to have the vowels marked.  I started with Series 90 and  if I remember correctly, I don't know that they continued to mark vowels after the Anniversary Edition.  I'll have to check my Simplified books.  I know that in DJS and Series 90 the diacriticals were gone.   Peter

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