89 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
89 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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id:
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aliases: []
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title: _Gregg Notehand_
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tags:
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- topic/shorthand
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- type/media-commentary
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dg-publish: true
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---
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# _Gregg Notehand_
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Gregg Notehand is a simplified form of Gregg Shorthand.
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It is described in the namesake [[leslie-et-al_1968_gregg-notehand]]
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This note is a description and critique
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of both the book and the shorthand,
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since the latter is fully described nowhere else.
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## Critiques
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The lessons use sounds-like-(letter)-in-(word) type phoneme definitions,
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and generally suffer from a facile understanding of phonology.
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Totally unacceptable for a proposed alternative alphabet,
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but then the text does not understand that's what it's proposing.
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> [[leslie-et-al_1968_gregg-notehand#2-8. Notehand principles]]
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> **Silent letters omitted.**
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> In the English language many words contain letters that are not pronounced.
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> In Notehand these silent letters are omitted,
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> and only those sounds in a word are written that are actually pronounced.
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> For example,
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> in the word say, the y would not be written because it is not pronounced;
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> say would be written s-a.
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> The word face would be written f-a-s;
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> the final e would be omitted because it is not pronounced,
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> and the c would be represented by the s stroke because it is pronounced s.
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>
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> What letters in the following words would not be written in Notehand
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> because they are not pronounced?
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>
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> * day
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> * eat
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> * main
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> * mean
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> * save
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> * steam
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***
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> [[leslie-et-al_1968_gregg-notehand#2-8. Notehand principles]]
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> Gregg Notehand is easy to learn---easier, actually, than longhand. Why?
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> In longhand, there are many different ways of writing a given letter;
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> in Gregg Notehand, there is only one way.
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This is a baffling first paragraph.
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Without further clarification,
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the text seems to be implying that students learning longhand
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are expected to learn to read and write
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many forms of the same letter,
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where reality is the opposite.
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In fact, it is plain to see from the lessons in the text
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that Gregg Notehand had far more individual character variation
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than is accepted of the English alphabet.
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The text does not specify winding direction for circular forms
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(e.g. "a" and "e"),
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nor is the illustrator consistent between words.
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For many words, neither option is more intuitive,
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and the choice _radically_ changes its form.
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More damningly, in Lesson 26 we learn
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the "s" stroke _is allowed to be written backwards._
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It's a very strange choice,
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claiming that a shorthand is less ambiguous
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than the writing system it replaces.
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I'm sure its possible,
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but English doesn't have enough frills to cut off.
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Shorthand trades certainty for speed,
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that's the whole point.
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***
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Some words, especially those more than one syllable,
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I believe are illustrated incorrectly
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based on preceding text and examples.
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"Navy" is particularly egregious.
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