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{{Short description|1950 Writing System}}

{{Refimprove|date=September 2010}}

'''Stenoscript''' or ''Stenoscript ABC Shorthand'' is a [[shorthand]] system invented by Manuel C.Claude Avancena (1923-19871923–1987)<ref>[https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/49003273/manuel-claude-avancena Avancena's biography]</ref> and first published in 1950. Encyclopedia''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', perhaps erroneously, claims the systemit was based on a system published in London in 1607.<ref>[{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/565305/Stenoscript-ABC-Shorthand|title=Stenoscript articleABC onShorthand|work=Encyclopædia [[Britannica.com]] website]|accessdate=2014-11-14}}</ref> An unrelated project also called Stenoscript was written by George A.S. Oliver and published in London in 1934.<ref name="auto">Information retrieved from worldcat.org 2014-11-14</ref>

'''Stenoscript''' or ''Stenoscript ABC Shorthand'' is a [[shorthand]] system invented by Manuel C. Avancena (1923-1987) and first published in 1950. Encyclopedia Britannica, perhaps erroneously, claims the system was published in London in 1607.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/565305/Stenoscript-ABC-Shorthand article on [[Britannica.com]] website]</ref> An unrelated project also called Stenoscript was written by George A.S. Oliver and published in London in 1934.

==History==

According to a profile published in ''The News'' (the daily newspaper in Frederick, Maryland, 8 April 8, 1968), AvencenaAvancena was attending law school at [[George Washington University]] andin droppedthe outlate of1940s. aHe objected to the steep [[learning curve]] of [[Gregg shorthand]] courseand dropped the shorthand class in order to devote his free time to developing a system that could be learned more quickly. After spending many hours in the [[Library of Congress]] studying stenography and word frequency statistics, he eventually self-published his first Stenoscript book and taught classes to promote his system.

Numerous revised editions of the bookStenoscript manual were published through 1989. A Spanish edition was published in 1967, a book of dictation drills appeared in 1972 and aStenoscript dictionary was issued in 1989.<ref A Spanish edition was published in 1967.name="auto"/> The system was taught in asome fewAmerican high schools and colleges although it is difficult to determine how many. A few academic dissertations and theses compared the progress of StensocriptStenoscript students to learners of other systems.<ref name=comp>Informationexamples: retrieved''The fromuse worldcatof Forkner and Stenoscript ABC shorthand by selected Kansas high school graduates,'' Joanne R.org 2014-11-14Brookshier, Emporia State University, 1977; and ''An experimental study to compare productivity of Stenoscript ABC shorthand with Gregg shorthand,'' Janet Rae Weber, University of Colorado, 1968.</ref>

According to a profile published in ''The News'' (the daily newspaper in Frederick, Maryland, 8 April 1968), Avencena was attending [[George Washington University]] and dropped out of a Gregg shorthand course to devote his time to developing a system that could be learned more quickly. After spending many hours in the [[Library of Congress]] studying stenography and word frequency statistics, he eventually self-published his first Stenoscript book and taught classes to promote his system.

==Writing==

Numerous revised editions of the book were published through 1989, a book of dictation drills appeared in 1972 and a dictionary was issued in 1989. A Spanish edition was published in 1967. The system was taught in a few high schools and colleges although it is difficult to determine how many. A few dissertations and theses compared the progress of Stensocript students to learners of other systems.<ref>Information retrieved from worldcat.org 2014-11-14</ref>

Stenoscript is written using traditional longhand [[cursive]] characters with a few variations (t's are not crossed, i's and j's are not dotted, m's and w's are written as a single long curve, and 'F' is written like a crossed '7') and a few punctuation marks (dash, slash, comma) used as letters. Lower-case letters are used for phonetically spelling words. Upper-case letters have special meanings: for example, 'F' represents the suffix ''-ful'' or ''-fully'' and 'S' represents the letter-pair ''st''. Unless they are silent, vowels are written when they occur at the beginning or end of a word, but monophthongs within words are omitted: "bank" becomes ''bq.'' (The letter 'q' represents the ''-nk'' sound.) Instead of writing -ed or -d at the end of a word, Stenoscript indicates the past tense of a verb by underlining the final letter of the stem.<ref name=ABC>M. Avancena, Stenoscript ABC Shorthand, 1967 revised edition.</ref>

The author claimed that a student of his system could "attain a speed of 80 words a minute with comparatively little effort" and that speeds of 100 to 120 words per minute could be reached after intensive study and drilling.

==Commentary==

The system is a standardised form of abbreviation. For example, ''ak'' stands for "acknowledge" and all its derivations. Although it is generally slower to write in than more abbreviated forms of shorthand such as [[Gregg shorthand|Gregg]] and [[Pitman shorthand|Pitman]],<ref name=comp/> it remains closer to alphabetic orthography. For example,

:I ak &mdash; k&mdash; k&mdash;

It is a phonetic system using longhand characters and punctuation. For this reason it has been criticised {{By whom|date=September 2010}} as not being a true shorthand system.

:"I acknowledge the client ('s) comment"<ref name=ABC/>

The system was intended to be a standardised form of abbreviation, requiring great mastery of recall. For example, ak stands for "acknowledge".

Although the system is generally slower to write in than more traditional shorthand styles such as Gregg or Pitman's shorthand, it has the distinct advantage of being decipherable to people not experienced in the system once applied in context.

For example

I ak . cl-n com-m

I acknowledge the client (s) comment

==References==

{{Reflist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

[[Category:Shorthand systems]]