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{{Short description|1950 Writing System}}

'''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 originallybased on a system published in London in 1607.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/565305/Stenoscript-ABC-Shorthand|title=Stenoscript ABC Shorthand|work=EncyclopediaEncyclopædia Britannica|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>

==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]] in the late 1940s. He objected to the steep [[learning curve]] of [[Gregg shorthand]] and 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 Stenoscript manual were published through 1989. A Spanish edition was published in 1967, a book of dictation drills appeared in 1972 and Stenoscript dictionary was issued in 1989.<ref name="auto"/> The system was taught in some American high schools and colleges although it is difficult to determine how many. A few academic dissertations and theses compared the progress of Stenoscript students to learners of other systems.<ref name=comp>examples: ''The use of Forkner and Stenoscript ABC shorthand by selected Kansas high school graduates,'' Joanne R. Brookshier, 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 law school at [[George Washington University]] in the late 1940s. He objected to the steep [[learning curve]] of [[Gregg shorthand]] and 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 Stenoscript manual were published through 1989. A Spanish edition was published in 1967, a book of dictation drills appeared in 1972 and Stenoscript dictionary was issued in 1989.<ref name="auto"/> The system was taught in some American high schools and colleges although it is difficult to determine how many. A few academic dissertations and theses compared the progress of Stenoscript students to learners of other systems.<ref>examples: ''The use of Forkner and Stenoscript ABC shorthand by selected Kansas high school graduates,'' Joanne R. Brookshier, 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>

==Writing==

Stenoscript is written using traditional longhand [[cursive]] characters with a few variations (t's are not crossed, i's and specialj's symbolsare 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 vowelsmonophthongs 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. AvencenaAvancena, Stenoscript ABC Shorthand, 1967 revised edition.</ref>

Stenoscript is written using traditional longhand [[cursive]] characters with a few variations and special symbols. 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 vowels 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>M. Avencena, 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,

{{Section OR|date=November 2014}}

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{{Citation needed|date=November 2014}} once applied in context.

For example

I ak . cl-n com-m

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

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

==References==

{{Reflist}}

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

[[Category:Shorthand systems]]