Flow Shorthand generated **Thats how Flow looks like when generated automatically.** I like it written by hand, but this way we have an objective source on how to write an outline. Just consult the dictionary (in the making) and see the outline of the transcript. ## tool The generator

abbrv: write

can import the files needed for flow: https://github.com/siragi/shorthand/blob/main/flow.zip. ## text The text you see above is the same as [this]( Since the generator also take IPA as input (which is easily obtained through a website like tophonetics.com I made use of automatic rules, that leave out non essential sounds, the lazy vowels for instance)... ---- Text in IPA ---- ɪn ə ˈpriviəs ˈlɛsən ə ɡʊd ˈaʊtˌlaɪn wʌz dɪˈskraɪbd æz wʌn wɪʧ pəˈzɛsəz səˈfɪʃənt ɪnˌdɪvɪʤuˈælɪti tu bi rid æt saɪt. ə ˈpræktəkəl ˌæpləˈkeɪʃən ʌv ðə ˈfreɪzɪŋ ˈprɪnsəpəl hæz ʃoʊn ðæt ʃɔrt wɜrdz, ðoʊ nɑt ˈɔlˌweɪz pəˈzɛsɪŋ ðɪs ɪnˌdɪvɪʤuˈælɪti wɛn ˈstændɪŋ əˈloʊn, wɛn ˈrɪtər ɪn ɡrups, rɪˈzʌlt ɪn freɪz fɔrmz ˈhævɪŋ ˈædɪd individuality. ˈpræktəs ɪn ˈʃɔrtˌhænd ˈrɛdɪŋ ˈfɜrðər bɛrz u ðə truθ ʌv ðɪs əˈsɜrʃən, ɪn ðæt ðiz ʃɔrt wɜrdz, wɛn juˈnaɪtɪd ɪn ˈfreɪzəz, ɑr mɔr ˈlɛʤəbəl ðæn wɛn ˈstændɪŋ əˈloʊn. sɪns ðiz freɪz fɔrmz ɑr ˈrɪtən ænd rid wɪð ðə seɪm fəˈsɪlɪti æz ðə ˈsɪŋɡəl-wɜrd ˈaʊtˌlaɪn, ɪt ˈnæʧərəli ˈfɑloʊz ðæt ðə ˈfreɪzɪŋ ˈprɪnsəpəl sɜrvz ə tu- foʊld ˈpɜrpəs. ɪt nɑt ˈoʊnli əˈsɪsts məˈtɪriəli tu ɪnˈkris ðə spid ʌv ˈraɪtɪŋ, bʌt lɛndz ˈædɪd ˌlɛʤəˈbɪləti tu ði noʊts. ðə ˈstudənt ʃʊd ˈkɛrfəli ˈpræktəs ðə ˈʤɔɪnɪŋ ʌv sʌʧ wɜrdz æz ɑr rɪˈleɪtɪd ɪn sɛns, ənˈtɪl ði ˌæpləˈkeɪʃən ʌv ðə ˈprɪnsəpəl bɪˈkʌmz ˈnæʧərəl. ðə bɪˈɡɪnər wɪl faɪnd ə seɪf rul tu tɛst ðə ˈmɛrəts ʌv ə pharse fɔrm ɪz ɪts ˌlɛʤəˈbɪləti.

I am currently working on a booklet to learn 'Flow', as well as a dictionary for it and a automatic visualisation # Flow shorthand principles / Instructional booklet The booklet has the same structure as the famous [Review of Gregg Shorthand Principles (1949, US Civil Service Comission)](

Dropbox

On **twenty pages** it teaches you basic practical stuff like how to string the literals of 'Flow' together, offers blends of literals (for frequent syllables), Pre-/Suffixes, when to add them directly (string it), when to add some of them adjacent. The booklet covers more advanced stuff too like phrasing (Meaningful snippets of a sentence, that can be written in one go, without lifting the pen). An example would be: 'I am not', 'as far as i know', 'to be done', 'Good morning/afternoon/evening, ladies and gentlemen.' Currently in review, will be published on the best site for shorthand lovers:

www.stenophile.com

Welcome!  Latest Changes, Acquisitions, and Interesting Tidbits

# Shorthand generator Since it is so new or even 'alien' for the _uninitiated_ I made use of a [shorthand generator](

abbrv: write

from a shorthand collegue and created the instructions how to generate flow literals. [Flow.zip](https://github.com/siragi/shorthand/blob/main/flow.zip) generator file available on github, import it in the generator (It will be added per default later in time), so check the generator first, if flow is available already. Have fun with playing now! # dictionary Every shorthand needs a standard, if it wants the user to enable to be fast. The standard for flow is a reverse dictionary made originally for gregg anniversary edition and heavily adapted for flow. So if you wonder how you'd transliterate any given word, you can look up the abbreviation/transliteration (those are based upon flow principles of course) and visualize the transliteration: _uvt yours very truly_ More in the next few days, the dictionary takes time, but luckily I can stand on mighty shoulders again. I just wanted to give you a hint what's to come. Me and my buddy over at r/fastwriting consider 'Flow' a major breakthrough and possibly the smoothest, fastest shorthand ever created. Gregg Anni users (or rather athletes) **can achieve up to 200-250 words per minute and the trained regular user about 120wpm** (Normal speech is about 150wpm). Flow will be in the very same category, if not faster, since the system is optimized for sound occurrance. _urlkm you are wellcome :-)_

Are shorthands really just phonetic systems? Shorthands say that they are phonetic, but in fact we just like to leave the unnecessary out, and the rest we deem important we squish into a fixed set of literals. I call that _transliteration_, and this process is by no means a logic one, or let's say the chosen literals and the ease of writing them influences the transliteration rules. **Speed dominates, and giving just enough hints, so possible ambiguities are reduced and not created.** For instance gregg shorthand transliterates word/sound "I" into 'a', when used as a pronoun, but midword you write 'ai'. The reason probably being, that 'a' has the big circle as shape: {O} and 'e' as well as 'i' have the small circle as shape: {o}. Combining them to 'ae' was slow and ambigous to 'ia', so he created a broken circle, that was faster, but still too slow for the very common pronoun. "Cute" is written as 'keut' in gregg (yeah phoneticly!), but "coat" is written as 'kot' even though in IPA we write it either british [kəʊt] or with american accent [koʊt]. This is just an oddity of gregg resulting of the fact that 'eu' is written easely, because there is a circle in it, that cannot be anything else, but 'ou' would generate a wave form, which is not that easy to distinguish from the other letters that all have slight curves and bends. As I mentioned earlier in the case of greggs small circle-sign, shorthand also likes to overload a shape (glyph): [e,ə,ι,i] (IPA letters) have the same glyph. The big circle can be [ɑ,æ,eɪ] and [aɪ] as pronoun. **Conclusion:** Most shorthands are somewhat phonetic in resemblance, but first and foremost they bend the rules so the word heard (from the speaker) can be written as fast as possible. By the way, those shorthands that claim to orthographic are not either, when they want to record speech ad verbatim. The transliteration rules just stick a bit more to the rules of orthography.

How to reach 100 words per minute, to be able to write down the main points in a real time discussion as a journalist I tried to boil down the points made by a teacher of 'teeline' shorthand, the system british journalists master. source:

LLTT+

The most comprehensive Teeline shorthand resource ever created — built for learners ready to break through their plateau.

- ‍70% prepared dictation - where you're actively learning - 20% unprepared dictation - where you're testing and applying what you've learned - 10% Reading The teacher focuses on the 70/30 prepared/unprepared dictation rule, but that would not add up with reading, so i slightly adjusted the measures :-). **Some additional tipps** When having learned the dictation material and you know the passage - you can measure your progress by **just measuring the time you need to write it through **without dictation. That way you will know whether you can try the dictated version (if you reach the time you should be under to reach the wpm chosen). Practice **dictation is best, when** the material is not too much slowed down (TTS via computer easely done, humans do it too, but its better not to space out the dictation word by word either, rather dictate in phrases), but the **same part of a sentence is repeated** twice, or trice (no fiddling with the audio device during dictation, prepare text ahead of time (to be read by TTS) instead and let your memory work during the 'exam'). **example**: _You have to prepare you have to prepare the text in advance the text in advance._

Stolze-Schrey "Lightline" Cursive shorthand system without shading Vocalisation is indicated via relative positioning of the base and distance of the next consonant. The Original system uses shading of the stem of the next letter for some vowels like 'a'. Lightline drew inspiration from "stiefografie", which was made by a southern german, like myself (swiss). German language had some vowelshifts that have not yet taken root in some dialects, as "Badish" and swiss german and we make use of that! A swiss "Hus" is a german "Haus", a home. That's why we treat u as it were au and vice versa in lightlined, but you are free to change that. The next three lines symbolize the relative positioning of consonants, any consonant, positioned narrow and slightly shifting the baseline upwards will hold the vowel 'i' in front of it, so be it the consonant 't' for example, it would really mean: 'it'. **consonants placed according to the 3 levels hold these vowels (IPA):** i|y -- eι|oι e|æ -- u|aʊ a -- o|œ Original system with shading i|**aʊ** -- eι|**oι** _|**a **-- e|**æ** o|**u** -- œ|**y**

I wasn't aware that substr is not secure... I just wanted you to be aware...

How could you create a shorthand? There exist compilations where the author comments on pros and cons, giving his view on what principles are at work. But so far i haven't come across a do it yourself kit. I have made numerous shorthands in very diverse styles. I would describe my approach constraints driven, which is another way to say: If you simplify one aspect another expands in complexity, but that's the beauty of creation. My creations don't compete against each other, they are all 'perfect' in the sense i wanted them and in others not... :-) Usually the **stroke set** is very simple **)\|/(**, strokes can go up or down, so you want to tilt the strokes (already 10 characters, 5 one way, 5 the other). One important question is, do you want to expand your set by different sizes or different boldness or by attaching loops and hooks (approach: gregg vs pitman vs gabelsberger). You may even be very radical and say you don't care for t,d thats one char same as b,p. So you reduce the need for different chars, but maybe you dot the char, when it is in its non frequent state. The pairing i did here is also often used in conjunction with size or boldness, to make it easier for the people to learn the alphabet, but it may slow down your script! If you haven't attached **loops and hooks **(curve attached to the previous or next stroke in direction of that letter) you can give them a function: usually vowels or liquids (r,l,v,w those are characters that follow plosives a lot (r,l) or vowels(v,w). It depends whether you have chosen to give the space you write on, usually a line in a notebook and the relative placement some meaning or not. Some say above the line adds +r to the written consonant, through the line adds +l, or above the line adds +a, well you get the idea... Vowels are often used for pronouns, when you chose loops and hooks for them, great for phrasing (small meaningful word structures like a predicat S-V-negation?). Negation is often an N or a T (or both), meaning you can think of letters that join or slur over two signs (ex. in gregg '_/' represents 'nt' so you can write one big bow of a stroke for nt...) If you have chosen your constraints you start selectioning and picking only the best characters, those that connect most graceful with the following. Does your script have to be more or less like normal written stuff, lineal? Then you better look that up and downstrokes are well proportioned - tip:keep s and t in different directions. scientific approach helps with the selection - [sound occurance](

The Language Nerds

Most common sounds in spoken English.

Discover the most common sounds in the English language. This article lists English phonemes in order of frequency, from consonant to vowel sounds.

helps to decide which sound gets the best letters (tip: prefer curved ones) - maybe you care about character [n-grams](https://www.ngrams.info/): to be or (bigrams) not (trigram) helps to design smooth joins between letters - or word n-grams - or [collocates](https://www.collocates.info/samples.asp) concerning vowels: You may consider **how to represent diphthongs,** especially when you chose hooks and circles for vowels, so you can easely make different outlines for 'cut' or 'cute'. In english the so called long vowels are diphthongs too of course. Depending on how important vowels are in your oppinion you can pair them like [e,i] along with all the schwa forms (lazy vowels) in that color. [a,ey], [o,ou,u] or you can decide to only write diphthongs and you choose to omit all normal vowels. That way you would only write longvowels and diphtongs, which is not a bad choice. Happy constructing!

Dance Shorthand _Dance has a very dense form to encode, it does not just string characters together, it uses rules, that act as inherent abbreviation tool, so you don't have to remember them, but rather use the different ways to imply meaning. _ **Implicit vowel in the first syllable** Dance shorthand needs a line to write over,on or through if you want the full power of the script. Depending on the position you know what vowel will be in the first syllable. over means [a,eι,αι] (quasi IPA notation in brackets), on the line [e,i], through the line [o,u]. **Implicit consonants** Dance can elongate or stretch characters to the right (without change in height of the character) to imply n/m (character * 2) or to imply (t/d/th) which is a doubledouble stretch. So all the orange letters shown above can be stretched 1:2:4. The letter th is the only character that can is stretched in y-axis. **Example**: If I want to write - _man_ I place the stretched m letter above the ground, so the letter will hover above the line, the same letter placed on the line would mean _men_ - _then_ I place a elongeted th stroke on the line like so: '|' **vowels/diphthongs** In dance you write only significant vowel-letters (certainly no lacy vowels), meaning those vowels who give the word its character: - Always write the starting vowel - write the second vowel of a diphthong only. Since many english diphthongs are composed by a,e,o and i,u you will write the latter mostly mid-word. Long vowels are diphthongs too! So you can easely distinguish _cut_ from _cute_. **Example** Write k 4 times stretched -> means kt, put that through line and you have written _cut_ it in one stroke. String k and u(4*longer) together and you wrote _cute_, when the k went through the line.

Flow shorthand **Flow shorthand stands on the shoulders of giants. ** Malone as well as Gregg adopted the the ellipses as defining forms, in an angle that allows nice cursive writing. Malone and Gregg chose a different approach to vocalisation though, in my oppinion the better solution over gregg who whose small circle for e/i. In Flow you dont write hardly noticeble utterances of vowels, this process of choosing the right sign for the spoken word is called transliteration: bird -> brd. BUT beat -> bit. So the e-hook is primarily used for long ee. But the hook also serves for connections that 'flow' in the same direction, the fun word 'sis' would be written with the hook, 'sus' with an even longer hook. Btw. it doesn't matter which way the hook is facing - but i prefer the u-shape. One thing that helps is to hook onto straight letters, it's just very easy to distinguish for obvious reasons. To be fast in writing (you can write as fast as someone else speaks) you need also abbreviations, a single letter representing prefixes or personal pronouns. For instance the letter 'a' (small circle) in conjunction with letter 'm' means the short phrase "I am" and if you append 'n', it's the negation "I am not". There is a system to the madness of course and this system will be presented in the next few articles! For now I am happy to see, what you can achieve on your own with it. Have fun!