Concept in Definition ABC

Most historical sources confirm that the Phoenicians were the creators of the writing alphabetical about 3,500 years ago. In principle, written records were intended for commercial and administrative matters, but with the passage of time the use of the alphabet was adapted to the literature and other activities in which the spelling It is the genuine item.

The Romans introduced the custom of abbreviating some words in common use (SC stood for Senatus Consultos and the capital letter F stood for filius, son).

The writing was adapted to various everyday circumstances (very especially in the politics and in the bureaucracy). However, to write it was a slow and laborious process and this made it difficult to take proper notes, for example when speakers were speaking in the Senate. This technical difficulty made it necessary to invent a system to make writing faster. It is known that it was in ancient Rome that the first abbreviated writing system appeared (the first

antecedent from shorthand it is known as Tironian Notes, which has this name in honor of its creator, Marco Tulio Tirón, who was Cicero's personal secretary). Historians agree that Marco Tulio Tirón is the true initiator of shorthand.

The shorthand technique of the Romans was carried out on waxed tablets and an awl or style (hence the word fountain pen) that was used to write as if it were a draft. Later the notes taken with the Tironian Notes were transferred to papyrus or parchment, the old versions of the paper. The effectiveness The abbreviated writing was soon adapted to legal and political activity (particularly in the taking of statements of the trials, in the debates in the different assemblies and in the intervention speakers in the Senate).

Evolution of shorthand and its current meaning

The contribution of the Romans was decisive so that from the seventeenth century some European nations created their own fast writing system. The term shorthand began to be used by the Englishman Thomas Shelton in the 17th century (Tachygraphy was the title of the first treatise on short writing). The systematization Shelton's made shorthand quickly become an instrumental technique of great relevance for all kinds of activities. The alphabet that he invented was based on curved and straight lines and combinations of both, which represented vowels and consonants.

Shorthand is still used today, although its use is somewhat restricted. In the various parliaments, the stenographers are in charge of taking note of everything that the representatives of the people say. This aspect can attract attention in the middle of the digital age, but to this day, no system has been found that can definitively replace shorthand.

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