A Manual of Phonography or Writing by Sound

A Manual of Phonography, or Writing by Sound is the foundational textbook for the Pitman shorthand system, written by Isaac Pitman who lived from 1813 to 1897 and who is best known as the inventor and chief popularizer of the shorthand writing system that bears his name. The Manual was first published in 1840 and went through many subsequent editions across the second half of the nineteenth century as the Pitman system became the dominant shorthand method used in Britain, the United States, and the various other countries where it was adopted for commercial and journalistic use.

The Pitman shorthand system, which Pitman called phonography or writing by sound, was a substantial improvement over the various earlier shorthand systems that had been used in Britain since the seventeenth century. Earlier systems had typically been based on the abbreviation of conventional spelling. Pitman’s innovation was to base his system instead on the actual sounds of spoken English, with distinct symbols for each consonant and vowel sound rather than for each conventional letter. The result was a system that could be written and read with substantially greater speed and accuracy than the earlier methods had allowed, and that was particularly well suited to verbatim recording of speech.

The Manual presents the system systematically, beginning with the basic principles and the alphabet of consonant and vowel symbols, working through the various rules for combining symbols into words and phrases, and concluding with practical exercises and sample passages for the student to practice. The text reflects Pitman’s serious commitment to the educational mission of his shorthand system and his belief that the rapid writing it enabled was a substantial democratic advance, making it possible for the speech of public figures and the proceedings of public bodies to be accurately recorded and disseminated to the broader public.

The Pitman shorthand system dominated commercial and journalistic shorthand use throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and is still in use in various forms today, although the development of audio recording technology has substantially reduced its practical importance. The Manual remains the basic introduction to the system for new learners.

The book runs about two hundred pages and is meant to be worked through systematically. For readers interested in the history of communication technology and of educational reform, this is an important nineteenth century document.