PROPER NAMES & FOREIGN SOUNDS

(A) PROPER NAMES

Names of people and places should be written with all their vowels, at least on the first occurrence:
 

John Johnnie Jan Jane Joan

Jean/Gene Jeannie June
 

Fred Freddie Freda Tom Tommy

James Jamie's, Jim Jimmy Gemma

Brian Brown Braine/Brayne Smith Smythe

(B) Short forms and contractions are not used for names:

Bean Butt England English Gard

Goodyear Hand Handley Howe Knorr

Large Liberty Lord Messenger

More Moore Most Mutch

Principal Speke Tell Very

Watt Wood Wye Yardley Young

Exceptions: these two use the short forms but must have the vowels signs written in:

Short Gold

Distinguishing outlines
 

Roger Richard, Robert Albert Alfred

It is useful to draw up a list of common names and place names for your country and area, in order to sort out any possible clashes and so be ready for when they occur, as an incorrect or ambiguous outline for a name is impossible to guess at later on.
 

SUMMARY

• Names must have all their vowel signs

• Short forms not used, with two exceptions, which must have their vowel signs

(C) FOREIGN SOUNDS

These methods are for isolated foreign words and phrases within English text, not for full utterances in those languages. They are written phonetically within the rules, using closest approximation of strokes and vowels:

These examples use normal English strokes and vowels for their sound, as they make a minimal attempt at the original pronunciation:

en masse, eau de Cologne, eau de Nil, déjà vu

rendezvous*, laissez faire, Molière vis-à-vis chutzpah

* See below for French pronunciation version

shalom Beijing Schwarzburg ersatz

Leipzig Kronstadt verboten zeitgeist

bête noire, chamois*, eau de toilette, armoire

* The Medial W sign at the end of an outline is not used in English outlines

écritoire Lavoisier mademoiselle mouchoir

noisette savoir-faire Tuileries pueblo

Use Yay stroke:

Bologna, El Niño, jalapeño

mañana Reykjavik, bon* voyage   * See below for nasal N

(I) Non-English Consonants

Write a small S shape through the stroke to change its sound. Use the stroke that has the nearest sound, depending on your knowledge of the other language:

Caen Dijon Chopin rendezvous

raison d’être, fin de siècle, cordon bleu*

 * See below for last vowel

Lyons Provence, Mont Blanc, Agincourt

sang-froid* soupçon Bach Liechtenstein

* The F stroke has a very shallow R Hook

Maastricht Schleswig loch MacCulloch

Llandudno Llanfair Dolgellau Donaghadee

(J) Non-English Vowels

Write a dash vowel parallel to the stroke in second place for eu ö and similar:

fleur-de-lis, je ne sais quoi, Pasteur

Goethe Köln Königsberg

Parallel dash vowel in third place for ue ü and similar:

De La Rue, Tussauds Müller Krüger Tübingen

SUMMARY

• Write foreign sounds with closest approximation

• Use Medial W sign and stroke Yay

• Small S shape through consonant stroke to signify a changed sound

• Parallel dash as an alternative vowel sign

There are no exercises for the above foreign words and sounds, as they do not need to be learned, the examples are to show how to form such words.

Systems for the entire languages produced by Pitman Publishing in the past have differing usages, as they do not have to accommodate any English words and can re-use strokes and vowel signs for different purposes. These are all very slim volumes with minimal practice matter, and may be obtained secondhand, as they are not recent:

Pitman New Era French Shorthand by Dorothy Tarl - for the writer who already knows English Pitman. A few English methods are carried over, to reduce the workload in learning and transcribing, therefore not so suitable for a French writer starting from scratch.

Stenographie Pitman par Spencer Herbert - Written entirely in French and adapted  solely for French, with no English methods carried over, much better suited for the French speaker.

German Shorthand, An adaption of Pitman New Era Shorthand to the German Language, Pitman - Rules are given in English and German on alternate lines

Curso Moderno de Taquigrafia Pitman por Jane Piercy (Chile) - Written by the "Directora de la Sección Comercial en el Instituo Chileno-Británico de Cultura de Santiago de Chile", therefore one might assume this is Chilean Spanish.

Llaw-fer Yn Gymraeg - Welsh Pitman's Shorthand

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