Elanite Shorthand

Thank you to Sam Houston for the creation of Elan Shorthand and the writing of this article.

Shorthand is the substitution of symbols or abbreviations for letters, words, or phrases that assists in rapid writing. Often used by reporters, lawyers, and minute-takers, the primary goal of shorthand systems is to allow a writer to record information at the speed of speech. Shorthand is also known as stenography (close, little, or narrow writing), tachygraphy (swift writing), and brachygraphy (short writing). There are two main types of shorthand that stenographers use, alphabetic and phonographic, and in Elan the phonographic shorthand is the most widely used. The main advantage is that it allows for the quick writing of words exactly as they sound without concern for spelling. Therefore it's far more accessible to most than proper penmanship.

Elan shorthand (also known as the Widderman-hand, named for its creator, Samish Widderman) is widely known for its free-handedness regarding rules (such as spelling and grammar). The main goal Widderman sought in its creation was just to ensure that “the point makes it across.” Additional rules were added some years after its creation for usage in court proceedings or in instances where the exact wording or verbiage was necessary to be retained as-is. Such additional rules include:

Usage of the Collated Accepted Abbreviations (or CAA) are required, for both speed and proficiency in reading. This includes the usage of symbols in place of certain words or phrases.

Where applicable, spelling must be retained (some exceptions are made for certain sounds such as K-C and U-O as the former of the pairs does not exist in the Widderman alphabet).

In more technical terms, Widderman-hand is a light-line, common-use phonetic-forward shorthand that uses a semi-script alphabet. This means that the shorthand is not dependent on line thickness to convey meaning and uses symbols based on the common alphabet to represent sounds. It is easier to read back and intuit the meaning of for those who are untaught in the shorthand than any previous shorthand systems. Due to this, it’s far easier for layman usage. As such, the Widderman shorthand quickly grew in popularity since its creation in 1848 and became used all across Elan. Historians state that it was especially popularized at the beginnings of industrialization, when direct transcription of conversations became more necessary and greatly important.

The Widderman-hand's alphabet is a collection of letters that imitate circles, each written from left-to-right to create the stroke. Learners often begin by creating muscle memory by drawing looping circles across a page, even before learning the alphabet itself. Then, with this physical memory, the writing of letters becomes far more convenient and second-nature.