"BREVIGRAPHY."

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1920, Page 9 (Supplement)

"BREVIGRAPHY."

A FRENCH RIVAL TO SHORTHAND. (From Times Paris Correspondent.) London Sept. ">. A revolution equal to the revolution which was caused by the invention of shorthand by Sir Isaac Pitman is being accomplished in France. There is now no' doubt that "brevigraphy," while it may not replace stenography, will at any nue permit everybody to express their own thoughts or to take down the speech of others with a facility and a speed which arc simply amazing. Tlie invention of brevigraphy in France has .caused much commotion. At the demonstrations of the system which are now taking place there are somewhat stormy scenes, owing to the opposition of the professional stenographers. This opposition is foolish and useless. If brevigraphy is what it is claimed to beam! there now seems no doubt about it—then it is better simply to accept it. Sooner or later the struggle will spread to England, and I propose, therefore, to indicate briefly what brevigraphy is. and what is claimed for it. It. is not for me to assert that all these claims are justified, but I have satisfied myself that brevigraphy is at any rate-worthy of the most serious attention. Brevigraphy, declares 11. Rnoul Duval, its inventor, can be learned in four hours, while stenography requires months. He has given several demonstrations which certainly seem to prove that his system, —let is be clearly stated—is not, a mere modification or an improvement of existing systems of shorthand-writing. The essential difference between the two methods is that stenography is written with special signs, while brevigraphy employs the letters of the alphabet and the conventional punctuation marks. Now these loiters and signs are known to all the world, and it follows that the work of a brevigraphcr can be read by all (he wo-ld. The fundamental fact about brevigraphy is that (he sounds of words are represented by letters or punctuation marks. 11 has taken M. Duval four years of hai;d work, during which he examined one by one practically all the words which compose the French language, to arrive at his elaborated system—an elaboration which is a simplification. In this brief notation of sounds there is no confusion. Resides the alphabet, he has used the Trench accents, such as 'the circumflex accent, (he acute accent, and so forth, full stops, commas, dashes... .Wliat he has not used are geometric' or cabalistic figures. Two or three letters, or a letter and a punctuation mark, represent, a word. It. will be appreciated, of course, that these - representations are not arbitrary, and that they may easily he remembered, It is better, however, to give a few prnmnlcs which will show clearly the underlying idea of brevigraphy. Here, then, are six or seven words, with their corrcponJing brevigraphie representations: Adaption a ft A Stenographic /n . : Subvention v ,\ Astrologue a/ : Amplcinent a II Secteur :. se Bonnenient | K , In subvention, for example, the '•," signifies "sub." and the "A" signifies the termination—not only, as in this word, the termination ''cntmn." but all modifications of the sufllx. as will be seen from the use of the "A" to siuiii-! fy the ending of adaption. It is ' mx . noees.-ary to go deeply into the rules. These few examples will show how the idea, may lie worked out. Whether M Duval has, indeed, -presented brevigraphy in ils final forfn may be open (o question. The system perhaps, will be improved. It is only necessary to note that the system exists, and that extraordinary results have already been shown. Doubtless, if brevigraphy is applied In another language, a new set of rules will have to be elaborated, V. Duval has worked on the French language, and somebody else will have to' work on the English Inncuait'e. 4 It may seem at flra.t siaht that these

rules «f abbreviation arc suflieiciitly complicated, but it would appear that in reality they are simple. The speed with which they can be learned is the most surprising thing about brevigraphy. M. Duval has produced pupils who, after two hours, have assimilated all his system, and have been able to hold their own with stenographers. On one occasion he took a number of persons at haphazard. They were completely ignorant of hrevigraphy. After a few hours' training he showed that they could take down from dictation isolated words at a speed of sixty to< eighty words a minute.