Stiefografie, also called Stiefo or Rationelle Stenografie (Rational Shorthand), is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...

system. It was invented by Helmut Stief (1906–1977), a German press and parliamentary stenographer, and first published in 1966. Helmut Stief was dissatisfied with the

Deutsche Einheitskurzschrift (, German Unified Shorthand) is a German stenography system. DEK is the official shorthand system in Germany and Austria today. It is used for word-for-word recordings of debates in the Federal Parliament of Germany. Development The original ...

so he created a much simpler alternative system. According to Stief the

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ous shorthand system Stiefografie can be quickly learned within a very short time. There are only 25 characters to learn in the first level Grundschrift (business script).

Writing

The system has only a minimum number of rules. Like most systems of shorthand, Stiefografie is a

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

system. Sounds and words are written as they are spoken. Silent letters are ignored. The

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...

signs are made by simplifying the features of

cursive Cursive (also known as script, among other names) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionalit ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

letters. Vowel signs are only used when a vowel stands at the end of a word. Vowels in the beginning or in the middle of words are represented symbolically by varying the position of the following consonant signs. Stiefografie does not employ shading (variation of thickness of strokes) to distinguish

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

symbols. Shading is nowadays difficult to achieve with a

ballpoint pen A ballpoint pen, also known as a biro (British English), ball pen (Hong Kong, Indian and Philippine English), or dot pen ( Nepali) is a pen that dispenses ink (usually in paste form) over a metal ball at its point, i.e. over a "ball point". ...

, a

stylus A stylus (plural styli or styluses) is a writing utensil or a small tool for some other form of marking or shaping, for example, in pottery. It can also be a computer accessory that is used to assist in navigating or providing more precision w ...

or finger input for smart phones or tablet computers. The

punctuation Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...

marks

full stop The full stop (Commonwealth English), period (North American English), or full point , is a punctuation mark. It is used for several purposes, most often to mark the end of a declarative sentence (as distinguished from a question or exclamation ...

semicolon The semicolon or semi-colon is a symbol commonly used as orthographic punctuation. In the English language, a semicolon is most commonly used to link (in a single sentence) two independent clauses that are closely related in thought. When a ...

and

comma The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline ...

are not used because they look like some brief forms of very frequent German words in Aufbauschrift (speed script and speech script) and could be confused with these words. These punctuation marks are replaced by different space intervals between the sentences and phrases.

Division of the system

Stiefografie shorthand is written in three levels: Grundschrift (business script), Aufbauschrift I (speed script I) and Aufbauschrift II (speech script II). ''Grundschrift'' can be produced at a rate of 100 to 120 syllables per

minute The minute is a unit of time usually equal to (the first sexagesimal fraction) of an hour, or 60 seconds. In the UTC time standard, a minute on rare occasions has 61 seconds, a consequence of leap seconds (there is a provision to insert a nega ...

. There are only 24 characters for consonants and combinations of consonants (e.g. sch, sp, st). Contrary to the practice in many English shorthand systems (e.g. Pitman Shorthand), vowels are never omitted. There are no brief forms for the most frequent

syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...

s and words of the German language in this first level. ''Aufbauschrift I'' can be produced up to 160 syllables per minute. There are 54 brief forms for the most frequent words and syllables in the German language and rules for forming free abbreviations. These brief forms are distinguishable by size and position (three of them: above, below, or on the base line). Special endings and syllables can be omitted. There are more than additional 120 brief forms in ''Aufbauschrift II'' to write up to about 400 syllables per minute. It is possible to omit special consonants, vowels and syllables.

References

* Brandenburg, Josef: Welche Bewandtnis hat es mit der Stiefografie?, in: Deutsche Stenografenzeitung 10/1976, p. 205–211 * Dominik, Dieter Wilhelm and others: Links-Stenografie für die Deutsche Sprache. Erster Teil: Grundschrift, Hanau 1977 * Dominik, Dieter Wilhelm and others: Links-Stenografie für die Deutsche Sprache. Zweiter Teil: Aufbauschrift, Hanau 1977 * Gunkel, Horst: Rationelle Stenografie. Anleitung zum Selbststudium, Hanau 2004 * Gunkel, Horst: Rationelle Steno. Aufbauschrift II, Hanau 1981, 2nd edition * Kaden, Walter: Neue Geschichte der Stenographie. Von der Entstehung der Schrift bis zur Stenographie der Gegenwart, Dresden 1999 * Karpenstein, Hans: Was ist „Stiefografie“?, in: Der Stenografielehrer. Wissenschaftliche Monatsschrift zur Förderung des Unterrichts in Kurzschrift, Maschinenschreiben und verwandten Gebieten 5/1966, p. 115–118 * Köster, Rudolf: Eigennamen im deutschen Wortschatz. Ein Lexikon, Berlin 2003 -

Eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

„Stiefografie“ * Mentz, Arthur and others: Geschichte der Kurzschrift, Wolfenbüttel 1981, 3rd edition * Moser, Franz and others: Lebendige Kurzschriftgeschichte. Ein Führer durch Kurzschriftlehre und Kurzschriftgeschichte, Darmstadt 1990, 9th edition * Stief, Helmut: Rationelle Stenografie. Aufbauschrift I, Hanau 2006, 22nd edition * Stief, Helmut: Stiefografie, das Kurzschriftalfabet der deutschen Sprache. Lernanweisung für die Grundschrift, Frankfurt am Main 1975, 27th edition * Stiefografie, in: Shorthand Systems, p. 67 - 69, Memphis/Tennessee 2010

External links (German language pages)

More information about Stiefografie

* ttp://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-46414983.html Kampf um Krakel, in: DER SPIEGEL 45/1966 (31.10.1966), p. 174
Stenografie für Linkshänder, in: Hamburger Abendblatt 300/1976 (24.12.1976), p. 22

Article in an Eponym Dictionary by Rudolf Köster: Eigennamen im deutschen Wortschatz. Ein Lexikon, Berlin 2003

Article in the German Orthography Dictionary DUDEN. Das große Fremdwörterbuch, Mannheim 2007, 4th edition
{Dead link, date=June 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=no Shorthand systems Writing systems