DOCSLIB.ORG

Evaluation of Feature Sets in the Post Processing of Handwritten Pitman's

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Evaluation of Feature Sets in the Post Processing of Handwritten Pitman's Evaluation of Feature Sets in the Post Processing of Handwritten Pitman’s Shorthand Swe Myo Htwe, Colin Higgins Graham Leedham, Ma Yang The University of Nottingham, Nanyang Technological University, School of Computer Science and IT, School of Computer Engineering, Wallaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK N4-#2a-32 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798 [email protected], [email protected] [email protected], [email protected] Abstract moving the stylus until a word or a sentence has been fully written) is not conducive to a natural feeling of Innovative ways to rapidly input text becomes essential writing. High-speed text entry is particularly essential for in today’s world of mobile computing. The paper mobile rapid note-takers. Today’s stenographers spend discusses the computer transcription of handwritten time transcribing paper-based shorthand notes because Pitman shorthand as a means of rapid text entry to pen- their handheld devices like Tablet PCs or Personal Digital based computers, particularly from the aspect of Assistants (PDAs) are not productive enough to record linguistic post processing. Feature-to-phoneme speech in real time. It is therefore appropriate to develop conversion is introduced as the first stage of a text- a technique in which text can be written on a digitizer in a interpreter and the application of various production very comfortable and natural way, preferably at the speed rules based on different pattern structures is discussed. It of speech (120 – 180 wpm). demonstrates that phoneme ordering is compulsory in This paper proposes the computer transcription of dictionary-based transcription and the use of an Pitman shorthand as a means to increase the compatibility approximate pattern-matching algorithm resolves the of handheld devices in the real-time reporting industry. problem of recognition confusion between similar With a Pitman shorthand recognizer, users could input patterns. Experimental results are promising and text at an average rate of over 100 words per minute by demonstrate an overall accuracy of 84%. using standard shorthand notations and semantic transcription can be achieved by the use of menus, 1. Introduction approximate phoneme matching, or an automatic collocation analyzer. In this paper, we overview the overall process of the recognition and interpretation of Handheld computing creates an environment where handwritten Pitman shorthand and then introduce an people have both mobility and the ability to send, receive efficient algorithm by which basic primitives of Pitman and process information. Whilst today’s handheld devices shorthand such as loops, circles, strokes or hooks are have transformed into powerful pocket-sized computers, interpreted into orthographic English. the transformation of a standard “QWERTY” keyboard into these handheld devices has not been so effective. 1.1. Background Miniature keyboards make text entry very slow (less than 10 words per minute (wpm) [1]. Handwriting recognition Pitman shorthand was invented by Sir Issac Pitman in systems like Unistroke and Graffiti are alternative means 1873. There are two main forms: - classic New Era and of text input to pen-based computers, but writing New Pitman 2000. Although both of them are based on individual characters on a smooth digitizer still results in the same principles, New Era notation is slightly faster to slow text input of less than 10wpm. Other rapid write but more difficult to learn than the Pitman 2000. It handwriting input methods like, T-Cube [2] and was widely used in offices in the UK and also taught in 74 Quickwriting [3], allow a user to compose entire words or other countries [4]. Pitman’s shorthand records speech even sentences as a single outline. However their phonetically and it comprises phonemes of 24 constants, restrictions towards gestures (e.g. a user must never stop 12 vowels, and 4 diphthongs. It also defines Proceedings of the 9th Int’l Workshop on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition (IWFHR-9 2004) 0-7695-2187-8/04 $20.00 © 2004 IEEE approximately 90 of the most frequently used English primitives into related phonemes. We refer to this process words as short-forms i.e., special signs written without as “Feature to Phoneme Conversion (FtoP)”. In an early vowel components. Basic notations of Pitman shorthand part of “FtoP”, we use an approximate pattern-matching and sample outlines are illustrated in Figure 1. algorithm in which user-dependent stroke variations or wrong vowel allocations are adjusted. The output of “FtoP” is a ranked list of phonemes and they are later discriminated by a phonetic dictionary and matched to a list of homophones at the word level transcription. In sentence level transcription, the homophones are passed through a collocation analyzer, where each word is justified by its frequent use with another word or phrase and the most probable word is selected by the system i.e., “Internet” in the following example (Figure 2). Figure 1. Samples of Pitman shorthand outlines The potential of Pitman shorthand [5][6] as a means of rapid pen-driven text entry to a computer has been reported since the 1980’s. Subsequent works by Brooks et al [7][8] introduced the computer transcription of Pitman’s shorthand as an aid for the deaf by providing a real-time transcript of lectures and meetings. Research in the 1990’s[9][10] classified the whole Pitman shorthand into two types: vocalized outlines and shortforms and applied different AI methods in their recognition and transcription. Another recent approach by Nagabhushan et al [11][12] concentrated on the post processing of segmented basic features such as loops or hooks being interpreted to English text using heuristic methods. 2. Overview of Our System Shorthand outlines are fed into the recognition engine as shown in Figure 2 and differentiated between a vocalized outline and a short-form. Short-forms are Figure 2. Illustration of the computer recognized separately from vocalized outlines using a transcription of Pitman shorthand Template Matching Algorithm in which a ranked list of English words is produced. Therefore, the transcription 3. Transcription system no longer needs to be concerned with short-forms at the word level transcription. As for vocalized outlines, 3.1. Approximate pattern matching the recognizer segments them into basic primitives i.e., strokes, hooks, circles or loops using dominant point Handwritten outlines are bound to differ in angular information as a threshold value. Then, the segmented structures from writer to writer and even from the same data are matched up with the features of basic consonants writer from time to time. Another problem in the and categorized into a ranked list of phoneme primitives transcription of handwritten Pitman shorthand is that using a neural network classifier. Due to the difficulty of vowels are not written clearly between dot and dash and accurately detecting pen pressure on normal digitizers, neither are they put at an accurate position i.e., at the phonemes with different line thickness like “P” and beginning, middle or end of an outline. In the pre- “B” are clustered as the same type. In some cases, the processing, the recognition engine detects a ranked list of classifier is unable to classify a single primitive as a candidates for individual primitives, but it cannot cope whole consonant outline, for example, outlines of “W” with user-dependent or accidental pen strokes. For and “Y” are classified separately as a small hook example, if the “T” consonant is accidentally written as a ( or ) and a stroke written upwards . Therefore, an vertical curve instead of a vertical straight stroke , the additional step is needed to correctly interpret clustered recognizer does not estimate the curve as a vertical stroke. Proceedings of the 9th Int’l Workshop on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition (IWFHR-9 2004) 0-7695-2187-8/04 $20.00 © 2004 IEEE Approximate pattern matching is, in fact, a heuristic vowel primitives. Samples of neighborhoods are shown approach in which uncertain pen strokes are coped with in Figure 3 and the use of approximate pattern matching and wrong vowel locations are estimated. It uses the algorithm is illustrated in Figure 4. nearest neighbor query and the heuristic is based on the similarity between the two patterns. 3.2 Features to Phonemes Conversion Function Name : Return value APPROXIMATE_PATTERN_MATCH(pattern) : Once a vocalized outline has been classified into A list of similar primitives pattern primitives of hooks, circles and strokes, it is Begin necessary to convert these feature primitives into a pattern: a sample input pattern phonetic representation. In fact, around 20% of the pattern Heu-Fn : a heuristic function primitives can be directly mapped to basic consonants, Return NEAREST-NEIGHBOR-QUERY(pattern, and the remaining 80% of the primitives need to be Heu-Fn) translated by the application of production rules of Pitman End shorthand. Similar to the work of Leedham and Downton The heuristic function (Heu-Fn) can be defined as [4], the production rules are applied with respect to the H (p) = nearest neighbor primitives which are neighbours stroke primitives of the consonant kernel, and their similar to pattern ‘p’ adjacent primitives. Primitives with similar structure are defined as the Basically, there are five production rules introduced in nearest neighbors and the whole Pitman primitives are our system: - “Direct Translation (DT)”, “Primitive located to seven neighborhoods where, four of them are Combination (PC)”,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • SOUTHERN LISU DICTIONARY Qaaaqrc Qbq[D @^J Hell Ebll Ell
    STEDT Monograph Series, No. 4 James A. Matisoff, general editor SOUTHERN LISU DICTIONARY QaaaqRc Qbq[d @^j Hell Ebll ell David Bradley with Edward Reginald Hope, James Fish and Maya Bradley Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus Project Center for Southeast Asia Studies University of California, Berkeley 2006 © 2005 David Bradley All Rights Reserved ISBN 0-944613-43-8 Volume #4 in the STEDT Monograph Series Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus Project <http://stedt.berkeley.edu/> Department of Linguistics research unit in International and Area Studies University of California, Berkeley Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus Monograph Series General Editor JAMES A. MATISOFF University of California, Berkeley Previous Titles in the STEDT Monograph Series: STEDT MONOGRAPH NO. 1A: Bibliography of the International Conferences on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics I-XXV (second edition) STEDT MONOGRAPH NO. 2: Annotated Directory of Tibeto-Burman Languages and Dialects (revised) STEDT MONOGRAPH NO. 3: Phonological Inventories of Tibeto- Burman Languages Author’s Dedication: for my Lisu friends CONTENTS Series Editor’s Introduction vii Introduction xv The Lisu xv Lisu Phonology xviii Lisu Orthographies xxv Lisu Syntax xxviii Acknowledgements xxix References xxxi Hel Bck Ubl (Lisu Introduction) xxxiii List of Abbreviations xxxiv @ b 1 @\ bj 14 A p 17 A\ pj 31 B pæ 33 B\ pæj 42 C d 45 D t 56 E tæ 70 F g 80 G k 87 H kæ 101 I dÔ 112 J tΔ 121 K tΔæ 133 L dz 146 M ts 155 N tsæ 163 O m 173 O\ mj 194 P n 198
    [Show full text]
  • Diploma in Commercia in Commercial Practice. Mercial Practice
    C-20 2020 -21 ಕ?ಾ+ಟಕ ಸ,ಾ+ರ GOVERNMENT OF KARNATAKA ,ಾHೇಜು ಮತು_ ;ಾಂ^ಕ Eಣ ಇHಾ-ೆ DEPARTMENT OF COLLEGIATE AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION Diploma in Commercial Practice. With Effect from 2020 -21 C-20 Cu rriculum Development Cell Directorate of Technical Education Page 1 Diploma in Commercial Practice C-20 Vision • To make the students as Professionals of International Standards in Office/ Administration/Industry/Services covering the Core areas of Corporate andGovernment Sectors. Mission • The programme supports the students through quality teaching and Leaning practices that provides a supportive environment, promoting intellectual, ethical and secretarial skills. • The programme invokes the desire and ability of lifelong learning in the students for pursuing successful career. • Strengthening the inter-institutional linkage with the professional organizations, accrediting agencies, statutory authorities who share common responsibilities. The mission of the Commercial Practice Program is to benefit the society at large by Programme Educational Objectives (PEOs) Program Educational Objective (PEO’s) Program Educational Objective I • To prepare students for a continuous learning in order to meet changing demands of the Industry and make them successful Professionals. Program Educational Objective II • To provide students a strong foundation in the core areas of business and Industry, Program Educational Objective III • To inculcate team work,Life skills ,environmental issues and professional ethics, social responsibilities and need for life time learning. Directorate of Technical Education Karnataka State Page 2 Diploma in Commercial Practice C-20 CONSISTENCY MATRIX OF PEO’S WITH MISSION Adapt to Higher Team Self Leadership Societal Environmental S.N PEO statements Industry Learning Spirit Learning Qualities Needs Concern To prepare students for a continuous learning in order to meet changing 1 demands of the Industry and make them successful Professionals.
    [Show full text]
  • Handwritten Shorthand and Its Future Potential for Fast Mobile Text Entry
    Handwritten shorthand and its future potential for fast mobile text entry Author Leedham, Graham, Ma, Yang, Blumenstein, Michael Published 2009 Journal Title International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence DOI https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218001409007405 Copyright Statement Electronic version of an article published as International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence (IJPRAI), Volume: 23, Issue: 5(2009) pp. 1031-1051, http:// dx.doi.org/10.1142/S0218001409007405. Copyright World Scientific Publishing Company http:// www.worldscinet.com/ijprai/ijprai.shtml Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/29652 Link to published version http://www.worldscinet.com/ijprai/ijprai.shtml Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au HANDWRITTEN SHORTHAND AND ITS FUTURE POTENTIAL FOR FAST MOBILE TEXT ENTRY GRAHAM LEEDHAM School of Science and Technology, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales 2351, Australia [email protected] YANG MA School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798 [email protected] MICHAEL BLUMENSTEIN School of Information and Communication Technology, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Queensland 4222, Australia [email protected] Abstract . Handwritten shorthand systems were devised to enable writers to record information on paper at fast speeds, ideally at the speed of speech. While they have been in existence for many years it is only since the 17 th Century that widespread usage appeared. Several shorthand systems flourished until the introduction and widespread use of electronic recording and dictation machines in the 1970’s. Since then, shorthand usage has been in rapid decline, but has not yet become a lost skill. Pitman shorthand has been shown to possess unique advantages as a means of fast text entry which is particularly applicable to hand-held devices in mobile environments.
    [Show full text]
  • Shorthand Vocabulary
    1 Mural from the Exhibition “SPOKEN WORDS FLY AWAY, WRITTEN WORDS REMAIN" at the House of Representatives - Brazil (May, 2011) * 2 FOREWORD This work is the result of an invitation made to me last year by Prof. Boris Neubauer, Chairman of the INTERSTENO Scientific and Educational Committee. He proposed for me to develop a vocabulary of shorthand terms in Portuguese to be published in the organization's website. The Vocabulary was to aim more towards words, terms and expressions used by professional stenographers when at work. As one idea leads to another, and as I am used to reading shorthand textbooks, I began to collect diligently words, terms and expressions usually used and repeated in these books. In all, I exhaustively scrutinized 31 textbooks, covering various authors and shorthand systems. I am exceedingly gratified in being able to present to the public the result of that scrutiny. This paper does not have the intention of exhausting the subject. Rather, it may, as time passes, be enlarged and enriched with new entries. There is a great amount and variety of specific words and expressions used in teaching/learning shorthand writing, whether in relation to the specific terminology used to refer to the shorthand signs of each particular system, or to the generic terms of this very shortened writing system – that due to its abbreviated nature, enables writing speeds several times greater than longhand. I hope this collection serves as a subsidy for all those that are either interested in teaching/learning shorthand or are simply lovers of this art and wish to know the vast terminology used in this field.
    [Show full text]
  • Two Related Indigenous Writing Systems: Canada's Syllabic and China's A-Hmao Scripts
    TWO RELATED INDIGENOUS WRITING SYSTEMS: CANADA'S SYLLABIC AND CHINA'S A-HMAO SCRIPTS R. Alison Lewis University of Lincoln Lincoln LN6 7TS United Kingdom Louis-Jacques Dorais Departement d'anthropologie Universite Laval Quebec, Quebec Canada, G1 K 7P4 Abstract I Resume Around 1840, a team of Ojibwa and Cree speakers working with Rev. James Evans, a British Wesleyan missionary, developed a syllabic writ­ ing system which disseminated rapidly among the Cree and other north­ ern Canadian Aboriginal nations. Some 65 years later, in 1904, another Methodist, Rev. Samuel Pollard, who also worked in close collaboration with local people, supervised the elaboration of a script for transcribing the language of the A-hmao, an Aboriginal minority in south-western China. This article tells the story ofthese two writing systems, discusses the evidence of a connection between them, and describes their similar educational role in terms of social empowerment. Vers 1840, une equipe formee de locuteurs de I'ojibway et du cri travaillant en collaboration avec Ie Reverend James Evans, un missionnaire wesleyen d'origine britannique, developpa un systeme d'ecriture syllabique qui se repandit rapidement chez les Cris et d'autres nations autochtones du Nord canadien. Quelque 65 ans plus tard, en 1904, un autre methodiste, Ie Reverend Samuel Pollard, qui travaillait lui aussi en etroite collaboration avec les populations locales,supervisa l'elaboration d'une ecriture pour transcrire la langue des A-hmao, une minorite autochtone du sud-ouest de la Chine. Cet article raconte l'histoire de ces deux systemes d'ecriture, discute d'une relation probable entre eux, et decrit leur role educatif en termes d'outils de pouvoir social.
    [Show full text]
  • Machine Compatible Script for Fast Text Entry of Text Using Handwriting
    This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Machine compatible script for fast text entry of text using handwriting Ma, Yang 2005 Ma, Y. (2005). Machine compatible script for fast text entry of text using handwriting. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/2389 https://doi.org/10.32657/10356/2389 Nanyang Technological University Downloaded on 04 Oct 2021 19:38:41 SGT ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY A MACHINE COMPATIBLE SCRIPT FOR FAST ENTRY OF TEXT USING HANDWRITING Ma Yang A thesis submitted to Nanyang Technological University in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Division of Computing Systems School of Computer Engineering 2005 ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to my supervisor, Prof. Graham Leedham, who is an endless source of enthusiasm, ideas, and patience. It was him who led me into this exciting area of pattern recognition, and has offered me constant encouragement and advice throughout the last three years. I hope I have learned from him not just his broad knowledge, but his insights, inspiration, and his way of conducting research. I gratefully acknowledge Prof. Colin Higgins and his Ph.D student Swe Myo Htwe from Nottingham University. It is a pleasure to work with them on this project. I benefited a lot from discussions with them. Special thanks to Ms Lynn, Gao Hongliang, Lu mingchun, Feng Yunshan, Daisy Chang, Francis chan, Niang Niang Maw, Yang minhua for their time and patience to write evaluation samples for this project.
    [Show full text]
  • Pitman's Shorthand Instructor : a Complete Exposition of Sir Isaac Pitman's System of Shrothand
    rb158,515 Presented to the LIBRARY of the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO by Gopp» Clark Pitman Ltd. PITMAN’S SHORTHAND INSTRUCTOR NEW ERA EDITION PITMAN^S JOURNAL OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION The oldest and largest weekly journal devoted to Pitman's Shorthand and all Commercial Subjects. Every issue contains shorthand reading practice, with key, specially adapted for students at various stages. 2d. Weekly PITMAN^S SHORTHAND WEEKLY An illustrated weekly periodical in beautiful Shorthand, without a key. Provision is made for the beginner, the intermediate student, and the advanced writer. 2d. Weekly PITMAN’S SHORTHAND INSTRUCTOR A COMPLETE EXPOSITION OF SIR ISAAC PITMAN’S SYSTEM OF SHORTHAND NEW ERA EDITION LONDON SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, LTD., PARKER STREET, W.C.2 BATH : PHONETIC INSTITUTE MELBOURNE : THE RIALTO, COLLINS STREET TORONTO : 70 BOND STREET NEW YORK : 2 WEST 45th STREET Copyright This edition of Sir Isaac Pitman’s System of Shorthand IS THE EXCLUSIVE COPYRIGHT OF Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., AND IT WILL BE AN INFRINGEMENT OF SUCH COPYRIGHT IF MATTER FROM IT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY PUBLICATION WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION. The Right of Translation is Reserved. PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE PITMAN PRESS, BATH PREFACE he system of shorthand writing presented in T the following pages was invented by Sir Isaac Pitman, who in 1837 published his first treatise on the art. In 1840 the second edition of his work appeared, under the title “ Phonography, or Writing by Sound, being also a New and Natural System of Shorthand.** In the numerous editions of Phonography published in succeeding years, many improvements were introduced.
    [Show full text]
  • Automatized Generation of Alphabets of Symbols
    Automatized Generation of Alphabets of Symbols Serhii Hamotskyi∗, Anis Rojbiy, Sergii Stirenko∗, and Yuri Gordienko∗ ∗Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Kyiv, Ukraine, Email: [email protected] yLaboratoire THIM (Technologies, Handicaps, Interfaces et Multimodalits), University Paris 8, Paris, France Abstract—In this paper, we discuss the generation of symbols to meanings, which potentially may overcome many of these (and alphabets) based on specific user requirements (medium, limitations. The section II. Characteristics of a Rational Al- priorities, type of information that needs to be conveyed). A phabet contains the short characterization of basic terms and framework for the generation of alphabets is proposed, and its use for the generation of a shorthand writing system is explored. parameters of alphabets. The section III. Requirements for We discuss the possible use of machine learning and genetic the needed alphabet includes an example description of the algorithms to gather inputs for generation of such alphabets requirements posed for alphabets used for shorthand systems. and for optimization of already generated ones. The alphabets The section IV. Generation of Glyphs proposes a method generated using such methods may be used in very different for the generation of glyphs with examples. The section V. fields, from the creation of synthetic languages and constructed scripts to the creation of sensible commands for multimodal Evaluation of Glyphs and Alphabets contains discussion of interaction through Human-Computer Interfaces, such as mouse fitness of glyphs/alphabets in relation to machine learning gestures, touchpads, body gestures, eye-tracking cameras, and methods. The section VI. Discussion and future work dedicated brain-computing Interfaces, especially in applications for elderly to discussion of the results obtained and lessons learned.
    [Show full text]
  • Pitman's Shorthand Online Tutorial Pah Māy Wē All Gō Tōō Thăt Pĕn Ĭs
    NATIONAL SHORTHAND SCHOOL (BOOKS) Pitman’s Shorthand Online Tutorial LESSON – 3 INTERVENING VOWELS : POSITION WRITING : GRAMMALOGUES The two sentences below reminds you of the six long vowels and six corresponding short vowels written with heavy dot , heavy dash , light dot and light dash with their places. Memorize it. The following sentence reminds you the sequence of long vowels . Pah māy wē all gō tōō 1st place 2nd place 3rd place 1st place 2nd place 3rd place heavy dot heavy dot heavy dot heavy dash heavy dash heavy dash The following sentence reminds you the sequence of short vowels. th ăt pĕn ĭs nŏt mŭch goo d 1st place 2nd place 3rd place 1st place 2nd place 3rd place light dot light dot light dot light dash light dash light dash You were also explained preceding vowels and following vowels and their placement. Now you will learn the intervening vowels: INTERVENING VOWELS Any vowel occurring between two strokes is called intervening vowel , thus p am, f ame, p ea k, b ou ght, d oo r, d ee p, b ack, b et, b it, top, b ug, t oo k. Look at the outlines for the words with intervening vowels occurring between two consonant strokes. There are certain rules for writing the vowels between strokes, for convenience in writing and also for deciphering them later. A first place vowel occurring between two strokes is written after first stroke A second place vowel occurring between two strokes is written after first stroke A third place vowel occurring between two strokes is written before second 1 stroke Page In the service of Twin Arts for over 25 Years | Visit www.nssbooks.com NATIONAL SHORTHAND SCHOOL (BOOKS) Pitman’s Shorthand Online Tutorial Exceptions for compound words The above rules for intervening vowels do not apply for compound words like head-ache , ear-ache , etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Of the Deseret Alphabet
    Creating a New Alphabet for Zion: The Origin of the Deseret Alphabet BY DOUGLAS D. ALDER, PAULA J. GOODFELLOW, AND RONALD G. WATT II C;ror;r(-~I). i,l'o//.I.',-om o h~ogr-trf)li~I)! Idrr TI"rr/t .St~-irrgh(rrnrrrzd Dorri 1.'1(1(.1<. INTHE 1850s TIIE MORMONSETTLERS IN UTAHwere battling for their very lives. Their first decade of buildinq an empire in The Great Basin had just begun and was still experimental. Yet, amid this struggle for survival, Mormon leaders decided to undertake a basic reform of the English language. They chose to divert time and precious hard currency to create a new alphabet, hardly an action that would yield crops or converts. Nevertheless, they made it the first agenda item of their fledgling University of Deseret, founded in 1850. What motivated their utopianism? What tradition did they Dr. Alder is professor of history and geogl-aphy at Utah Statc University: ,Ms. Goodfellow is a graduate student in linguistics at thc University of Michigan; Dr. Watt is arl archivist in the Historical Llepartment, Church 01. Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 2 76 Utah Historical Quarterly join in the long line of linguistic dreamers? Where did they turn for their ideas? Did they invent this so-called Deseret Alphabet or did they link into a larger effort to perfect the English language? These questions surround the peculiar story of Utah's Deseret Alphabet. Everyone who uses the English language has some trouble with spelling; many people have trbuble with it all the time.
    [Show full text]
  • Practice Letters for Beginners in Shorthand. 61 Pp.; Price, Sse. in Ordinary Type. a Dictation Book on Unique Lines, Be Ginnirig
    BOOKS OF PRACTICAL VALUE PRACTICE LETTERS FOR BEGINNERS IN SH THAND 1 OR . 6 pp . ; price, sse. dictation b k on uni In r r t . A o dina y yp e oo que lines , be ginnirig with the fi rs t p rincip les and develop imn in harmony ith the authoritative textbooks of Isaac Pitman ghorth w and . PITMAN’ S PROGRESSIVE DICTATOR . 268 pp. , cl il ce oth, g t; pri , 8se. A C om lete Manual of Dictation cor risin selecti ons of p , n g original lette rs relating to twenty- seven erc ut lines of busi nes s arran ed ith vocabularies f en r v h , g w o g a ed s orthand outlines m r and p hrases , and the atte c ounte d for timing at varyi ng rates of s eed . his or should be i n the hands of each student p T w k . PITMAN’S SHORTHAND WRITING EKER CISE S AND EXAMINATION TESTS. Cloth, ilt g , 220 pp . 6oc . This work contains exhaustive c las sified lis ts of words illus r t ative of every rule in the s ys te m, and over one hundred aduate d sentence exercises in ordinary p rint for writing or grtati on p ractice . ISAA ITMAN’ S SHORTHAND DICTION C P ARY. C n E ti n . cl il e tenary di o , 336 pp oth, g t; price , C ontaining the Rep orting Outlines p rinte d from engraved shorthand charac ters of 62 000 ords and eo ra hical nam , , w g g p es , K 1n rdi r with ey o na y typ e .
    [Show full text]
  • Linguistic Issues in Encoding Sanskrit. Peter M. Scharf and Malcolm D. Hyman. 2010
    i “LIES” — 2011/6/21 — 15:43 — page i — #1 i i i Linguistic Issues in Encoding Sanskrit Peter M. Scharf Malcolm D. Hyman Brown University MPIWG June 21, 2011 i i i i i “LIES” — 2011/6/21 — 15:43 — page iv — #2 i i i iv Scharf, Peter M. and Malcolm D. Hyman. Linguistic Issues in Encoding Sanskrit. Providence: The Sanskrit Library, 2011. Copyright c 2011 by The Sanskrit Library. All rights reserved. Repro- duction in any medium is restricted. i i i i i “LIES” — 2011/6/21 — 15:43 — page v — #3 i i i Foreword by GEORGE CARDONA Questions surrounding the encoding of speech have been considered since scholars began to consider the history of different writing systems and of writing itself. In modern times, attention has been paid to such issues as standardizing systems for portraying in Roman script the scripts used for recording other languages, and this has given rise to discussions about distinctions such as that between transliteration and transcription. In re- cent times, moreover, the advent and general use of digital technology has allowed us not only to replicate with relative ease details of various scripts and to produce machine searchable texts but also to reproduce images of manuscripts that can be viewed and manipulated, a true boon to philologists in that they are thus enabled to consult and study mate- rials with all the details found in original manuscripts, such as different hands that can be discerned and clues to modifications made due to fea- tures of different scripts. At the source of such endeavors lie the facts of language: phonological and phonetic matters that scripts portray with various degrees of fidelity.
    [Show full text]