in gregg, for example, a short diagonal line is voiceless T, while a long
diagonal line is voiced D; and similarly for the voiceless-voiced pair K vs
G. but a short horizontal line is N, while a long one is M. See WWS p. 812.

as regards pitman, there is a chart on WWS p. 812, tho it's hard to read.
pitman distinguishes the voiceless/voiced pairs, T/D K/G etc., by
*darkness* or *heaviness* of line; i always thought that would be hard to
implement (especially when your pencil breaks, or gets dull). pitman also
uses this "feature" to distinguish S/Z, TH/DH, and SH/ZH, which gregg fails
to distinguish. also pitman avoids gregg's false-featural analysis in which
N/M are treated as a voiceless/voiced pair.

however, pitman falls short of a fully featural analysis; e.g., it has
nothing to show that M is produced in the same labial position as P and B.

i've wondered: did those old textbooks on gregg and pitman actually have
some way of printing the letters and words from movable type? or did they
just use lithography, like urdu printers (at least until recently)?

cheers; bill
----------------

>* william bright
>|
>| in all the discussion of "featural" systems, i find it strange that
>| there is so little mention of pitman shorthand or gregg shorthand,
>| which were once used daily by thousands of people.
>
>For my part this is mainly because I haven't looked at those systems
>very closely yet. It does seem to make sense to include them, but I am
>incapable at this point to say anything sensible about them.
>
>| both these systems were partly "featural", pitman i think more than
>| gregg.
>
>Why were they only partly featural? What about them is it that makes
>them fail to be featural?
>
>--Lars M.
>
>
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--
William Bright
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics & Anthropology, UCLA
Professor Adjoint of Linguistics, University of Colorado, Boulder
Editor, Written Language and Literacy
Editor, Native American Placenames of the United States
1625 Mariposa Avenue, Boulder, CO 80302
Tel. 303-444-4274
FAX 303-413-0017
Email william.bright@..., williamobright@...

William Bright's website: http://www.ncidc.org/bright