Peter T. Daniels wrote:

> machhezan wrote:
> >
> > Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> > > Just remove the word "diacritics" and replace it with
> > > "appendages" or "modifications." ("Modifications" would
> > > presumably let Cree in.)
> >
> > That'd also let German shorthand writing systems in, a type of
> > script I never knew how to lable.
>
> Gabelsberger? A sort of modified Pitman? I think some vowels are
> indicated by height of the outline above the writing line?

Gabelsberger doesn't have a consistent way of representing the
vowels. It was Heinrich August Willhelm Stolze who invented an
original system of representing the vowels that isn't found in any
other shorthand system but the ones that are developed of Stolze's
(in particular, there's no English shorthand that adopted his system).

The vowels are represented in the unit formed of joining + consonant
sign. By 'joining', I mean the diagonal upstroke that is also used
for joining current hand letters. All consonant signs consist of a
single downward movement, like e.g. the current hand letters _i, j,
l, e_ (without the dots). The following consonant sign can be on the
same hight or higher or lower, it can be thick or not, the joining
can be large or not. Like this, you get 3 x 2 x 2 = 12 vowels.

That is to say, the 'syllables' formed by the letters have the form
VC, which I believe is quite unique in the world's writing systems.
Consonant signs without a joining (at the beginning of a word) don't
have inherent vowels. So normal German words can represented as (C+)VC
(+VC etc.)(+V). Isolated consonant letters wouldn't have an inherent
vowel (if they occured). In the 'deutsche Einheitskurzschrift', a
consonant joined in the easiest way possible (same hight, not bold,
not long) as inherent <e>, whereas in the 'Einigungssystem Stolze-
Schrey', that easiest joining expresses the absence of a vowel (in
the 'deutsche Einheitskurzschrift, this is expressed by the same
joining, but narrower).

Stolze's original shorthand system isn't used any more, but the two
stenography systems that are officially used in the German speaking
countries (if they're still used at all) have adopted Stolze's way of
representing the vowels, the 'Einigungssystem Stolze-Schrey'
(unification system Stolze-Schrey) which is used in Switzerland, and
the 'deutsche Einheitskurzschrift' (German unitary shorthand), which
is based mostly on the 'Einigungssystem Stolze-Schrey' and on
Gabelsberger.

g_0ry@_^s:
j. 'mach' wust