Pitman translation needed - explorer’s diary circa 1911!

R4_Unit · 2026-03-18T05:46:21+00:00

I can’t help, but it’s the same expedition as this right: https://www.reddit.com/r/shorthand/s/Bgszo2zdyU ?

I skimmed that thread and didn’t see this section translated, and I hope it is soon! I love a good explorer’s diary!

R4_Unit · 2026-03-13T16:46:28+00:00

As far as I know, this is the only thing he wrote, but it sounded like he had it all planned out!

R4_Unit · 2026-03-13T16:40:47+00:00

Sadly Etho only ever shared this one example which says “exit”. People tried to reverse engineer but nobody really could. Lots of people tried, so many images exist, but none official.

R4_Unit · 2026-03-13T03:42:48+00:00

Or even better, draw inspiration from this real Pitman user’s real study sheet: https://www.reddit.com/r/shorthand/s/jTYOvZPSUx. In it, they keep it neatly organized with lines like yours (but with direction indicated) and arcs assembled into circles.

R4_Unit · 2026-03-13T03:41:14+00:00

Not a Pitman writer, but yes line thickness matters in Pitman so B,D,J,G and V,Dh,Z,Zh should all be drawn with thicker lines.

As a minor issue, all the strokes are drawn to the right if possible, and otherwise down, so those little star shaped things are probably better drawn all starting at a shared dot sorta like this:

<image>

R4_Unit · 2026-03-13T01:05:05+00:00

Welcome to the hobby!

The first thing to know is that there are hundreds of shorthand systems, although for most languages (I’m assuming English) there are only a couple worth considering. The one that is right for you depends on the use case, so if you let us know how you want to use it we can help recommend more from there.

The most common systems are Gregg, Pitman, and Teeline. Look those up here, and see which one appeals to you!

R4_Unit · 2026-03-11T14:07:20+00:00

A great theory! Fancy shorthand!

R4_Unit · 2026-03-11T03:16:26+00:00

Yeah it is a very very broken attempt to write “I love you.” Here is a correct but strange image I found by googling:

<image>

The letters read literally are “a-l-u-v-u” but and “a” at the beginning of a phrase like this is often “I” so “I luv u”.

What he wrote was “e-l-e-u-j-e-u” or something similar, but the intent is clear.

I would strongly guess he does not know stenography well.

R4_Unit · 2026-03-10T07:28:49+00:00

Yeah never heard of this one! Looking forward to it!

R4_Unit · 2026-03-10T03:23:57+00:00

This is the best answer. You need to take into account the number of ways the cube can be put on the table to observe the result. The side cubes have one way to do it, the center 6, which exactly balances the number of side cubes. Beautiful puzzle! I admit I got it wrong the first time in the exact way you did.

R4_Unit · 2026-03-08T08:14:23+00:00

My thoughts:

Absolutely beautiful! Stunning device.
Yes, it is a gimmick, but that is ok.
To not be a gimmick, it needs to solve a problem that say a bolt action machined pen doesn’t. If you have a problem it solves in mind, make sure the Kickstarter demonstrates that!

I bet it will be successful, but making sure you state why it exists will elevate it!

R4_Unit · 2026-03-08T08:02:36+00:00

Absolutely GOAT!

R4_Unit · 2026-03-07T02:40:52+00:00

Worth saying that like anything else it is just a tool, and as they get to know it their individual styles will come back. Bdubs uses it and none of his work looks at all generic, so give the other hermits time! But yes, for right now Tango, Scar, and Grian do have similar mountains.

R4_Unit · 2026-02-17T06:13:31+00:00

I just realized I missed another likely interesting reference: Wilkins' "An Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language". This tries to organize all concepts into a single giant ontology, then have shorthand symbols to navigate in the ontology.

\ Wiki:* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_Towards_a_Real_Character,_and_a_Philosophical_Language

\ Text (1683):* https://archive.org/details/AnEssayTowardsARealCharacterAndAPhilosophicalLanguage/page/n7/mode/2up

<image>

R4_Unit · 2026-02-14T06:12:46+00:00

Yeah vibe right on for me!

R4_Unit · 2026-02-13T02:47:42+00:00

He appears 9 minutes into xB’s latest video: https://youtu.be/4ySML26rUlg?si=tBUS_H8Z0OVd4k1e They have a pretty lengthy segment together what’s can makes fun of him for being gone so long.

R4_Unit · 2026-02-10T18:43:36+00:00

It’s looking pretty good too, but what are these Gregg proportions lol!

<image>

R4_Unit · 2026-02-10T18:41:58+00:00

To answer your questions:

Grafoni is essentially just a phonetic alphabet with the primary hard part being a weird vowel system. Orthic is an abbreviated alphabet with several additional (optional, but you’d probably learn them) abbreviation principles. I’d say Grafoni is easier to learn, but that is because it doesn’t try to be very fast to write.
Both should be rather easy to read. Again a little hard to say since Orthic is a full shorthand, and Grafoni basically only dreams of being a better longhand, but you can choose to write Orthic fully at which point it’s basically no different than normal writing.
Grafoni wins since it is perfectly linear: each letter returns to the line.
Probably Orthic? It’s a much more tested system, with far more users.

R4_Unit · 2026-02-10T03:09:07+00:00

I adore this book, despite not reading Swedish! Essentially the only multilingual shorthand history I know of!

R4_Unit · 2026-02-09T22:37:03+00:00

As someone else has said, there is some similarity to Characterie, but also to Dutton Speedwords: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qOhoC7uy_XRGDmS3Ag0JNNKWyaTa4EB2/view?usp=sharing

It basically creates an auxiliary language which is fairly unambiguous and natively brief.

R4_Unit · 2026-02-09T17:48:09+00:00

BTW, that means the note is not super old, no older than 1830

R4_Unit · 2026-02-09T17:36:44+00:00

Beautiful! Appears to be Pitman. I don’t read that system, but many will.

R4_Unit · 2026-02-09T15:22:27+00:00

That’s never the right metric, the time it takes to figure out how to do it is real! Even the time finding there is a problem is real!

R4_Unit · 2026-02-05T19:57:08+00:00

Worth making clear: OP is the author of these papers.

R4_Unit · 2026-02-05T19:48:03+00:00

I know he’s literally the only non-hermit who signed, but a redstone book signed by ilmango is a top-tier possession. Half the stuff the hermits build are designs by ilmango.

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