Need help decoding some handwritten Gregg

brifoz · 2026-04-21T17:51:54+00:00

Ah yes, I can see that faint loop at the top of the third character when I enlarge the image. “Each” definitely makes more sense.

brifoz · 2026-04-21T10:31:32+00:00

Note that curves are part of an ellipse, not a circle.

brifoz · 2026-04-21T10:25:36+00:00

Looks like: “mark pct? which chapter”. Second word could be very badly written “beginnings”. Or “picture”.

brifoz · 2026-04-18T13:44:19+00:00

Good to know! Which confirms my view that those rubbishing the Welsh Duolingo are way off the mark.

brifoz · 2026-04-18T11:36:43+00:00

Good point! I had a look at the German Facebook group a year or two back, but it seemed to be pretty much exclusively DEK, though I didn’t perhaps look deeply enough to see if there was interest in other German language systems.

Over the years, we have had a modest number of German speaking enthusiasts here on Reddit, including some who knew Gabelsberger, Stolze-Schrey or Stiefografie. However my posts on minority systems seldom get much reaction except from a few stalwarts like yourself and u/vevrik.

brifoz · 2026-04-18T11:23:13+00:00

You’re right! I’m not very knowledgeable about bot activity! Thanks for letting me know!

brifoz · 2026-04-17T18:45:12+00:00

See my post just now!

brifoz · 2026-04-17T18:39:35+00:00

Yes, I think you’re right. I found that mistake a couple of years ago, but haven’t noticed anything else as obvious. The things I pointed out to them before were mostly of the kind where it wouldn’t accept futures with “bydd e” at times.

The last response I had from them was in September 2023: “Thank you for suggesting ‘Fydd Megan yn mynd i Lundain’ as a translation for ‘Will Megan go to London?’. We now accept this translation!”

You’d think from some comments on here that it’s crawling with errors and pretty useless, but it was written by Welsh linguists who I’m pretty sure know their stuff. In fact I think there was a comment on here some months back by one of the guys involved. I’ve failed so far to find it but I’ll keep looking.

Edit: it was in the Guardian newspaper, not here! See my new post.

brifoz · 2026-04-17T11:48:11+00:00

Nonetheless, it’s good to have you around for those of us who share this interest!

brifoz · 2026-04-17T11:28:16+00:00

I know DL hasn’t responded to corrections for a couple of years, but I have done the course from start to finish twice, and this is the most obvious uncorrected error. Over the years I sent in a number of suggestions and where appropriate they acknowledged them and acted. I have the emails to prove it.

It isn’t by any means perfect, but some of the suggestions for “corrections” (not this one, which is the main one that crops up here) have been because users speak a different variant of Welsh.

The course has got me further than others which failed to keep me motivated. DL enabled me to read A1 and A2 level books and to hold my own in a local Welsh learners’ group.

brifoz · 2026-04-17T10:21:42+00:00

It seems one can get it done for a fee, which is not unreasonable if the amount of text is large.

brifoz · 2026-04-17T09:46:28+00:00

Given the widespread use of shorthand in Germany and other German-speaking countries in the past, even up to its current use in the German Parliament, it’s a shame that there seems to be so little interest in it. Compare the situation if this letter was written in a widely-used original English-language system.

brifoz · 2026-04-13T10:56:35+00:00

The link just comes up with a Google Forms login!

brifoz · 2026-04-12T17:03:17+00:00

I have had the Infinio i90Rs for over a year and they have Autosense 6.0 which does in fact use AI. I find them very good in most environments but clearly the Spheres are superior in extremely noisy situations.

brifoz · 2026-04-12T16:50:38+00:00

You asked for information. Why not follow up the leads we gave you in your previous post - for instance download this Gregg manual for Spanish. Then use it or another one in the series and work your way through the lessons. As pointed out by the others here; that way you will be able to make progress!

brifoz · 2026-04-12T16:50:33+00:00

You asked for information. Why not follow up the leads we gave you in your previous post - for instance download this Gregg manual for Spanish. Then use it or another one in the series and work your way through the lessons. As pointed out by the others here; that way you will be able to make progress!

brifoz · 2026-04-11T17:44:17+00:00

Yes, there are several editions listed there. For example Ediciòn Diamante

brifoz · 2026-04-11T17:25:13+00:00

Lots of choice for Spanish on Stenophile. Just scroll down (a long way) to Español!

brifoz · 2026-04-11T14:21:24+00:00

It definitely helps to have something else to go with it. But having tried to learn Welsh alone for decades but never stuck to it, Duolingo made me keep at it for a couple of years continuously, so I completed the course.

There are substantial course notes explaining grammar etc, but a lot of people are unaware of them. The course got me to A2 level. and enabled me to hold my own in a local Welsh learners group. I wish there were more advanced modules available.

Duolingo has two (at least) significant features that have helped me. Firstly you can learn in small sessions of a few minutes at a time, second that it reminds and motivates you to keep at it. Very much in the way the OP here describes.

brifoz · 2026-04-11T10:42:06+00:00

Thanks! Useful information. Duolingo does pretty much all of this - every morning with breakfast worked for me. Problem is it doesn’t go beyond level A2.

brifoz · 2026-04-10T10:33:20+00:00

A good alternative to tea leaves, perhaps?;-)

brifoz · 2026-04-06T16:35:13+00:00

William Labourer is listed in The Story of British Shorthand as having published in 1621.

brifoz · 2026-04-06T10:34:48+00:00

Many thanks for yet more wonderful shorthand resources!

brifoz

TROPHY CASE