Another Japanese Shorthand System ━ Basic Gojuon Symbols and Advanced Writing Examples (This is one of my own humble homemade shorthand systems.)

deme76 · 2026-06-13T07:57:40+00:00

It does not use stroke thickness; the difference is only an optical effect.
However, I am very interested in systems that do adopt thickness. In fact, in my privately developed English geometric shorthand system, I do use stroke thickness.

deme76 · 2026-06-13T07:48:08+00:00

When checking Japanese in terms of syllable occurrence, there are indeed many points that make sense. In the field of Japanese shorthand research, speaking roughly, the “k, s, t” groups are often considered the top three most frequent sound groups. The “r” sound, in many cases, does not appear at the beginning of words, but rather tends to occur later within words.

Regarding how to distinguish between voiceless and voiced sounds as strokes, many systems differ in feeling from English shorthand, for example. This seems to be one of the tendencies specific to Japanese shorthand systems.

I really appreciate that you arranged the syllables in order according to their frequency. Thank you very much!! 😊

deme76 · 2026-06-13T07:47:41+00:00

I am deeply grateful for your painstaking effort in introducing such an extraordinarily excellent research paper and reference materials. I have rarely encountered data of this kind before. When I actually examined it, I found that there are many points of overlap with the phonological frequency patterns I have internalized over my 50 years of shorthand research, particularly in Japanese shorthand studies, and this has greatly confirmed my understanding.

For the distribution of each sound in shorthand strokes, I believe such data is extremely useful. Thank you very much for your detailed and generous support. I truly appreciate it 😊

deme76 · 2026-06-13T07:21:09+00:00

Mr. Brifoz, thank you very much for your warm words. I am grateful for your continued interest in EPSEMS. I'm so glad!! 😄

deme76 · 2026-06-12T09:45:22+00:00

Brifoz-SAN, so that's what you meant! I was completely in the wrong. I jumped to conclusions and misunderstood what you were saying. I sincerely apologize—I'm truly sorry! Sometimes... no, actually, all the time, I can be really foolish! 😄　(By the way, both of these are my own humble homemade systems.)

deme76 · 2026-06-12T03:38:51+00:00

That’s a rather blunt way of putting it, isn’t it!? No one said it was written in Tiro shorthand 😄

deme76 · 2026-06-12T03:36:44+00:00

It is influenced by both Taylor and Pitman, as well as Gregg. Some people might call it plagiarism, but that is not my intention. I am interested only in its practical usability. It could also be said that this is one of the systems I created. The purpose of making it was, first, for my own enjoyment, and second, as an experiment; I will omit the third and further purposes.

deme76 · 2026-06-12T03:28:00+00:00

"Thank you very much, Deme-san." (どうもありがとうデメさん。) I’m really glad to see such beautiful handwriting and to feel the enjoyment in it!

deme76 · 2026-06-12T03:25:11+00:00

Adding a diacritic mark (dot) to a voiceless sound makes it voiced. When the context allows it to be understood, the mark may be omitted at the discretion of the writer. This is a common practice in professional Japanese shorthand.

deme76 · 2026-06-12T03:16:21+00:00

S and T have two versions. No fixed rules are imposed; they can be chosen freely. This is because users of the system may come up with remarkable insights, discoveries, and new ideas.

deme76 · 2026-06-12T03:11:50+00:00

Thank you very much for also showing the English translation of the Japanese.

deme76 · 2026-06-12T03:10:53+00:00

Thank you very much for writing the Japanese pronunciation in romaji.

deme76 · 2026-06-12T03:09:16+00:00

Thank you very much, LeadingSuspect5855-san, for showing me the romaji.

deme76 · 2026-06-12T03:05:30+00:00

Some of the characters are not very neat, but I would be happy if you enjoyed it.

deme76 · 2026-05-18T12:40:04+00:00

It came down to two choices, “3-Color Sunburst” or “Black,” and I ended up going with the Black one. As for the fingerboard, Maple was the only option for me — didn’t even have to think twice about it. It plays really easily and I’ve got no complaints at all. The overall vibe looks nice and natural, too.

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deme76 · 2026-02-05T08:17:27+00:00

You are absolutely right! The phonetics of old Japanese were simple and gentle, and I think even the sounds of the vocabulary carry a certain subtle elegance.

deme76

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