Page "Pitman shorthand" Paragraph 15

Another feature of Pitman's shorthand allows most vowels to be omitted in order to speed up the process of writing.

As mentioned above, each vowel is written next to the consonant stroke at the beginning, middle or end of the stroke.

Pitman's shorthand is designed to be written on lined paper and when a word's first vowel is a " first position " vowel ( i. e. it is written at the beginning of the stroke ), the whole shorthand outline for the word is written above the paper's ruled line.

When it is a second position vowel, the outline is written on the line.

And when it is a third position vowel it is written through the line.

In this way, the position of the outline indicates that the first vowel can only be one of four possibilities.

In most cases, this means that the first and often all the other vowels can be omitted entirely.