Sir Isaac Pitman, His Life and Labors (Classic Reprint) PDF Download

Author: Benn Pitman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781332859931
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
Excerpt from Sir Isaac Pitman, His Life and Labors The success of the first and second phases of the Phonetic Reform is not questioned; and the speedy and wide success of a convenient and philosophic Shorthand is probably less due to the completeness of the scheme than to the general want that was felt by the intellectual and business world for some reliable, brief sys tem which would relieve the writer from the slow and tedious longhand in common use. The success or failure of the third and fourth phases of the proposed reform, is a question that should de pend upon the completeness and efficiency of the means offered to meet the ends desired, and any decision here is valueless that does not come from one who has made a special study of the necessary requirements and difficulties which the question involves. The fifth phase of the reform is the problem which is being slowly worked out in England, but with somewhat greater earnestness in this country, and the adoption of an Amended Spelling will, in time, lead to the acceptance of Isaac Pitman's dream, a full and complete phonetic representation of the language, - Stenog raphic, Script, and Typic. To what extent this has been attained, the causes of its acceptance or rejection, the modification of my brother's belief as to the best means of attaining the ultimate adoption of a strictly phonotypic standard, - these are some of the incidents told in these pages. Difficult and complex was the problem which Isaac Pitman accepted as his life's work, and a wise decision in the settlement of details was not always reached. It may seem unbrotherly to say, but if phonetic history is to be impartially recorded, it must be set down that Isaac Pitman's earn est nature led him to hasty conclusions in important matters of detail; he adopted changes and imaginary improvements, both in Phonography and Phonotypy, when patience, study and further tests would have shown their inexpediency and disadvantage; and thus, he often impeded the spread of the arts he so earnestly sought to establish, and the time, labor and argument incidental to many of his changes were doubled in his efi'orts to unmake them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.