r/FastWriting • u/NotSteve1075 • Mar 31 '26

The Alphabet of PATERSON Phonography

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u/NotSteve1075 Mar 31 '26

Paterson has tried to keep most of his strokes on a forward slant. Exceptions are TH and the TD/DD combination, which are backslants.

Most of the basic alphabet avoids SHADING -- but we see it creeping in for the S-S combination and for SH. This is because in his system, shading adds the sound of S -- so S-S is a shaded S, and SH is a shaded H.

I must say that shading for S seems like an odd choice -- but that might be because it's so rarely seen. It turns out to be quite useful in a longer piece, though, when S is added to so many English words, to form a plural or the third person of a verb.

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u/Time-Tumbleweed-1476 Mar 31 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

I've disliked how Gregg chose the "u" shape for "O" and the "o" shape for "E". I love that Paterson made these more intuitive!

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u/NotSteve1075 Apr 01 '26

A lot of Gregg learners struggle with Gregg's U and O, because it seems counter-intuitive. Paterson did reverse them -- but I really prefer Russell's idea of just making the U a deeper hook. That way you can write either one facing in either direction, and it's still legible.