| Tironian notes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | shorthand |
| Creator | Marcus Tullius Tiro |
| Created | 60s BC |
Time period | 1st century BC – 16th century AD |
| Status | a few Tironian symbols are still in modern use |
| Languages | Latin |
| Unicode | |
| Et:U+204A,U+2E52;MUFI | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
Tironian notes (Latin:notae Tironianae) are a form of thousands of signs that were formerly used in a system ofshorthand (Tironian shorthand) dating from the 1st century BCE and named afterTiro, a personal secretary toMarcus Tullius Cicero, who is often credited as their inventor.[1] Tiro's system consisted of about 4,000 signs,[2] extended to 5,000 signs by others. During themedieval period, Tiro's notation system was taught in European monasteries and expanded to a total of about 13,000 signs.[3] The use of Tironian notes lasted into the 17th century. A few Tironian signs are still used today.[4][5]
Tironian notes can be themselves composites (ligatures) of simpler Tironian notes, the resulting compound being still shorter than the word it replaces. This accounts in part for the large number of attested Tironian notes, and for the wide variation in estimates of the total number of Tironian notes. Further, the "same" sign can have other variant forms, leading to the same issue.
Before Tironian shorthand became popularized, literature professor Anthony Di Renzo explains, "no true Latin shorthand existed." The only systematized form of abbreviation in Latin was used for legal notations (notae juris). This system, however, was deliberately abstruse and accessible only to people with specialized knowledge. Otherwise, shorthand was improvised for note-taking or writing personal communications, and some of these notations would not have been understood outside of closed circles. Some abbreviations of Latin words and phrases were commonly recognized, such as those ofpraenomina, and were typically used forinscriptions on monuments.[1]
Scholars infer thatMarcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) recognized the need for a comprehensive, standard Latin notation system after learning about the Greek shorthand system. Cicero presumably delegated the task of creating such a system for Latin to his slave and personal secretaryTiro. Tiro's position required him to quickly and accurately transcribe dictations from Cicero, such as speeches, professional and personal correspondence, and business transactions, sometimes while walking through theforum or during fast-paced and contentious government and legal proceedings.[1] Nicknamed "the father of stenography" by historians,[4] Tiro developed a highly refined and accurate method that usedLatin letters and abstract symbols to representprepositions, truncated words,contractions, syllables, andinflections. According to Di Renzo: "Tiro then combined these mixed signs like notes in a score to record not just phrases, but, as Cicero marvels in a letter toAtticus, 'whole sentences.'"[1] Tiro's highly refined and accurate method became the first standardized and widely adopted system of Latin shorthand.[1] The system consisted of abbreviations andabstract symbols, which were either contrived by Tiro or borrowed from Greek shorthand.
Dio Cassius attributes the invention of shorthand toMaecenas, and states that he employed his freedman Aquila in teaching the system to numerous others.[6]Isidore of Seville, however, details another version of the early history of the system, ascribing the invention of the art toQuintus Ennius, who he says invented 1100 marks (Latin:notae). Isidore states that Tiro brought the practice to Rome, but only used Tironian notes for prepositions.[7] According toPlutarch in "Life of Cato the Younger", Cicero's secretaries established the first examples of the art of Latin shorthand:[8]
This only of all Cato’s speeches, it is said, was preserved; for Cicero, the consul, had disposed, in various parts of the senate-house, several of the most expert and rapid writers, whom he had taught to make figures comprising numerous words in a few short strokes; as up to that time they had not used those we call short-hand writers, who then, as it is said, established the first example of the art.
There are no surviving copies of Tiro's original manual and code, so knowledge of it is based on biographical records and copies of Tironian tables from themedieval period.[1] Historians typically date the invention of Tiro's system as 63 BC, when it was first used in official government business according toPlutarch in his biography ofCato the Younger inThe Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans.[9] Before Tiro's system was institutionalized, he used it himself as he was developing and fine-tuning it, which historians suspect may have been as early as 75 BC, when Cicero held public office inSicily and needed his notes and correspondences to be written in code to protect sensitive information he gathered about corruption among other government officials there.[1]
There is evidence that Tiro taught his system to Cicero and his other scribes, and possibly to his friends and family, before it came into wide use. In "Life of Cato the Younger",Plutarch wrote that during Senate hearings in65 BC relating to thefirst Catilinarian conspiracy, Tiro and Cicero's other secretaries were in the audience meticulously and rapidly transcribing Cicero's oration. On many of the oldest Tironian tables, lines from this speech were frequently used as examples, leading scholars to theorize it was originally transcribed using Tironian shorthand. Scholars also believe that in preparation for speeches, Tiro drafted outlines in shorthand that Cicero used as notes while speaking.[1]
Isidore tells of the development of additional Tironian notes by various hands, such as Vipsanius, Philargius, and Aquila (as above), untilSeneca systematized the various marks to be approximately 5000 in number.[7]
Entering the Middle Ages, Tiro's shorthand was often used in combination with other abbreviations and the original symbols were expanded to 14,000 symbols during theCarolingian dynasty, but it fell out of favor as shorthand and was forgotten until interest was rekindled byThomas Becket,archbishop of Canterbury, in the 12th century.[10] In the 15th centuryJohannes Trithemius, abbot of the Benedictine abbey ofSponheim in Germany, discovered thenotae Benenses: a psalm and a Ciceronian lexicon written in Tironian shorthand.[11]
InOld English manuscripts, the Tironianet served as both a phonetic and morphological place holder. For instance, a Tironianet between two words would be phonetically pronouncedond and would mean 'and'. However, if the Tironianet followed the letters, then it would be phonetically pronouncedsond and mean 'water' (ancestral toModern Englishsound in the geographical sense). This additional function of a phonetic as well as a conjunction placeholder has escaped formal Modern English; for example, one may not spell the wordsand ass& (although this occurs in an informal style practised on certain Internet forums and sometimes in texting and other forms of instant messaging). This practice was distinct from the occasional use of&c. foretc., where the& is interpreted as the Latin wordet ('and') and thec. is an abbreviation for Latincetera ('[the] rest').
Just one Tironian symbol remains in common use today, the Tironianet (⁊, equivalent to&), used in Ireland and Scotland to meanand (where it is calledagus inIrish andagusan[12] inScottish Gaelic).
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Inblackletter texts (especially in German printing), it was still used in the abbreviation⁊c. meaningetc. (foret cetera) throughout the 19th century.[citation needed] However, as not all typesets included asort for the⟨⁊⟩ character, the similarR rotunda⟨ꝛ⟩ was substituted (which producedꝛc.).
The use of Tironian notes on modern computing devices is not always straightforward. The Tironianet⟨⁊⟩ is available atU+204A ⁊TIRONIAN SIGN ET, and displays (e.g. for documents written in Irish or Scottish Gaelic) on all common operating systems: onMicrosoft Windows, it can be shown inSegoe UI Symbol (afont that comes bundled with Windows Vista onwards); onmacOS andiOS devices in all default system fonts; and on Windows, macOS,ChromeOS, andLinux in thefreeDejaVu Sans font (which comes bundled with ChromeOS and various Linux distributions). On the MicrosoftWindows 11 Scottish Gaelic keyboard layout, the ⁊ can be entered by pressingAltGr+7.[13] On some Irish layouts, the shortcut is⇧Shift+AltGr+7
Some applications and websites, such as the online edition of theDictionary of the Irish Language, substitute the Tironianet with thebox-drawing characterU+2510 ┐BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT DOWN AND LEFT, as it looks similar and displays widely. The numeral 7 is also used in informal contexts such as Internet forums and occasionally in print.[14]
A number of other Tironian signs have been assigned to thePrivate Use Area of Unicode by theMedieval Unicode Font Initiative (MUFI).[15]
