John Robert Gregg

John Robert Gregg (born June 17, 1867 in Rockorry, County Monaghan , Ireland; † February 23, 1948 in Cannondale, Connecticut , USA) was an American stenographer and shorthand inventor of Irish origin.

Life

Gregg's shorthand alphabet. Most letters are also short forms for frequently used words.

Gregg initially taught an English adaptation of Duployé's French shorthand , which he found not very suitable for writing at high speed because of its angular shape. In 1888 Gregg first published the shorthand he had invented in a brochure ( Light-Line Phonography , Liverpool 1888). In 1893 he emigrated to the USA, where he founded the Gregg Publishing Company in Chicago (taken over by McGraw-Hill in 1948). In the same year 1893 he published the book Gregg shorthand , which was very well received in the USA. Gregg wrote hundreds of books for his company, mainly instructions for his shorthand, but also for other areas of business life (e.g. Applied Secretarial Practice , 2nd edition 1942).

shorthand

Gregg's shorthand uses elliptical shapes that are quick to write. In addition, its system is phonetic, ie it is based on the pronunciation, not on the spelling of the words. B. in " telephone " the ph-sound and in " laugh " the gh sound with the shorthand symbol for f. In contrast to the shorthand invented by Isaac Pitman , Gregg manages without thickening; its shorthand can therefore be written with a uniform line width. Gregg's shorthand was gradually simplified in several later versions, e.g. B. the number of short forms for certain words has been reduced. These later versions of Gregg shorthand are called Anniversary Gregg shorthand (1929), Simplified Gregg shorthand (1949), Diamond Jubilee Gregg shorthand (1963), 90 series Gregg shorthand (1978), and Centennial Gregg shorthand (1988).

To this day, Gregg's shorthand is the most widely used system in the United States. There are also translations into other languages, among which the Spanish shorthand after Gregg designed by Eduardo Vega has found the most widespread use.

literature

• Leslie Cowan: John Robert Gregg. Oxford (Pre-Raphaelite Press) 1984.
• Louis A. Leslie (ed.): The story of Gregg Shorthand: based on the writings of John Robert Gregg. New York (McGraw-Hill) 1964.
• Francis Addington Symonds: John Robert Gregg, The Man and His Work. New York (Gregg Pub. Division) 1963.

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