You’ll be able to nonetheless sort a symbol originally invented for Cicero close toly 21 centuries in the past — at the very least if you happen to configure your keyboard properly. The character ⁊ seems in Unicode as U+204A, however is guesster referred to as the “Tironian et”: the “et” is Latin for “and,” and the “Tironian” comes from its creator, a person named Tiro, or in full, Marcus Tullius Tiro. Tiro wasn’t a relative of Marcus Tullius Cicero, as you would possibly anticipate, however fairly his onetime slave: after being emancipated, he not solely took on two of his former master’s names, but additionally remained his secretary and confidant. It was in that capacity that, at Cicero’s request, he created the system since referred to as Tironian notes.
Although now credited as “the daddy of stenography,” Tiro didn’t invent briefhand itself. Like so many developments in historic Roman civilization, Hellenic inspiration was concerned: no quicklyer did Cicero study of the existence of Greek briefhand systems, so the story goes, than he requested Tiro to provide you with one for Latin. It’s possible that he did in order early as 75 BC, when Cicero was assigned to Sicily and wanted to encode his communications, especially these having to do with the corruption of native officials. Again in Rome, it grew to become useful certainly for speedyly transcribing onto wax-covered tablets what the nice orator needed to say, in situations ranging from eachday dealings within the Discussion board to — as documented by Plutarch — denouncing Catiline’s conspiracy to overthrow the Roman Republic.
Tiro created about 4,000 symbols to face in for syllables, phrases, and other elements of language, and other of the system’s customers, including Seneca, later introduced the number as much as 5,000. However “as Rome declined, so did briefhand,” writes Anita Kreitzman on the National Courtroom Reporters Association. “The Emperor Justinian, within the sixth century, contemptuously forbade its use.” But Tironian notes survived, especially among the many annotators of manuscripts, broadening and merging with other systems to contain 14,000 indicators during the Automobileolingian dynasty. Alas, “Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1212–1250) considered the usage of briefhand symbols ‘diabolical’ and ‘ordered the destruction of all briefhand characters.’ Consequently, briefhand fastly grew to become a misplaced artwork.”
Thereupon got here the Darkish Ages by which “studying and briefhand appeared to now not exist.” Go away it to court docket reporters to equate abbreviation with civilization. But the association is toughly spurious, and might’t be accidental that its revival started in late sixteenth-century London, when the world’s transformation over the subsequent centuries was getting into movement. Many briefhand systems have risen and fallen since, and the digital technologies of latest many years have made the entire practice tremendousfluous for many of us right here within the twenty-first century. But we are able to nonetheless have ⁊, because of inadvertent preservation by the medieval Irish script and Gaelic sort that use it as an ampersand. It might not have the identical function in English, and even the Romance languages, however typing no other symbol might make us really feel fairly so Ciceronian.
Related content:
What Historic Latin Sounded Like, And How We Know It
The Writing Systems of the World Defined, from the Latin Alphaguess to the Abugidas of India
Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. He’s the writer of the newsletter Books on Cities in addition to the books 한국 요약 금지 (No Summarizing Korea) and Korean Newtro. Follow him on the social webwork formerly referred to as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
