Steno Keyboard Layout Phonemes and Steno Keys Notes Examples Author's View
Steno keyboard layout (with numbers excluded):
| # | |||||||||
| S | T | P | H | * | F | P | L | T | D |
| K | W | R | R | B | G | S | Z | ||
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Steno keyboard layout (with numbers included):
| # | |||||||||
| 1S | 2T | 3P | 4H | * | 6F | 7P | 8L | 9T | D |
| K | W | R | R | B | G | S | Z | ||
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Stenography keyboards have 7 left-hand side consonant keys, 4 vowel keys, 10 right-hand side consonant keys. The steno keys pressed to obtain a word are called a steno outline. They might be custom abbreviations such as: the: -T (right-hand T) of: -F (right-hand F) Or they might be based on the sounds of the word. You split a word into syllables, and you press the appropriate keys for each syllable. ste-nog-ra-phy STE/TPHOG/RA/TPEU You don't press keys one-by-one, instead you use 'chording' like C-E-G on a piano keyboard. In English, a syllable always contains one or more vowel sounds. It may have one or more initial consonant sounds. It may have one or more final consonant sounds. E.g. if we use the phonemes /n/ /əʊ/ /n/. We get: /əʊ/ owe [steno: 'OE'] ['oh' uses custom steno: 'O*E RBGS'] /nəʊ/ know [steno: 'TPH OE'] ['no' uses custom steno: 'TPH O'] /əʊn/ own [steno: 'OE PB'] /nəʊn/ known [steno: 'TPH OE PB']
Table for vowel phonemes and their corresponding steno keys:
| Phoneme (JEEPA) | Phoneme (IPA) | Steno Keys | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | æ | A | |
| E | e | E | |
| I | ɪ | EU | |
| O | ɒ | O | |
| U | ʌ | U | |
| AI | eɪ | AEU | |
| EE | iː | AOE | |
| IE | aɪ | AOEU | |
| OA | əʊ | OE/AO | sometimes [OA]=/əʊ/=AO (for 'oa' words, e.g. to disambiguate 'road' (RAOD) from 'rode' (ROED)) |
| OO | uː | AO/AOU | sometimes [OO]=/uː/=AO (for 'oo' words), sometimes [OO]=/uː/=AOU (e.g. 'crew' (KRAOU)), sometimes [Y-OO]=/juː/=AOU (rather than KWROU) (e.g. 'newt' is TPHAOUT not TKPWHRAOT) |
| OI | ɔɪ | OEU | |
| oo | ʊ | AO | |
| OU | aʊ | OU | |
| uh | ə | U | |
| AR | ɑː | A-R | |
| ER | ɜː | E-R | sometimes 'ir' to 'EU-R', sometimes 'ur' to 'U-R' |
| OR | ɔː | AU | |
| AIR | eə | AEU-R | the printed letter is often used |
| EER | ɪə | AOE-R/AE-R | sometimes 'AE-R' to prevent homophone conflicts |
| OOR | ʊə | AO-R/AOU-R | e.g. poor (PAOR), pure (PAOUR) |
Table for consonant phonemes and their corresponding steno keys:
| Phoneme (JEEPA) | Phoneme (IPA) | Left Keys | Right Keys | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | b | PW | -B | |
| D | d | TK | -D | |
| F | f | TP | -F | |
| G | ɡ | TKPW | -G | |
| H | h | H | - | |
| J | dʒ | SKWR | -PBLG | |
| K | k | K | -BG | |
| L | l | HR | -L | |
| M | m | PH | -PL | |
| N | n | TPH | -PB | |
| P | p | P | -P | |
| R | r | R | -R | |
| S | s | S/KR | -S | [S]=/s/=KR (for soft 'c' words, e.g. 'cent') |
| T | t | T | -T | |
| V | v | SR | *F | |
| W | w | W | - | |
| Y | j | KWR | - | |
| Z | z | S* | -Z | some systems use SWR |
| CH | tʃ | KH | -FP | |
| SH | ʃ | SH | -RB | |
| TH | θ | TH | *T | |
| th | ð | TH | *T | |
| NG | ŋ | - | -PBG | |
| ZH | ʒ | SKWR | -PBLG | |
| ch | x | KH | *FP |
Keys Unformatted version of keyboard layout diagram:
#
STPH*FPLTD
SKWR*RBGSZ
AOEU
Keys in standard order: #|STKPWHR|AO|-|*|EU|FRPBLGTSDZ Whether letters appear once or twice: left-only consonants: KWH right only consolidates: FBLGDZ present in both: PRST (as STPR and RPTS) Steno key combinations used for multiple sounds e.g. 'steno keys: [JEEPA] (IPA)' vowel: AO: [OO] (/uː/), [oo] (/ʊ/), sometimes: [OA] (/əʊ/) initial consonant: SKWR: [J] (/dʒ/), [ZH] (/ʒ/) KH: [CH] (/tʃ/), [ch] (/x/) TH: [TH] (/θ/), [th] (/ð/) final consonant: -PBLG: [J] (/dʒ/), [ZH] (/ʒ/) *T: [TH] (/θ/), [th] (/ð/) Hyphen rule hyphen rule: whether or not to use a hyphen in a steno outline: the hyphen can be omitted if: a vowel is present, or if an asterisk is present, or if only left-hand side consonant keys are present Sources Stenotype - Wikipedia Stenotype - Wikipedia [keyboard layout image] Stenotype - Wikipedia [chords table] Steno 101, Lesson One | The Plover Blog Typey Type | Lookup [word to steno keys] Chapter 3 Briefs, Capitalization, Names | Plover Practice Exercises Lesson 1: Fingers And Keys - Learn Plover! Appendix: Cheat Sheet - Learn Plover! [includes how to write numbers]
Some examples of sounds to steno keys. The examples below all accord with the rules in the tables above. There may be more than one way to produce a steno outline for the word. Also, a non-phonetic custom shorthand may be the common way to write it. E.g. 'HRAOEUBG' is an outline/stroke/phonetic chord. For multiple syllables, you use '/' to separate them. Source: She Can Type Faster Than You: Here's How! | Matt Gray is Trying: Stenography - YouTube [10:12] cat: K A T [10:51] signed: S AOEU PBD [10:54] duck: TK U BG [11:46] stuck: ST U BG [14:46] moon: PH AO PB [15:02] like: HR AOEU BG [15:09] toy: T OEU Source: Typey Type | Lookup one option is: hel-lo HE/HROE Source: Typey Type | Lookup one option is: ste-nog-ra-phy STE/TPHOG/RA/TPEU based on IPA: /stəˈnɒɡɹəfi/ (or /stəˈnɒɡ.ɹə.fi/) [JEEPA: S-T-uh-*N-O-G-R-uh-F-EE] [note: if the ending was interpreted as /iː/ not /i/, that would end 'AOE' not 'EU'] [note: JEEPA uses a subset of IPA, and uses /iː/ since /i/ is unavailable] To type numbers: Source: Stenotype - Wikipedia 'To enter a number, a user presses the number bar at the top of the keyboard at the same time as the other keys, much like the Shift key on a QWERTY-based keyboard. The illustration shows which lettered keys correspond to which digits. Numbers can be chorded, just as letters can. They read from left to right across the keyboard. It is possible to write 137 in one stroke by pressing the number bar along with SP P, but it takes three separate strokes to write 731. Many court reporters and stenocaptioners write out numbers phonetically instead of using the number bar.' To type numbers: Appendix: Cheat Sheet - Learn Plover!
Assembling this information was extremely difficult. Even in prominent sources, problems occur such as: ● Lesser-known phonetic systems use the same symbol for hard/soft 'th' and hard/soft 'oo'. (IPA uses 'θ'/'ð'/'ʊ'/'uː' respectively, JEEPA uses 'TH'/'th'/'oo'/'OO', respectively.) ● Authors fail to distinguish between hard/soft 'th' and hard/soft 'oo'. ● Authors fail to distinguish between vowel sounds with/without an 'r', e.g. these graphemes typically correspond to 13 distinct phonemes: short 'a'/'ar', short 'e'/'er', short 'o'/'or', 'ai'/'air' (aka 'ay'/'air'), 'ee'/'eer', soft 'oo'/hard 'oo'/'oor' (e.g. 'oor' in 'poor'/'pure'). You'd want separate information for each grapheme and/or phoneme. ● Authors (e.g. US/UK) appear to lack an awareness of the standard set of phonemes in their language. The tables above use the 44+1 phonemes of UK RP (Received Pronunciation) (20 vowel graphemes, 24+1 consonant graphemes, the '+1' is /x/). ● I.e. expertise in some language-related domains, doesn't always coincide with the core knowledge of the English phonemes. LLMs often give incorrect information about anything phonics related. To confirm the steno keys for rarely used phonemes, a good approach was: ● Ask an LLM: 'List some words that end with the phoneme /x/.' (Check the answers yourself.) ● Lookup the steno keys via 'Typey Type | Lookup'. It would be useful if there was a website where you could type in IPA, and get steno keys out. But note, steno outlines often use the word's spelling, to determine what vowel keys to use for any schwa sounds. For direct IPA to steno keys (where there is no spelling), it could default to using 'U' for schwa sounds. (I invented the owe/know/own/known syllable example. I'd never seen anything like it before.) (I first thought of eye/sigh/'aight'/sight.) (The starting point is vowel phonemes that are also words.) (Note: don't get confused between stenography and steganography.)