A visitor to Omniglot sent me these images asking about these mysterious symbols which appear on a map of Lake Monomonac which was found in the attic of a house near the lake. Can any of you recognise and/or decipher them?
They look like some form of shorthand to me – possibly Gregg – but I can’t make any sense of them.
Here’s a transcription of the shorthand, which seems to be the American Benn Pitman version from the mid 19th century:
(1) Surveyed by one of the members of the Monomonack sporting club. The bearings were taken with a pocket compass and // distances obtained by counting the steps
(2) as measured on the shore at high water mark
(3) including the islands
Provided by Beryl Pratt, author of www.long-live-pitmans-shorthand.org.uk
Actually it looks like the shorthand that came before(?) Gregg – was it Pittman?
I thought Pitman too. The long wiggly line (about a third of the way across the first line of symbols) looks like it would be “mohnawmohnik”
It can’t really be Pitman. It’s too curvey, and all written on one line.
Also Pitman distinguishes heavy and light strokes which doesn’t seem to be the case here. It’s not Gregg, though, I’m pretty sure of that.
Actually now I look at it closely, it does seem to do light and heavy.
You might have a look at this site on Mi’kmaq Shorthand:
http://www.flavinscorner.com/shorthand.htm
Doesn’t anyone else find it strange that the two lowercase letter “f”s in the English text don’t have a descender?