it throughout the US and in various languages (e.g., Spanish). Other methods included Personal Shorthand also known as Briefscript, and Keyscript. Forkner Shorthand was promoted as an alternative to Pitman shorthand from 1955–1995 but is no longer taught. The benchmark for pronunciation is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) produced by the International Phonetic Association. It is easily printable by hand or keyboard although its conventions are often not used to depict pronunciation in dictionaries and other reference materials. The major reason that Dutton Speedwords continues to receive attention is its strict alphabetical constraint that allows it to be used on a keyboard, and the breadth of practical application which Dutton embodied in his system. Design of Speedwords The design of Speedwords has four features: Unlike other shorthand methods, (e.g., Pitman, Gregg) which use new symbols, strokes or geometric shapes, Speedwords method uses the 26 letters of the English alphabet (upper and lower case) plus the ampersand symbol ('&'). Unlike most other shorthand and rapid writing methods, Speedwords has its roots in a shorthand system that Dutton found cumbersome and which he believed he overcame by using alphabetic characters. Unlike other shorthand and rapid writing systems, Dutton emphasised the speed of learning. Like other shorthand systems, Dutton sought to maximise speed and minimise the amount of writing. Principles of Speedwords In all publications, Dutton describes various principles of Speedwords but there is no consolidated list of principles. They can be summarised as: Select its vocabulary from the entire Indo-European language family, particularly maximising the internationality of words, that is, selecting a word that is common between languages, (Teach Yourself Dutton Speedwords, 1951, page 90). Abbreviate those words guided by a 1925 analysis by Horn on the frequency of words. The most frequently used words were allocated the shorted abbreviation. So the most frequent words have just one letter (Teach Yourself Dutton Speedwords, 1951, page 5). Structure the vocabulary around high frequency words. A 1,000 word vocabulary handles 85% of daily conversation while a 3,000 word vocabulary handles 98% of daily conversation so Speedwords only needs a simple rule for 2% of its vocabulary. Dutton seems to suggest that the solution is to write out the word in full. Make one Speedword have only one meaning which results in a basic vocabulary which Dutton calls 'keywords' (Speedwords Dictionary, 1945, page 7). Avoid grammatical differences, so a keyword can also refer to noun,