Shelton's system became very popular and is well known because it was used by Samuel Pepys for his diary and for many of his official papers, such as his letter copy books. It was also used by Isaac Newton in some of his notebooks. Shelton borrowed heavily from his predecessors, especially Edmond Willis. Each consonant was represented by an arbitrary but simple symbol, while the five vowels were represented by the relative positions of the surrounding consonants. Thus the symbol for B with symbol for T drawn directly above it represented "bat", while B with T below it meant "but"; top-right represented "e", middle-right "i", and lower-right "o". A vowel at the end of a word was represented by a dot in the appropriate position, while there were additional symbols for initial vowels. This basic system was supplemented by further symbols representing common prefixes and suffixes.
Shelton's system became very popular and is well known because it was used by Samuel Pepys for his diary and for many of his official papers such as his letter copy books It was also used by Isaac Newton in some of his notebooks Shelton borrowed heavily from his predecessors especially Edmond Willis Each consonant was represented by an arbitrary but simple symbol while the five vowels were represented by the relative positions of the surrounding consonants Thus the symbol for B with symbol for T drawn directly above it represented "bat" while B with T below it meant "but"; top-right represented "e" middle-right "i" and lower-right "o" A vowel at the end of a word was represented by a dot in the appropriate position while there were additional symbols for initial vowels This basic system was supplemented by further symbols representing common prefixes and suffixes