StudySteno: Greygal's Contractions Dictionary

My Plover steno dictionary of contractions and briefs for the related non-contracted phrase, based on Waleed Khan's approach to writing contractions with an asterisk (*). I think his approach is genius, so over time I integrated the use of * for contractions into my own dictionary. See https://waleedkhan.name/blog/my-steno-system/#use-asterisks-for-apostrophes-in-contractions for details.

Fair warning, I tend to over-explain the obvious.

Some definitions

Brief = single-stroke abbreviation of one word

Brief pair = a pair (or set) of briefs that represent similar or related briefs or phrases but for a minor difference between the two (such as "that'll" and "that will" - they are essentially the same words, but with the minor difference being one is a contraction and one is not).

Contraction = a word or group of words resulting from shortening and/or combining two or more words into a single relative word. Example: It is = it's Note: "Non-contracted" or "uncontracted" refers to the words used to create the contraction, before contracting it. "It is" is non-contracted/uncontracted, "it's" is contracted/contraction.

Entries = Refers specifically to entries in Plover's dictionary, but can apply to any steno dictionary.

Phrase = single-stroke brief (abbreviation) that represents more than one word

Plover = A fantastic, completely free, open source steno software program. Plover has evolved into a full-featured, highly customizable yet simple to use program that lets anyone at all use steno to write, even if they don't have a steno machine. Plover has a great community of self-taught steno fanactics on Discord, too! For more information about the Open Steno Project and Plover, visit http://www.openstenoproject.org/ and https://github.com/openstenoproject/plover

Star = asterisk (*), specifically, the large center key on a steno keyboard that is represented by the * symbol in raw steno.

WHY

Plover has entries for briefs covering all common English language contractions, and most of the less common/archaic ones. Many of these entries already use *, but many do not. This makes sense in some ways, since one tends to want the simplest briefs to write to be reserved for the most common words and phrases, and many steno users consider non-* briefs to be simpler to use.

However, you end up with some pattern inconsistencies, where the contracted phrase doesn't use a star sometimes and other times it does use a star.

I think, especially for those learning steno, that always using * to designate the contracted version of a phrase, plus defining the non-* version of that brief to be the non-contracted version of that phrase, is far simpler to learn and remember.

Essentially, all common two word phrases use the most common right-hand (usually) brief for the first word combined with the most common left-hand brief for the second word (the contracted word), to create a brief for a contraction or for a phrase.

TH = "this"
-L = "'ll"

Therefore, it makes sense that TH-L would be "this'll"

But wait! What about a brief for the phrase, "this will"? Don't we also commonly use -L for "will" when creating briefs for phrases? Well, yes, indeed, we do! So why don't we just use TH*L for "this will?" ... oh, wait, TH*L is already in the dictionary for "this'll" and there's no entry at all for "this will" ... wouldn't it make sense to just change either TH-L or TH*L to be "this will" and "this'll"? Hrm...

So as I dug deep into the dictionary, it did seem that more often than not, the non-* version of a pair of related briefs/phrases was the contracted version, and the * version was either ALSO the contracted version of the phrase, or it was the non-contracted version. So I made the decision that I'd go with the flow and started to dutifully edit the * version of entries that were identical to the non-* version to be the non-contracted phrase, or to create a * version if it didn't already exist.

Except... the dictionary isn't consistent in its inconsistencies. For example:

WH-L "when will",
WH*L "when'll",

KH-L "which will", but no entry whatsoever for "which'll" (granted, it's not a very common contraction).

EU = "I"
AOEUL = "I'll
HR*EU "I will"

Then there's the entire would/could/should family of briefs and phrases... sometimes they use WO/CO/SHO as the starter, sometimes WOU/COU/SHOU ... and contracted phrases are usually using * while non-contracted phrases are not....

Sigh... while there are patterns within the patterns and virtually every entry whether for a contraction or non-contracted phrase actually does hold true to the principles of steno, having a singular, (mostly) all-encompassing approach to briefing contractions and their non-contracted phrase is preferable to trying to remember which brief pair uses which of the various approaches, to say the least.

Of course, as many before me can attest to, I quickly realized if one keeps the non-* version of a brief pair to be the contracted version, and the * version to be the non-contracted version, you're running into some heavy-duty mental gymnastics trying to remember which common phrase briefs use * and which don't... and the simple fact that there's no entry whatsoever for a ton of common non-contracted contractions.

TH-L and TH*L both for "this'll", no entry for "this will," but TH-B for "this be" ...

There's gotta be a better way, and of course, there is. Waleed's way: Use * for ALL contractions.

I set out to integrate his approach into my own dictionary, and herein I present to you my contractions dictionary, complete with non-contracted phrases paired with each contraction. This dictionary is compatible with Plover 4.0x version, and while it probably works with older versions, I don't support the older version and you should seriously, really, like right this very minute update to the latest weekly release of Plover.

HOW IT WORKS

Non-contracted phrase: Take the most common left-hand brief for the starter word (note I tend to prefer phoneticly-true briefs) and combine it with the most common right-hand "phrase ender" brief for the ending word.

Contracted phrase: Same thing, but add *

Left-hand phrase starter words:

Most of these will already be familiar to you, as I utlized existing norms as much as possible.

Brief	Word
AOEU, EU	I (see note in the "tricky bits" section.)
H	had
HA	has
HAOE	he (note that HE-based entries still exist for some phrases, I prefer the phonetic HAOE entries).
HAOER	here
HOU	how
HR-	will
HRET	let
K-	can
KH	which _(note that the most commonly-used brief for the word "which" is WEU, but creating phrase/contraction briefs using WEU as root creates far too many conflicts. KH on the other hand is already used for a number of phrases in the default dictionary, so used KH to create briefs for related/missing contractions.)
KO-, KOU	could (KOU is preferred. Note I'm migrating away from using KO, as I prefer the KOU version, although sorting out conflicts is ongoing.)
KWR	why
PHAOEU	might (note the dropping of the ending -T for purposes of briefing and finger sanity)
PHU	must (note the dropping of the ending -FT for purposes of briefing and finger sanity)
R-	are
SHAOE	she (note that SHE-based entries still exist for some phrases, I prefer the phonetic SHAOE entries.)
SHO, SHOU	should (note I'm migrating away from using SHO, as I prefer the SHOU version.)
SPH-LG	something
SPH-PB	someone
SPH	somebody
SR-	have
T-	it
TH	this
THA	that
THAOES	these
THE	they (don't get me started on the conflicts caused by a phonetic entry for "they")
THOE	those _(basically, drop the -S or -Z from the base THOES/THOEZ outline for briefing phrases)
THR	there
TK-	did
TKOE	do
TKU	does (By default, "does" is TKUZ, TKOS or TKAOS. For phonetic reasons, I prefer the TKUZ entry for "does," and for finger sanity reasons, I drop the Z when briefing phrases, therefore, the left-hand starter brief for "does" is TKU.)
U	you
W-R, WR-	where - read note in https://github.com/Greygal/StudySteno-Contractions#tricky-bits-to-watch-out-for section below. (I am seriously considering using WHR are root brief for "where" even though its stand-alone brief for "whether" - but WHR "fits" the pattern of WHA/WHE/WHO so much nicer than W-R does ... sigh...)
WAOE	we (note some WE-based entries still exist for some phrases due to conflicts, I do prefer phonetic version of WAOE, although still resolving conflicts.)
WH	when
WHA	what
WHO	who
WO, WOU	would (note I'm migrating away from using WO, as I prefer the WOU version, although sorting out conflicts is ongoing.)
WR-	were

Right-hand phrase enders:

Again, most of these will already be familar to you. Simply add/tuck them into the left hand starter brief to use.

Brief	Word
-BGD	could
-D	had, also used as contraction for could, should and would, also sometimes did
-F	have
-L	will
-LD	would
-PBT	not
-R	are
-RBD	should
-S	is, sometimes us such as in "let us", and contraction for "has"
-Z	has

To make the phrase a contraction, simply add * to the brief.

THA = that
-S = is
THA-S = that is
THA*S = that's

TK = did
-PBT = not
TK-PBT = did not
TK*PBT = didn't

TRICKY BITS TO WATCH OUT FOR

Y'all and you all

"y'all" is written phonetically with *, not with starter U: KWRA*UL = y'all

But since U-L is "you will," I use KWRAUL for "you all", which is consistent with the pattern for y'all but not phonetically true.

Note: "Y'all" is never, ever written as "ya'll" and if y'all insist on writing it as "ya'll", y'all can just go eat lemons.

Won't and will not

Technically, "won't" is the contraction for "will not", so the dictionary contains entries for phonetic "won't" and (semi) logical "will not" contracted:

HR-PBT will not
HR*PBT won't
WO*PBT won't

Note that the entry WOPBT was changed to the word "wont" which, while it's not a commonly-used word anymore, should remain in the dictionary.

Anything that starts with I

Some default entries use EU, some use AOEU ... sigh... resolving the conflicts in this family is a challenge that probably dates back to 1911... this is a work in progress. For the most part, most entries use AOEU for I, but there are some noteable exceptions, such as:

EULD I would (because AOEULD is "island" and although there are other entries for "island" I kinda like this one...)
EU*LD I'd (because *EUD maps to "Idaho")
AOEUD I had (because EUD maps to id and just don't get me started whinging on all the variations of I.D. ID id ...)
AO*EUD I’d

W-R for "where" exception

W-R is used for "where," except for where WR- is used, such as for where are, where have, where will, and a few others. When using WR- would conflict with briefs for the "were" family, we use W-R ... yes, this is suboptimal. We can't use W-R for this, since that's the root brief for "where" family, and we don't want to just use WR as the brief for "where" because that's the root brief for the "were" family... ideally, we'd use WHR as the root brief for all the briefed phrases and contractions that are part of the "where" family ... except the use of W-R is really well-established for "where", and the potential for a bunch of phrases that start with "whether" is noteable... so for now, "where" is either W-R or WR- depending on conflicts. Eventually I'll sort out consistency on this. Example:

WR-R where are
WR*R where're
W-RS where is
W*RS where's

Double contractions

Fortunately, there are very few double contractions - that is, a root word with two contractions. They work essentially the same as all other contractions, except you are "tucking" two right-hand endings, and the non-contracted phrase is three words.

KOU could
-PBT not
-F have
KOUFPBT could not have
KO*UFPBT couldn't've

WAO*EFD we'd've

HOW TO INSTALL

Simply download contractions.json file, then add it to your Plover dictionaries by clicking the big, round green + button at the bottom of the main screen. By clicking and dragging, move contractions.json so that it is higher priority then main.json and commands.json dictionaries, but either below or above your user.json dictionary file in priority, depending on your preference.

If you would like to view documentation on all the changes/edits/additions/etc. that the contractions.json file overlays on the default dictionary, refer to the "Documentation of Dictionary Changes.md" file.

NEED TO DO/FIX/FINISH

See the "Coming Soon" section of the "Documentation of Dictionary Changes" file to view the complete to-do list.