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Phenrsteno is a machine shorthand theory implemented as a system for Plover. It's designed for non-rhotic accents—British English in particular—but really anyone might like to use it or adapt it to their own idiolect.
The symbols printed on the keys are IPA symbols, and they represent phonemes—the elementary units of sound that make up words. This allows Phenrsteno to be completely phonetic and independent of spelling.
To see more, continue to Lesson 1: Phonemes.
Theories like StenEd and Phoenix are largely phonetic. Many words can be stroked phonetically to produce the written counterpart, and this is one technique that helps stenographers to surpass real-time speeds. To maximise this effect, I wanted to design a theory that equates sound with text in an intuitive way. To me that meant aligning steno strokes with proper phonetic theory.
Why non-rhotic? Well, I'm from the East Midlands in the UK, and here we don't pronounce our r's unless they're followed by a vowel. American theories like StenEd mean I have to subvocalise with an American accent, which creates mental friction when writing. I made this theory so that my fingers could turn the voice in my head into text on-screen as smoothly as possible.
Phenrsteno (/ˌfεnə'stεnəʊ/) is a very aggressive portmanteau of PHonemic English Non-Rhotic STENOgraphy.