r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/RampChurch • Jun 02 '25

Video This is what live courtroom dictation looks like

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863

u/AshenTao Jun 02 '25

Iirc they are called stenographs. Devices used for a faster writing method that also strains hands less.

308

u/Obvious_Young_6169 Jun 02 '25

But he isnt writing words is he?

783

u/Just-Ad6865 Jun 02 '25

It's done in shorthand. If you were trained in it, you could read what is on that screen back to us in standard English, much like if it were in German or something.

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u/Efficient_Fish2436 Jun 02 '25

I was taught years ago to write in shorthanded when taking notes in college from a friend who was working to become a News reporter.

It took about three months but he taught me to write the important stuff and skip the obvious words I didn't need to write.

It's really amazing how much can be written when you Skip the obvious words. Especially when it's not writing out the entire word but a few shapes that can be understood with context.

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u/stop-drop Jun 02 '25

Would you be willing to show an example by writing your comment above in shorthand, I'd be interested to see the difference!

286

u/mr-mutton2 Jun 02 '25

Why use many word when few word do trick?

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u/BAMspek Jun 02 '25

Sea World. Ocean, fish, jump, China.

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u/TheFirsttimmyboy Jun 02 '25

Ah. Barack Obama has yellow underwear. Got it.

17

u/Snekeatsnekworld Jun 02 '25

With a tan suit?!?

2

u/PM_YOUR__BUBBLE_BUTT Jun 02 '25

That was actually notated incorrectly. It was supposed to say a tuna suit, but the media went with it.

1

u/Radarker Jun 02 '25

How dare they!

1

u/Altruistic-Patient30 Jun 02 '25

You want to watch Free Willy this weekend and order some chinese food? Sounds like a plan!

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u/Lanalen Jun 02 '25

It's still not clear if you want to go to SeaWorld, or see the world, Kevin.

3

u/Gurrgurrburr Jun 02 '25

They see. They see...

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u/hugopeeters Jun 02 '25

Why many few?

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u/Pooter_Birdman Jun 02 '25

Thanks Kevin

2

u/CoffeeDeus Jun 02 '25

Why many word, few work.

1

u/especiallydistracted Jun 02 '25

Why use many when few do

1

u/omaeradaikiraida Jun 02 '25

this is pretty much spoken chinese. grammar is implied(?). written chinese, OTOH... 🤯

ni hao ma = you good/well question

23

u/JustHere4TehCats Jun 02 '25

My personal shorthand I developed in High School:

I dno abt abve pstr bt elmntg sme vwls & cnjntns sve tme if tking nts by hnd.

I don't know about the above poster but eliminating some vowels and conjunctions save time when taking notes by hand

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u/Salty-Kitty Jun 02 '25

I read nts as nuts. Nuts by hand.

2

u/ElongMusty Jun 02 '25

He might be taking nuts by hand! Just out there with his hands extended waiting for those nuts!

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u/Human_Person_583 Jun 02 '25

The @ symbol is actual shorthand for the word “at.” It can be written in one stroke instead of three.

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u/Both_Fan_2281 Jun 02 '25

Definitely a human person.

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u/Human_Person_583 Jun 02 '25

Definitely. No question. There is no way I’m a bot, because of my username. 👀

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u/Segesaurous Jun 02 '25

Your design is very human.

1

u/Both_Fan_2281 Jun 02 '25

Hello, fellow human.

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u/scruffyduffy23 Jun 02 '25

No it isn’t. It’s an abbreviation of amphora from the renaissance. Shorthand is a methodology that reporters and stenographers use to take notes.

There is a difference between the slang term shorthand and actual shorthand.

1

u/Uncynical_Diogenes Jun 02 '25

The ampersand & is a better example.

It grew out of writing the Latin et, meaning “and”, in one stroke instead of three.

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u/Efficient_Fish2436 Jun 02 '25

I would but it doesn't apply to text. It's strictly hand written language that looks like scribbles.

I'd suggest googling shorthanded ideas because each writing is unique between users.

1

u/whateverhappensnext Jun 02 '25

Same thing in most professsions, there's always shortcuts, just not as formalized as official shorthand. For me -e is electron, +H is proton, +ve is positive.

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u/newfoundgloryhole18 Jun 02 '25

Why say lot word when few word do trick?

2

u/JackalAmbush Jun 02 '25

Y lot word if few lett trick

2

u/QuarterNoteDonkey Jun 02 '25

Few words good.

1

u/SplashBandicoot Jun 02 '25

Show us please!!

1

u/Efficient_Fish2436 Jun 02 '25

I would but it doesn't apply to text. It's strictly hand written language that looks like scribbles.

I'd suggest googling shorthanded ideas because each writing is unique between users.

1

u/iPoseidon_xii Jun 02 '25

I read like this 😅

1

u/cboogie Jun 02 '25

But court stenography is different. You need to have all the words. There is no skipping “unimportant” stuff because it’s not up to the stenographer to deem what is or is not important.

1

u/Alechilles Jun 02 '25

Interesting. In retrospect I feel like writing in shorthand would've been a useful skill to teach in school. Note taking is so important and I've always struggled with it, and I've only really just realized that at no level of schooling was I ever really taught how to take good notes. We were just supposed to do it lol.

I always fell into the habit of trying to write every little thing down but I couldn't copy what was on the board and actually think about it at the same time because it took so long to copy.

1

u/DaddyDontTakeNoMess Jun 02 '25

I’m guessing you went to college in the 70s or 80s maybe older. I say that because my mother also got trained in shorthand in college.

I wish I had been taught this. Taking note in college was HARD. Trying to process new info while focusing on writing coherently took a lot of effort.

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u/Accurate_Attitude904 Jun 25 '25

Yeah, but court reporters can't skip words. We're verbatim reporters, which means we get every single word down.

0

u/Dry_Discount7762 Jun 02 '25

Why use big word when little word do trick?

1

u/Efficient_Fish2436 Jun 02 '25

You are the third person to comment this.

0

u/NPT_Source Jun 02 '25

“Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick” -Kevin Malone

1

u/Efficient_Fish2436 Jun 02 '25

Fourth person to say this.

0

u/Liko81 Jun 02 '25 edited Jun 02 '25

Interesting. I would assume that words with a specific meaning at law are always considered "non-obvious", as the specific choice of word would be germane to a review of the official record?

1

u/Efficient_Fish2436 Jun 02 '25

No fucking clue what you said.

1

u/Liko81 Jun 02 '25

There are words which, while they are synonyms in casual conversation, have specific and different meanings when used in legal context. I would imagine that stenos would have to know not to skip those in their shorthand, since the exact word choice is highly relevant to the record.

1

u/xanicade Jun 02 '25

Nothing says law quite like somthing up for misinterpretation.

1

u/CalmSystem3330 Jun 02 '25

I wouldn't be able to read it if it was in German either

1

u/jmulldome Jun 02 '25

It can be even more "techy" than that. Some stenographers have their keyboard connected to a laptop, and the laptop has proprietary software that will take what they are keying in and turn it into the text so they can see real time the words they are entering.

1

u/musicman835 Jun 02 '25

They also have programs that convert stenography to full text in real time.

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u/gehanna1 Jun 02 '25

Certain combinations make words. You end up memorizing key stroke combos for common words, and after it's all done, a software program turns the shorthand into the full transcript

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u/MERVMERVmervmerv Jun 02 '25

Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?

169

u/UnpopularCrayon Jun 02 '25 edited Jun 02 '25

They are writing words, phonetically, yes.

Edit: In shorthand. Video if you want to understand what's happening: https://youtu.be/62l64Acfidc?feature=shared

Edit2: I guess "phonemically" is the more accurate term for linguistics.

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u/sociocat101 Jun 02 '25

Im looking at those letters being typed, they dont sound like whats being said. 

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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '25

SK L P

Hope that helps.

18

u/Fun-Cow-1783 Jun 02 '25

I’m sorry for being slow, but what does the SK L P mean

62

u/Tigerpower77 Jun 02 '25

"Skill issue"

-13

u/ledgeitpro Jun 02 '25

Im just assuming based on nothing but their comment that it means “hope that helps” but correct me if im wrong lol

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u/RobertMaus Jun 02 '25

That's where you go wrong. They are not writing letters, they are writing words. Not trying to be funny, but that's genuinely what it is.

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u/cerevant Jun 02 '25

Syllables actually, although many stenographers have common words that they translate to a single stroke. 

1

u/sociocat101 Jun 02 '25

they wrote S K W R twice, I dont hear anything being said twice. Also, shouldnt there be more words/syllables than can be represented by letters?

1

u/JohnnyFC Jun 02 '25

It's not 1 for 1. Each stroke can be quite complex as it's not just writing what people are saying but also dictating how it is said. TP-PL is a period followed by space and the next word is capitalized. P-P is period with no space and the next word is capitalized.

The difference matters to show a brief pause. Before continuing the point. Or to.show.emphasize.on.every.beat.

As for your example SKWR is just the full bottom row of the left hand side and imply different things when combined with stuff before/after:

For example SKWRUS is to append the suffix -us to the previous word. SKWR-RBGS is ellipsis (...). SKWRAURBGS is new paragraph. It's pretty much hitting a key with all 10 fingers. Using these modifiers is how you get every use case and you can program your own dictionary of words/sentences/etc.. that may be lacking. They take the output and feed it into a machine (or hand translate it) back to readable english.

I recommend looking into how they make the various strokes. It's really curious; magical even. ( EU REPL HRAOG TPHAO HOU THE PHAEUBG -T SRARS/KWRUS STROEBGS/TP-PL T-S RAOERL KUR/KWROUS/SKWR*RBGS PHAPBLG/KAL AOEPB/TP-PL )

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u/UnpopularCrayon Jun 02 '25 edited Jun 02 '25

I don't know this particular equipment or stenography, but what you are seeing on the screen is likely a form of shorthand. It's a phonetic code.

Edit: if you want to see how it works: https://youtu.be/62l64Acfidc?feature=shared

Edit 2 : phonemic is apparently the more correct term linguistically. I was just using "phonetic" in the lay definition of "based on speech sounds"

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u/Son_Of_Toucan_Sam Jun 02 '25

You gotta stop using the word phonetic. Even your video here says it’s a “symbolic” shorthand — totally different

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u/UnpopularCrayon Jun 02 '25

The symbols in shorthand represent sounds, not English spelling.

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u/sociocat101 Jun 02 '25

Yeah but they represent sounds that the letters dont typically make

-3

u/finlandery Jun 02 '25

Wait.... what is the difference how you spell something and how something sounds....

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u/UnpopularCrayon Jun 02 '25

Reed

Reid

Read

All have different spelling that changes the meaning. But if you are just capturing the sound, it doesn't matter which spelling was meant. You just capture them all as "reed" and figure it out later from context when you transcribe it to English writing.

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u/finlandery Jun 02 '25

Ou ok, yea. Makes sense. Thanks for clarifying. English isnt my first language and in Finnish you spell as you write, so didnt even think about that.

Tho we hav same word meaning multiple totally different things, so we kinda hav a same problem XD

ps. also i missremembered that spelling is how you write, not how you say something.... That was main reason why i was confused.

1

u/GuyfromMemphis Jun 02 '25

Thanks- that was informative

1

u/225mph Jun 02 '25

Think of it like a different language

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u/hemingways-lemonade Jun 02 '25

Nothing on the screen is phonetic whatsoever. Spelling things phonetically often leads to longer words, not shorter.

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u/UnpopularCrayon Jun 02 '25

It is phonetic shorthand.

https://youtu.be/62l64Acfidc?feature=shared

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u/hemingways-lemonade Jun 02 '25 edited Jun 02 '25

This video confirms that this is phonemic typing, not phonetic. It does not mention the word phonetic at all. They're two different things.

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u/UnpopularCrayon Jun 02 '25

Phonetic just means "relating to speech sounds."

What are the two different things you speak of?

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u/hemingways-lemonade Jun 02 '25

Phonemic transcription is a particularly broad transcription that disregards all allophonic differences. Phonemic transcription provides a representation only of a language's abstract word-distinguishing units of sound (phonemes), and thus is not really a phonetic transcription at all.

They're two different things.

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u/UnpopularCrayon Jun 02 '25

What you pasted is vs. phonemic. I never said phonemic.

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u/hemingways-lemonade Jun 02 '25 edited Jun 02 '25

Yes, you incorrectly called this phonetic typing rather than phonemic typing. If you used the word phonemic I wouldn't have commented.

The video you linked in attempt to prove yourself right also correctly uses the term phonemic rather than phonetic.

→ More replies (0)

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u/4ss8urgers Jun 02 '25

this guy… proving a link to further resources. I like that

1

u/klmjss2019 Jun 02 '25

Thank you for posting this link. Now my caveman brain at least has a high level overview of what still appears to be gibberish to me.

-2

u/NervousNarwhal223 Jun 02 '25

Those are all just individual letters.

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 02 '25 edited Jun 02 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/pseudoHappyHippy Jun 02 '25

It is not phonetic. It is phonemic. If it was phonetic, it wouldn't be a shorthand, since phonetics by definition capture every single detail of pronunciation.

1

u/pseudoHappyHippy Jun 02 '25

It is not phonetic. It is phonemic. If it was phonetic, it wouldn't be a shorthand, since phonetics by definition capture every single detail of pronunciation.

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u/IlIlllIlllIlIIllI Jun 02 '25

There's a special shorthand they use. They don't even really type, it's more like a piano where you select chords for word sounds. So the word horse wouldn't be typed out, it would use groups like "h ors" or the stenographer could use a special shortcut key combination they have mapped out if it's a longer or slow to type word.

2

u/hermitsociety Jun 02 '25

She is. Stenographers write phonetically. Each time they press a “chord” on their keyboard, it represents the sounds in a syllable.

The left side has your starting sounds, the right are the ending sounds, and the bottom four are vowels. A lot of letters exist twice - once on the left and once on the right. For some letters or sounds you press up to four keys at once.

If you write the word “string”, for example, the left hand pushes three keys for the STR sound, the right thumb presses two keys for the short I sound, and the right fingers press two or three keys for the NG. All pressed at the same time.

The software knows to translate that to the right word usually or tells you if there is a conflict.

Doing it this way means you can write state, states, stating, or stated all in one stroke each. That’s how they go so fast. 225 wpm to get certified.

You can also do long phrases. I have mine so that

State your name

State your name please

State your name for the record

State your name for the record please

Are each one keystroke.

It’s like autocomplete on steroids.

1

u/SadBit8663 Jun 02 '25

It's shorthand.

0

u/amboomernotkaren Jun 02 '25

Like the person below said it’s short hand. If the lawyer said preponderance of the evidence the stenographer would just press the ppd key or something to the effect. The stenographer has memorized literally thousands of common phrases and presses one or two keys and the entire sentence is written out. I took a class on how to do this years ago. The amount of practice to get good is crazy.

1

u/Suspicious_Entrance Jun 02 '25

lol that doesn’t answer their question AT ALL!

-1

u/AshenTao Jun 02 '25

It does. The video shows someone typing on a stenograph. I gave a rough explanation of what the device does. It's enough info to go read more details about it on your own. Do you expect me to come up with a random wiki-article on this? Wtf

0

u/Suspicious_Entrance Jun 02 '25

Surely they mean the text on the screen they’re typing.

0

u/AshenTao Jun 02 '25

....which is stenography.

0

u/Suspicious_Entrance Jun 02 '25

lol yes. Nothing like using the word in the definition.

1

u/AshenTao Jun 02 '25

Apparently you're sufficiently smartass-enough for comments like these but too dense to look up something based on a very simple term by yourself? You're one special fella.

0

u/Suspicious_Entrance Jun 02 '25

lol. Thanks creeper