Dutton Speedwords

It's not exactly an alphabetic shorthand system.  The author has used Horn's study of word frequency, and for example the most commonly occurring words are represented by one letter, the second most common by 2 letters, etc.  For example, from the first lesson:

& = and

c = this

t = it

be = before

gu = good

ri = write

ze = send

Etc.  It's quite unusual.  You have to memorize 400+ of those "words" to use the system, plus there are a variety of principles, such as "A Speedword ending in a consonant adds -o to convey a contrary meaning, while one ending in a vowel adds -x."  So ax = question, axo = answer; de = day, dex = night; ov = over, ovo = under.

Whew. 

There's a whole "appendix" full of similar speed principles. 

The end of the book talks about a system of "Dutton Shorthand"  for anyone who's interested in "taking notes at verbatim speed in geometric shorthand."  No clue in the book what it's like.

(The book, "Teach Yourself Dutton Speedwords", was published in 1951.  Apparently there were other supplementary books and materials available.)

Just curious what anyone knows about this unusual system.

Alex