Melani theory (Italian / Spanish)

Melani.md

Melani theory (Italian / Spanish)

This documentation is based on my own interpretation of the theory as described in the following books, by Marcello Melani:

• Metodo italiano di Stenografia a macchina computerizzata (in Italian);
• Método español para Estenotipia Computarizada (in Spanish).

I am not fluent in either language; I make no guarantees of accuracy.

Keyboard

S	P	T	V	*	c	t	p	i	a
	C	H	R		s	h	r	e	o
		I	A		E	O

Note the casing of the key names: initial consonants and medial vowels are uppercase, and final consonants and vowels are lowercase. Diagrams may label all keys in uppercase, but the official notation in the books uses mixed case.

The steno order is:

SPCTHVRIA*EOcsthprieao

Initial Consonants

Italian	Chord	Spanish	Chord
b	PTV	b	PTV
bl	PTHVR	bl	PTHVR
c	C	c	C
ch	CH	ch	CH
cl	CTHR	cl	CTHR
d	TH	d	TH
f	TV	f	TV
fl	THVR	fl	THVR
g	PC	g	PC
gh	PCH
gn	PCTH	gn	PCTH
		gu	PCH
		güe* (medial)	/PCIAEO*
		güe* (final)	/PCEOe*
		güi* (medial)	/PCIAE*
		güi* (final)	/PCEOi*
h	H	h	SCH
		j	PCT
l	HR	l	HR
		ll*	HRhr/
m	CHR	m	CHR
n	H	n	H
		ñ	PCTH
p	P	p	P
psV*	Ps/	psV*	Ps/
qu	PCTHVR	qu	PCTHVR
r	R	r	R
s	S	s	S
		es	S
t	T	t	T
v	V	v	V
		x	SPCTH
		y	I
z	SPT	z	SPT

* güe and güi take different forms depending on their location in the word: mengüe CHREh/PCEOe* (final), mengües CHREh/PCIAEOs* (medial).

* Initial ll places the vowel in the middle: llevar HREhr/VAr.

* Ps/ is used for the psi, pso, and pseu word initials, e.g. psoriasi Ps/RIAsi.

Medial Vowels

Italian	Chord	Spanish	Chord
a	A	a	A
au	AEO	au	AEO
e	E	e	E
		eu*	IAEO
i	I	i	I
		ia	IA
iu	IEO	iu	IEO
o	O	o	O
u	EO	u	EO
		ue	IAEO
uo	IAEO

* In Spanish, IAEO is translated as eu only at the beginning of a word, e.g. euro IAEOro, but fuera TVIAEOra.

Other composite vowels can be written simply as the combination of the medial vowel and the final vowel, e.g. fui TVEOi.

Accented Vowels

Asterisks can be added to vowels to indicate an accent mark (` in Italian, ´ in Spanish).

Italian	Chord	Spanish	Chord
à	A*	á	A*
è	E*	é	E*
ì	I*	í	I*
ò	O*	ó	O*
ù	EO*	ú	EO*

If a composite vowel can be stressed two different ways, for example ío and ió, the word with the accent on the second vowel takes the one-stroke form, and the other moves the second vowel to the next stroke: envío Eh/VI*/o, envió Eh/VIo*.

Final Consonants

Italian	Chord	Spanish	Chord
b	ctp	b	ctp
c	c	c	c
		ch	ch
d	th	d	th
f	tp	f	tp
g	cs	g	cs
gn	csth
h	h	h	thpr
		j	csh
l	hr	l	hr
		ll*	hr/HR
m	shr	m	shr
n	h	n	h
nt	cp	nt	cp
		ñ	csth
p	p	p	p
r	r	r	r
s	s	s	s
sm	sr	sm	sr
t	t	t	t
v	ct	v	ct
		x	csthpr
		y	cst
z	sh	z	sh

* Final ll must be broken across two strokes: silla SIhr/HRa.

Final Vowels

Final vowels automatically add a space after to indicate the end of a word, as opposed to medial vowels which indicate more syllables are to come. For example, curi would be written CEOri, but curia would be written CEO/RIa.

Italian	Chord	Spanish	Chord
a	a	a	a
e	e	e	e
i	i	i	i
o	o	o	o

Spanish also has a special case eo to indicate the end of a word that ends in a consonant: notas HO/TAseo.

Word Endings

Below are some common word endings. Some of them can be pluralized by adding p.

Italian	Chord	Spanish	Chord
		-os	eo ieao
		-as	ia
-mente	ie	-mente	ie
-zione	zie	-ción	cie
-zioni	zpie	-ciónes	cpie
-(s)sione	sie	-sión	sie
-(s)sioni	spie	-siónes	spie
-issimo	so	-ísmo	so
-issima	sa	-ísma	sa
-issimi	si	-ísmos	seo
-issime	se	-ísmas	sia

Non-Italian/Spanish Sounds

Letters not present in the Italian or Spanish languages can be written with special chords, some of which require a separate stroke:

Italian	Chord	Spanish	Chord
k	Cc/	k	Cv/
h	thpr
j	Cg/
w	Vv/	w	Vv/
x	csthpr
y	cst

Punctuation

Italian	Outline	Spanish	Outline
.	P*	.	P*
,	VR*	,	VR*
		¿	PR
?	I*	?	PR*
		¡	Pcsthpr
!	E*	!	Pcsthpr*
:	PT*	:	PT*
;	PV*	;	PV*

Formatting Commands

Command	Outline
period then new paragraph	PC*
new paragraph	Cct
capitalize	CHR
all caps	SCHR
turn off all caps	PCTHVRshr

Examples

UDHR Article 1, in Italian:

Tutti gli esseri umani nascono liberi ed eguali in dignità e diritti. Essi sono dotati di ragione e di coscienza e devono agire gli uni verso gli altri in spirito di fratellanza.

  C H R                  <cap>
   T      EO  t          tut-
   T              i         ti
 PC H R           i      gli
          E  s           es-
S         E      ri        seri
          EO             u-
  C H R A      h  i       mani
    H   A    s           nas-
  C        O   h     o      cono
    H RI                 li-
 P T V    E      ri        beri
          E   th         ed
          E              e-
 PC       EO        a     gua-
    H R           i          li
    H                    in
   TH  I    cs           dig-
    H  I *    t     a       nità
                   e     e
   TH  I                 di-
      RI      t            rit-
   T              i           ti
 P       *               .<cap>
          E  s           es-
S                 i        si
S          O   h     o   sono
   TH      O             do-
   T    A     t   i        tati
   TH             i      di
      R A                ra-
 PC    I   O   h   e       gione
                   e     e
   TH             i      di
  C        O             co-
S C    I  E    h           scien-
SP T                a           za
                   e     e
   TH     E              de-
     V     O   h     o     vono
        A                a-
 PC    I         r e      gire
 PC H R           i      gli
          EO   h  i      uni
     V    E      r       ver-
S                    o      so
 PC H R           i      gli
        A      h r       al-
   T  R           i        tri
    H                    in
SP     I                 spi-
      RI      t      o      rito
   TH             i      di
   T VR A                fra-
   T      E    h r          tel-
    H R A      h               lan-
SP T                a             za
 P       *               .

and in Spanish:

Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos y, dotados como están de razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros.

  C H R                 <cap>
   T       O  th  ieao  todos
    H R            e o  los
S         E      r      ser-
          E  s     e o     es
S C H     EO            hu-
  C H R A      h  ieao    manos
    H   A               na-
  C       E    h   e o    cen
    H RI    c t p       lib-
      R   E  s     e o     res
                   e    e
       I                i-
 PC H   A      h r       gual-
          E  s     e o       es
               h        en
   TH  I    cs          dig-
    H  I                   ni-
   TH   A     th   e o       dad
            cst         y
   TH     E             de-
      R   E c  h   e o    rechos
            cst         y
     VR  *              ,
   TH      O            do-
   T    A     th  ieao    tados
  C        O s h r   o  como
S  T    A*     h   e o  están
   TH                   de
      R A               ra-
SP T     * O   h   e o    zón
            cst         y
  C        O   h        con-
  C    I  E    h           cien-
  C    I            a          cia
     VR  *              ,
   TH     E             de-
 P T V    E    h          ben
  C        O s h r      com-
 P         O     r         por-
   T    A        r            tar-
             s     e             se
   T VR A               fra-
   T      E      r         ter-
    H   A      h rie          nalmente
    H R            e o  los
          EO   h  ieao  unos
  C        O   h   e o  con
    H R            e o  los
           O            o-
   T  R            e o   tros
 P       *              .