Théodore-Pierre Bertin (2 November 1751 – 25 January 1819) was the author of fifty-odd works on various subjects, but is primarily remembered as the person responsible for adapting Samuel Taylor's shorthand to the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

and introducing modern shorthand to

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. Born at

Provins Provins () is a Communes of France, commune in the Seine-et-Marne Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in north-central France. Known for its well-preserved medieval architecture and importance througho ...

(

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...

) to Louis Bertin, a parliamentary lawyer, and Louise Mitantier, Bertin taught English before travelling to

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to work as a translator. He studied Taylor shorthand during his time in Britain and, on returning to

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in 1791, translated into French Taylor's book ''An essay intended to establish a standard for a universal system of Stenography, or Short-hand writing'', publishing it in 1792 under the title ''Système universel et complet de Stenographie ou Manière abrégée d'écrire applicable à tous les idiomes'' (''A complete and universal system of stenography or an abbreviated manner of writing applicable to all languages''). In 1795, the

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gave him an annual grant to continue this work. His book went into a second edition in 1795, a third in 1796 and a fourth in 1803. He continued to work for the government during the Directory, but the

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and First Empire did not employ his services. Under the Restauration, he established a stenographic service for the

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and took a government post in the administration of business licenses (''Régie des Droits Réunis''). In 1817, he had become stenographer for the conservative journal ''

Le Moniteur Universel () was a French newspaper founded in Paris on November 24, 1789 under the title by Charles-Joseph Panckoucke, and which ceased publication on December 31, 1868. It was the main French newspaper during the French Revolution and was for a long ...

''. He died, aged 67, in

Bertin's shorthand

Despite its roots, Bertin's system was not especially fast, but it did have the advantage of being highly readable. Each sound had a very distinctive symbol, largely carried over from Taylor's system, and added a few more symbols for final vowels. Also, like Taylor, Bertin eliminated all vowels that were neither at the beginning nor end of a word. This caused some ambiguity, but it did enable stenographers to write at the pace of speech. Composed of 16 basic letters, plus initials and finals, Bertin's scheme was the first that could be written without ever lifting the pen. It also employed abbreviations and initials to save time with common words. His method was ultimately substantially improved by Hippolyte Prévost and later by Albert Delaunay.

References

1751 births 1819 deaths People from Provins French didactic writers French male non-fiction writers {{France-nonfiction-writer-stub