399. In learning how to write single or separate words, the pupil has learned the use of the double-lengthing principle to express the consonant sounds thr, dr, tr, as occurring, for instance, in the words leather, fodder and meter. In phrase-writing, this principle is called into play to express not merely parts of words, but whole words whose consonants are thr, dr or tr. The words there and their are very commonly thus expressed, as is also the frequent phrase they are. Thus we write may there

The Double Length Principle Expression Of Their Th 587

so

there or so they are

The Double Length Principle Expression Of Their Th 588

love their

The Double Length Principle Expression Of Their Th 589

think, their or think they are

The Double Length Principle Expression Of Their Th 590

400. In order that a stroke may be doubled to add there or any cognate word, three things are necessary:

First. The stroke to be doubled must be full length. If a half-length stroke be made twice its ordinary size, we have simply a full-length character, and thr is not added.*

Second. According to the Benn Pitman system, the consonant which is made double-length for the purpose of adding there, or any similar word, must be a curved stroke. The Graham system allows either a curved or a straight stroke to be doubled for this purpose. This feature of the Graham system will be explained and illustrated in a subsequent part of this chapter.

*In some rare cases the advanced reporter, desiring to add there to a half-length stroke, such as that or let, voluntarily discards the t or d and writes for instance, tha' there for that there, le' there for let there.

Third. The doubling principle cannot be applied to any stroke which, before doubling, has any final appendage, such as a circle, a hook or a loop, because any such appendage must necessarily read after the word expressed by doubling. For instance, though doubling the v in love will give us the phrase love their, we can not, by the same means, convert loves into loves their.

The Double Length Principle Expression Of Their Th 591

would be, not loves their, but love there is or love theirs* For the same reason, if we should double the r in arraign, the resulting outline,

The Double Length Principle Expression Of Their Th 592

would be, not arraign their, but are their own. Any circle, hook or loop, at the end of a double-length stroke reads after the word or words expressed by doubling.

401. Strokes with initial modifications may be doubled as freely as simple strokes. The doubling principle may be applied either to the last stroke of a complete outline, as when we write love their by doubling the v in love, or to an incomplete outline used as a word-sign, as when we write think there by doubting the incomplete outline which, as a word-sign, represents think.