Reginald J. G. Dutton

Who was Reginald J. G. Dutton?

Reginald J.G. Dutton,. Reginald John Garfield Dutton was born in Nottingham, England, the eldest son of George H.J. Dutton. He was the inventor of the auxiliary language and stenographic system known as Dutton Speedwords. Dutton studied Pitman Shorthand and other shorthand systems as an aid to his work as a newspaper correspondent. He invented his own system, published in 1916 under the title "Shorthand in Three Days". He made minor improvements but settled on a final form by 1919 and republished his work as "Dutton One Week Shorthand" as the 12 lessons could be mastered in one week.

Dutton became interested in Esperanto and, in general, the concept of an auxiliary constructed language in the interests of increasing communication and goodwill among peoples. He set about creating his own auxuilliary language, based on his earlier shorthand system and in 1943 introduced "World Speedwords", conceived as a system of shorthand as well as a spoken and written auxiliary language.

Dutton was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts from 1918-1969.