A brief lesson in stenography

My friend, Jay, asked me the other day, "So, how to you spell my name in steno? Is it just the letter J?"

A devilish grin slowly made its way onto my lips, and I said, "Well, Jay, since there is no 'J' on a steno keyboard, your name is spelled SKWRAEU." He was gobsmacked.

The combination of letters represent certain sounds. The letters SKWR is the "J" sound as in January, gymnasium, or geranium.

The letters AEU stand for the long "A" sound as in bait, rate and take.

So simply put ~ Jay is the J sound followed by the long A sound and is spelled SKWRAEU.

Poor SKWRAEU!