A phonetic transcription is very different from a regular (“orthographic”) transcription. The transcriber notes how spoken words are pronounced, using a special alphabet of phonetic symbols. The most common is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Phonetic transcription (also called phonetic writing or phonetic notation) is the visual representation of speech sounds (or telephones) by means of symbols. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet. Two examples of this type were developed by the Danish Otto Jespersen (1889) and the American Kenneth Pike (1943). Pike`s system, which is part of a broader goal of scientific description of phonetics, is particularly interesting in its questioning of the descriptive method of phoneticians who created alphabetic systems such as IPA. An example of Pike`s system can be illustrated below. A voiced syllabic alveolar nasal consonant (/n̩/ in IPA) is noted as A basic principle of phonetic transcription is that it should be applicable to all languages, and its symbols should indicate the same phonetic properties, regardless of the language transcribed. [2] It follows that a transcription developed for a single language or group of languages is not a phonetic transcription, but an orthography. Sometimes a transcript is enclosed in pipes (“| |”). This goes beyond phonology in morphological analysis.

For example, the words pets and beds could be transcribed phonetically as [phɛʔts] and [b̥ɛd̥z̥] (in a fairly close transcription) and phonematically as /pɛts/ and /bɛdz/. Because /s/ and /z/ are distinct phonemes in English, they receive distinct symbols in phonemic analysis. However, a native English speaker would recognize that they represent the same plural ending underneath. This can be indicated with the rating of the pipe. If the plural ending is essentially an s, as the English spelling suggests, the words |pɛts| can be transcribed. and |bɛds|. If it is essentially a z, it would be |pɛtz| and |bɛdz|. A broad transcription can be a useful compromise between a narrow transcription and an orthographic transcription. However, it may not have as much detail as some specialists need. This is a phonetic spelling of “audio”. As with many English words, it`s not obvious how to say “audio” if you`re not a native speaker. But when transcribed phonetically, each sound of the word is represented by a symbol.

Non-English speakers who can read the IPA can reread a phonetic transcription with the correct English pronunciation, even if they don`t know what it means. In fact, the API works for all spoken languages, not just English. Phonetic transcription can be used to transcribe phones from a language. In all transcription systems, a distinction is made between broad and narrow transcription. Broad transcription indicates only the most notable phonetic features of a utterance, while narrow transcription encodes more information about the phonetic characteristics of allophones in the utterance. The difference between wide and narrow is a continuum, but the difference between phonemic and phonetic transcription is usually treated as a binary distinction. [3] Phonemic transcription is a particular form of broad transcription that ignores all allophonic differences; As the name suggests, it is not really a phonetic transcription (although it can sometimes coincide with one), but a representation of the phonemic structure. A transcription that contains some allophonic details but is closely related to the phonemic structure of an utterance is called an allophonic transcription. In fact, phonetic transcription can confuse things for a reader. If you just want to study a transcribed text without confusing symbols, a regular, high-quality transcription will suffice. Strictly speaking, it is not possible to distinguish between “wide” and “narrow” in phonemic transcription, because the symbols chosen are only sounds that have proven distinctive.

However, the symbols themselves can be more or less explicit about their phonetic implementation. [11] A frequently cited example is the symbol chosen for the English consonant at the beginning of the words “street”, “rye”, “red”: it is often transcribed as /r/, although the symbol suggests an association with the IPA symbol [r] used for a tongue-tipped trillium. It is also possible to use the /ɹ/ symbol in a phonemic transcription, which refers to an alveolar approximation in the use of IPA; This is the most common finding for English pronunciation in America and England. Phonemic symbols are often chosen to avoid diacritics as much as possible, as part of a “one tone, one symbol” policy, or they may even be limited to the ASCII symbols of a typical keyboard, as in the SAMPA alphabet. For example, the English word church can be transcribed as /tʃɝːtʃ/, a close approximation of its actual pronunciation, or more abstractly as /crc/, which is easier to type. Phonemic symbols should always be supported by an explanation of their use and meaning, especially if they deviate as far from the actual pronunciation as /crc/. [12] There are also several ways to transcribe the word phonemically, but here the differences are usually not precise, but analytical. For example, pretzel could be /ˈprɛts.l̩/ or /ˈprɛts.əl/.

This latter transcription suggests that there are two vowels in the word, although they cannot be heard both, but the first suggests that there is only one. [10] The International Phonetic Association recommends placing a phonetic transcription in square brackets “[ ]”. A transcription that specifically refers only to phonemic contrasts can be enclosed in “//” slashes. If you are not sure, it is better to use parentheses, because by putting a transcription with slashes, you theoretically claim that each symbol contrasts phonemic for the transcribed language. Can you make no head or tail out of it? Here is the spelling transcription of the same sentence: If you don`t have any special requirements, phonetic transcription is an unnecessary output that can compromise the clarity of your text. Most online dictionaries include a reading option to show how a word is said. So if the text contains only a few strange words, it makes sense to use a non-phonetic transcription service. You can always do a quick search on the internet to figure out how to pronounce an unknown word. Another disadvantage of narrow transcription is that it includes a greater number of symbols and diacritics that may be unknown to laymen.

The advantage of broad transcription is that it generally allows for statements that apply to a more diverse language community. It is therefore more appropriate for pronunciation data in foreign language dictionaries that discuss phonetic details in the preface but rarely give them for each entry. A rule of thumb in many linguistic contexts is therefore to use a narrow transcription when necessary for the point, but a broad transcription whenever possible. For example, in some dialects, the English word pretzel would be [ˈpɹ̥wɛʔts.ɫ̩] in a close transcription, which notes certain phonetic features that are not obvious even to a native speaker. An example of a broad transcription is [ˈpɹ̥ɛts.ɫ̩], which indicates only some of the easiest features to hear. An even broader transcription would be [ˈpɹɛts.l], in which each symbol represents a single speech sound, but without going into unnecessary detail. None of these transcriptions make any statement about the phonemic status of sounds. Instead, they represent certain ways in which it is possible to produce the sounds that make up the word. [9] In iconic phonetic notation, the shapes of phonetic signs are designed to visually represent the position of articulators in the vocal tract.

This is different from alphabetic notation, where the correspondence between the shape of the character and the position of the articulator is arbitrary. This notation may be more flexible than alphabetic notation because it shows more nuances of pronunciation (MacMahon 1996: 838-841). An example of iconic phonetic notation is the visible speech system, developed by Scottish phonetician Alexander Melville Bell (Ellis 1869: 15). You`ve probably seen IPA symbols in dictionaries. Printed between a word and its definition, you`ll find something like this: For most languages, phonetic transcription makes it possible to show pronunciation with something much closer to a one-to-one relationship between sound and symbol than is possible with the spelling of the language. Phonetic transcription makes it possible to leave spelling, to study differences in pronunciation between dialects within a particular language, and to identify pronunciation changes that may occur over time.