Phonetic Transcription [PDF]

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CHAPTER I PRELIMINARY A. INTRODUCTION Phonetics transcription is the use of phonetic symbols to represent speech sound. Ideally, each sound in a spoken utterance is represented by a written phonetic symbol, so as to finish a record sufficient to render possible the accurate reconstruction of the utterance



The transcription system will in general reflect the phonetic analysis imposed by the transcriber on the material. In particular, the choice of symbol set will tend to reflect decisions about segmentation of the language data and its phonemicization or phonological treatment



In practice the same data set may be transcribed in more than one way. Different transcription system may be appropriate for different purposes. Such purposes might include descriptive phonetics, theoretical phonology, language pedagogy, lexicography, speech and language theraphy, computerized speech recognition and text-to-speech synthesis. Each of these has its own requirements



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CHAPTER II DISCUSSION



A. Phonetic Transcription Phonetic transcription also known as phonetic script or phonetic notation is the visual representation of speech sounds. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet. The phonetic transcription system of the IPA is an alphabetic notation system: it uses a set of symbols which are based on Roman orthography. This is supplemented in various ways by elements from other symbol sets which have been modified slightly to harmonise with the Roman-based phonetic symbols. In this system, each phonetic symbol represents a composite set of articulatory characteristics.



With phonetic transcriptions, dictionaries tell you about the pronunciation of words. In English dictionaries, phonetic transcriptions are necessary, because the spelling of an English word does not tell you how you should pronounce it.



B. Broad Phonetics Transcription Broad transcription indicates only the most noticeable phonetic features of an utterance. Broad transcription (or phonemic transcription): ignores as many details as possible, capturing only enough aspects of a pronunciation to show how that word differs from other words in the language.



The advantage of the broad transcription is that it usually allows statements to be made which apply across a more diverse language community. It is thus more appropriate for the pronunciation data in foreign language dictionaries, which may discuss phonetic details in the preface but rarely give them for each entry.



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The key factor in a broad transcription is meaning -- if a pronunciation detail can change the meaning of words in a language, it must be included in a broad transcription of that language. For example, consider the difference between the vowels in [liv] and [lɪv]. -



For Canadian English, a narrow transcription would note the difference between the [i] and the [ɪ]. So would a broad transcription, since leave and livemean different things.



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For Canadian French, a narrow transcription would note the difference between [i] and [ɪ]. But a broad transcription would not. [liv] and [lɪv] do not mean different things in Canadian French -- they're both ways of saying 'book'. Both [i] and [ɪ] occur in the language, but they never contrast, that is, they never cause a difference in meaning. So a broad transcription would ignore the difference and write both as [liv].



Examples in Words: -



Cat : “a” is a vowel in this word



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Street : “e” and “e” are vowels in this word



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Late : “a” and “e” are vowels in this word



Each of these examples gives two different sounds that are written with the same symbol in phonemic transcription. In other words, the two sounds are the same phoneme. -



the “clear l” in lid and the “dark l” in hill (the second sounds like a vowel and the tongue does not touch the top of your mouth; the difference is especially audible in British English)



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the “ee” sound in this pronunciation of meet and this one (the second is much longer)



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the “p” sound in pin and spin (the first is accompanied by more breathing)



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the “w” sound in wine and twine (the first is voiced, the second is not)



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Picture 1.1



C. Word stress When a word has many syllables, one of them is always pronounced more strongly. This is called word stress, and we say that the syllable is stressed. For example, in the word BECOME,



the



stressed



syllable



is COME.



If



the



stressed



syllable



was BE, BECOME would be pronounced like this. The most popular system is to put a vertical line (ˈ) before the stressed syllable in the phonetic transcription of the word. For example, the transcription for BECOME is /bɪˈkʌm/. If a word has only one syllable (examples: PEN, WATCH), dictionaries usually do not put the ˈ stress mark before it. So they don’t write /ˈpen/ — they simply write /pen/. In monosyllabic words (words of one syllable), the outcome is unambiguous: the syllable, i.e. word, has primary stress (e.g. heat, look, greet) and does not need to be marked. 1. The primary stressed syllable can be marked by placing a diacritic in the following way:



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Picture 1.2 2. Secondary stress Many words have two stresses, one primary and one secondary. The secondary stress can be marked by placing the diacritic before the syllable which has secondary stress:



Picture 1.3 D. Narrow Phonetics Transcription Narrow transcription encodes more information about the phonetic variations of the specific allophones in the utterance. It captures as many aspects of a specific



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pronunciation as possible and ignores as few details as possible. Using the diacritics provided by the IPA, it's possible to make very subtle distinctions between sounds.



The advantage of the narrow transcription is that it can help learners to get exactly the right sound, and allows linguists to make detailed analyses of language variation. The disadvantage is that a narrow transcription is rarely representative of all speakers of a language. Most Americans, Canadians and Australians would pronounce the /t/ of little as a tap [ɾ] (t-/d-flapping). Some people in southern England would say /t/ as [ʔ] (a glottal stop; t-glottalization) and/or the second /l/ as [ʊ] or something similar (L-vocalization), possibly yielding [ˈlɪʔʊ]. A further disadvantage in less technical contexts is that narrow transcription involves a larger number of symbols that may be unfamiliar to nonspecialists.



The other type of phonetic transcription is much more detailed than phonemic transcription. In narrow transcription, we use different symbols e.g. for: -



the “p” sound in pin and spin (the first is accompanied by more breathing)



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the “w” sound in wine and twine (the first is voiced, the second is not)



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the flap t in this pronunciation of letter and regular “t” in this one (the first is voiced and “flapped”)



Picture 1.4



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CHAPTER III CLOSING A. CONCLUSION Phonetic transcription also known as phonetic script or phonetic notation is the visual representation of speech sounds. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet. The phonetic transcription system of the IPA is an alphabetic notation system: it uses a set of symbols which are based on Roman orthography. With phonetic transcriptions, dictionaries tell you about the pronunciation of words. There are 2 phonetic transcription : 1. Broad Phonetics Transcription The key factor in a broad transcription is meaning -- if a pronunciation detail can change the meaning of words in a language, it must be included in a broad transcription of that language. 2. Narrow Phonetics Transcription Narrow transcription encodes more information about the phonetic variations of the specific allophones in the utterance. It captures as many aspects of a specific pronunciation as possible and ignores as few details as possible. Using the diacritics provided by the IPA, it's possible to make very subtle distinctions between sounds.



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REFERENCES



1. Roach, Peter. 2009. English Phonetics and Phonology (A Practical Course). United Kingdom. Cambridge University 2. Wells, J.C. Phonetics Transcription and Analysis. London. University College 3. Azu,



By.



2006.



Phonemic



&



Phonetic



Transcription.



Retrieved



from



http://www.azlifa.com/pp-lecture-8/ 4. Szynalski, Tomasz P. Introduction to Phonetic Transcription. Retrieved from http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-trans.htm