6.1. Transcription 6.2. Broad or Phonemic Transcription
6.3. What symbols should we use for a phonemic transcription?
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Phonetic (Narrow) Transcription
6.4.1. Aspiration and release of oral stops
6.4.2. Audible vs inaudible
6.4.3. Devoicing
6.4.4. Devoicing Approximants Following Voiceless Fricatives
6.4.5. Variation in the place of articulation of /k/ and /ɡ/
6.4.6. Clear and Dark realizations of /l /
6.4.7. Assimilation of alveolars
6.4.8. Syllabic consonants
Exercises
6.1. Transcription
Unlike English, in Arabic there is almost one to one correspondence between what is written and what is spoken. In English, what is written can be completely different from what is spoken. This is what makes George Bernard Shaw mock at and ridicule the English spelling when he wrote in Pygmalion that the word ghoti in English can be read as fish. He meant that the gh = f as in tough and rough, o = ɪ as in women, and ti = ʃ as in nation and patient. So, learning the transcription (the phonetic symbols of sounds) is essential for language learners.
6.2. Broad or Phonemic Transcription
Broad or phonemic transcription of speech does not attempt to record the extremely large number of idiosyncratic or contextual variations in pronunciation that occur in normal speech nor does it attempt to describe the individual variations that occur between speakers of a language or dialect. Such a detailed transcription is a narrow transcription and is partially dealt with in the topic on narrow transcription.
The goal of a broad transcription is to record the phonemes that a speaker uses rather than theactual spoken variants of those phonemes that are produced when a speaker utters a word. A phoneme is an abstract linguistic entity that exists entirely in the brain of a speech producer or a speech perceiver. Each phoneme is not a sound, but it is realised in the outside world as a class (or group) of sounds that are actually uttered. Such spoken variants of each phoneme are known as its allophones. See the topic on Phoneme and Allophone for further information.
6.3. What symbols should we use for a phonemic transcription?
Since phonemes are not sounds but rather exist as abstract linguistic entities in the brain, they could be represented by any arbitrary system of symbols. It is convenient, however, to use a standard system of symbols so that other people can understand what we are writing. The most widely accepted system of symbols is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This alphabet is used to represent both phonemes and allophones in normal practice even though it is defined in terms of actual speech sounds. The diacritics used in the IPA chart will be used for the allophonic variations of the phonemes.
When linguists develop a phonemic description of a language or dialect they most often select the most common or widely distributed allophone of each phoneme as the typical allophone of that phoneme and use its phonetic symbol to represent the phoneme as a whole.
When a symbol is used to represent an actual sound (allophone) it has an entirely different meaning from the same symbol when used to represent a phoneme. For this reason we always enclose transcriptions in /.../ when we are indicating phonemes and in [...] when we are indicating the actually produced sounds.
For example, /k/ might represent a particular English phoneme, which in this case can be realised in actual speech as an aspirated, unaspirated or unreleased velar stop, as a more fronted palatal stop, as a more retracted uvular stop, as a stop produced in some intermediate position between these extremes and also as fricative variants of these stop sounds. The true identity of /k/ is possibly better described by a system of phonological features along with diacritics to indicate the above-mentioned variations of /k/. [k] on the other hand represents a sound that is an unaspirated velar oral stop, [kʰ] represents a sound that aspirated velar oral stop etc, for example.
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Phonetic (Narrow) Transcription
The transcriptions we have been considering so far are phonemic transcriptions, also known as broad transcriptions because they contain the minimum amount of phonetic detail needed in order to be able to distinguish between words. A narrow transcription contains phonetic detail which can often be predicted by rule. Some of the main "rules" for converting a broad to a narrow transcription have already been discussed in 5.3. Remember that any narrow, i.e. phonetic transcription must be enclosed in [ ] brackets. Some more examples for the sake of clarification are given below:
6.4.1. Aspiration and release of oral stops
1. Aspiration
Voiceless oral stops are aspirated before stressed vowels/diphthongs in the same syllable.
Phonemic allophonic
/peɪ/ [pʰeɪ] pay
/ti:/ [tʰi:] tea
/kʌm/ [kʰʌm] come
2. When /l/, /r/, /w/ or /j/ follow the voiceless stop in the same context, they are made voiceless by the aspiration. The following should therefore be transcribed with voiceless approximant consonants
/pleɪ/ [pʰl̥eɪ] play
/pr i:st/ [pʰɹ̥i:st] priest
/pjuː/ [pʰj ̯uː] pew
/trɑɪ/ [tʰɹ̥ɑɪ] try
/twaɪs/ [tʰw̥aɪs] twice
/tjuːn/ [tʰjuːn] tune
/kliːn/ [kʰl̥iːn] clean
/kraɪ/ [kʰɹ̥aɪ] cry
/kjuːt/ [kʰjuːt] cute
The aspiration rule does not apply when voiceless oral stops follow /s/ (in the same syllable). The following words therefore have unaspirated stops:
/spɪn/ [spɪn] spin
/skɑː/ [skɑː] scar
/stænd/ [stænd] stand
/sprɪŋ/ [spɹɪŋ] spring
/skwiːk/ [skwiːk] squeak
Aspiration also occurs in secondary stressed syllables (e.g. [kʰɑ:bəneɪʃəs], carbonaceous) and in many unreduced syllables ( [pʰɒtʰæʃ], potash). However, in unstressed syllables it is not really appropriate to speak of aspiration because oral stops are only weakly released in these contexts. It is acceptable therefore, to omit the symbol for aspiration in words such as:
/pəteɪtəʊ/ [pətʰeɪtəʊ] potato
/kəlekt/ [kəlekt] collect
6.4.2. Audible vs inaudible
Word and syllable-final oral stops or VC stops ("VC" means vowel+consonant and indicates syllable final consonants) show somewhat different patterns of release to those shown by CV stops. When carrying out a narrow transcription of VC stops we are particularly interested in whether the release of the stop is audible or inaudible. This applies to both voiced and voiceless stops. Voiceless stops with audible release often have clear aspiration, especially when the stop precedes a pause. Sometimes the release is less intense but is still audible.
It is customary, when transcribing English to leave audibly released stops unmarked (ie. [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [ɡ]) and to indicate stops without audible release in the following way (ie. [p̚], [b̚], [t̚], [d̚], [k̚], [ɡ̚]). Strong aspiration, as in the word "eat" can therefore be transcribed as [i:t] but the transcriber has the option of adding an aspiration diacritic when the aspiration in an audible release is deemed strong enough to warrant it (ie. [ɪːt] or [ɪːtʰ]).
released unreleased released unreleased
"map" [mæp] [mæp̚] "wink" [wɪŋk] [wɪŋk̚]
"squeak" [skwiːk] [skwiːk̚] "fade" [feɪd] [feɪd̚]
"tired" [taɪəd] [taɪəd̚] "jog" [dʒɒɡ] [dʒɒɡ̚]
Here are some examples of pairs of words with and without audible release:-
6.4.3. Devoicing
Voiced oral stops and voiced fricatives are usually devoiced in the following contexts:
(a) Before a pause (eg. at the end of a sentence or utterance):
/tæb/ [tʰæb̥] tab
/meɪz/ [meɪz̥] maze
/beɪð/ [beɪð̥] bathe
(b) Before a voicelessor devoiced obstruent (ie. before oral stops, affricates or fricatives)
/tæbz/ [tʰæb̥z̥] tabs ( /b/ is devoiced before a devoiced /z/
/sed kɑːl/ [sed̥ kʰɑːl] said Karl ( /d/ is devoiced before /k/ )
/sed suː/ [sed̥ suː] said Sue ( /d/ is devoiced before /s/ )
6.4.4. Devoicing Approximants Following Voiceless Fricatives
When approximants immediately follow voiceless fricatives they are often, but not always, devoiced. This process is analogous to the effect of stop aspiration on following approximants. Note that this devoicing doesn't always happen. It usually happens when the fricative and approximant are in the same syllable. It also seems to be more likely to happen when the syllable is stressed. This effect is generally blocked by a syllable boundary between the two sounds.
/frend/ [fɹ̥end] friend
/swiːt/ [sw̥iːt] sweet
/ʃred/ [ʃɹ̥ed] shred
6. 4.5. Variation in the place of articulation of /k/ and /ɡ/
(a) Before fronted vowels such as /iː/,/ɪ/,/e/, and /æ/, diphthongs with fronted first targets such as /aɪ/, and /ɪə/, as well as the consonants /j/ and /r/, the velar stop consonants /k/ and /ɡ/ are fronted to a pre-velar (between palatal and velar) or even a palatal place of articulation. The pre-velar forms are indicated by placing a + under (or over) the appropriate symbol, ie. [k̟] and [ɡ˖].
/kiːn/ [k̟iːn] keen
/kjuːt/ [k̟j̊uːt] cute
/ɡiːs/ [ɡ˖iːs] geese
/ɡruːp/ [ɡ˖ɹuːp] group
(ii) Before back vowels such as /ɔː/,/ʊ/,/ɔ/,/ɔɪ/, and /ʊə/, as well as the semi-vowel /w/, the velar stop consonants /k/ and /ɡ/ are realised as post-velar stops. The post-velar forms are indicated by placing a "-" under (or over) the appropriate symbol, ie. [ḵ] and [ɡ̄].
/kɔːt/ [ḵɔːt] caught
/kwaɪt/ [ḵw̥aɪt] quite
/ɡɔːdiː/ [ɡ̄ɔːdiː] gaudy
Note that if consonants intervene between /k/ or /ɡ/ and the following vowel then the effect of that vowel is neutralised and the place of articulation is not changed. However, if /w/, /j/ or /r/occur after /k/ or /ɡ/ then they affect the place of articulation of these velar stops, not the vowel.
6.4.6. Clear and Dark realizations of /l /
(a) Before vowels, diphthongs and /j/, /l/ is realised as [l] (clear 'l '). [ɫ] is also usually found at the end of a word even when the following word starts with a vowel. This articulation clearly marks the /l / as belonging to the end of the first word rather than the beginning of the second word. The following words should be transcribed as follows:
/liːf/ [liːf] leaf
/lɔː/ [lɔː] law
/blɪŋk/ [blɪŋk] blink
/væljuː/ [væljuː] value
/mɪljən/ [mɪljən] million
/fiːlɪŋ/ [fiːlɪŋ] feeling
/selaut/ [selaut] sellout
(b) Before consonants (except /j/) or a pause (e.g. the end of a sentence or utterance), the allophone is dark (velarized), ie. [ɫ], (this is an "l" with a "~" through it ):
/fiːl/ [fiːɫ] feel
/fiːld/ [fiːɫd] field
/fiːlfaɪn/ [fiːɫ faɪn] feel fine
(c) Syllabic realizations of /l/ are usually dark:
/teɪbl/ [tʰeɪbɫ̩] table
/mʌdl/ [mʌdɫ̩] muddle
(d) Note however, that the choice of clear or dark /l/ is often dialect specific. For example, many do use dark /l/ before /j/ in words like "value" /væljuː/ and "million" /mɪljən/ and also before morpheme boundaries like "control-able" , even use it in words like "slowly" and it is almost obligatory in "holy".
6.4.7.Assimilation of alveolars
The following assimilations should be noted. Alveolar assimilation is extremely common, but exceptions to these rules do occur, even in casual connected speech. Assimilations are much less likely to occur in careful speech and particularly when articulating isolated words carefully.
(a) Labiodental nasals before labiodentals
/ɪnfənt/ [ɪɱfənt] infant
/ɪnvaɪt/ [ɪɱvaɪt] invite
(b) Dental nasal and oral stops before dentals
/eɪtθ/ [eɪt̪θ] eighth
/tenθ/ [ten̪θ] tenth
(c) Post-alveolar oral and nasal stops before /r/
/traɪ/ [ṯɹ̥aɪ] try
/draɪ/ [ḏɹaɪ] dry
/enrəʊl/ [eṉɹəʊɫ] enrol
6.4.8. Syllabic consonants
All syllabic consonants must be marked with a [x̩] diacritic in a narrow transcription.
/mɪdl/ [mɪdɫ̩] middle
/sʌdn/ [sʌdn̩] sudden
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