Phonological Transcription Systems for ESL
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Transcription is another term for notation, script, or transcript. It is "a method of writing down speech sounds in a systematic and consistent way" (Crystal, 1992, p. 393). A distinction is made between two types of transcription (Richards, Platt & Platt, 1992, pp 249-50), viz. phonemic transcription, which transcribes only the phonemes of a language, i.e. its distinctive sounds, without showing the finer points of pronunciation, and phonetic transcription, which uses phonetic symbols for various sounds, and shows in detail how particular sounds are pronounced, i.e. pronunciation's finer points. Phonetic transcriptions are placed between square brackets; phonemic, between slant lines: in this manner, sounds and phonemes are differentiated clearly (Ducrot & Todorov, 1979, p. 172).In phonetic transcription sounds are symbolized on the basis of their articulatory/auditory identity, regardless of their function in a language, reason for which they are sometimes called impressionistic transcriptions. In phonemic transcription, the only units to be symbolized are those which have a linguistic function, i.e. the phonemes. An allophonic transcription adds functional phonetic details. Phonetic transcriptions which are relatively detailed are called narrow transcriptions; those less detailed, broad transcriptions. "It is also important to remember that there are several possible ways of transcribing
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in-yin) through 58 symbols for the benefit of non-Chinese who use Roman characters. It is obvious that these transcriptions ill represent the original Mandarin sounds and intonational levels (five) which are entirely alien to any European ears and productive abilities.
If phonemes and sounds are transcribed, so can intonation, a fundamental aspect of speech. Some approaches to such transcription attempt to provide a faithful phonetic record of melodic movement; others are more phonological in character, and may include only those aspects of melody which seem to be crucial for expressing contrasts in meaning. Some phonetic studies rely on auditory judgments alone; others use a combination of auditory and acoustic analysis. Within the phonological studies there is a difference of opinion over the extent to which pitch contrasts are capable of being analyzed using the procedures of phonemic analysis, and over the extent to which grammatical and semantic considerations should be allowed to influence the nature of transcription. As a consequence, "several competing descriptive frameworks are in present-day use" (Crystal, 1987, p, 170). Thus, it is quite uncertain how Chinese and Japanese will evolve, i.e. whether the romanized system w
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Ducrot Todorov, English Japanese, Mandarin West, Japanese Italian, Gairaigo Jiten, Phonetic Alphabet, PhonTtique IPA, Platt Platt, Knowles McArthur, American Englishman, phonetic transcription, university press, phonetic alphabet, english japanese, phonemic transcription, international phonetic, ed oxford, english sounds, international phonetic alphabet, transcription system, oxford companion english, crystal 1991, teaching english japanese, companion english language, ed oxford companion,
Approximate Word count = 1863
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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