Transcription is a visual system of notation of the sound structure of speech.
Types of transcription
phonemic (broad) phonetic (narrow)
‘one symbol per phoneme’ ‘one symbol per allophone’
/´pi:pl/, /bɔ:l/ [´pʰi:pl], [bɔ:ł]
Types of transcription
Phonemic transcription shows only functional differences, i.e. differences between sounds that are used to distinguish word meanings. The symbols are placed between slanting lines, i.e. /´pi:pl/, /bɔ:l/
Phonetic transcription attempts to provide a more exact representation of speech. It represents the allophones of a phoneme that occur in various contexts.
Types of transcription
Phonetic transcription provides a special symbol for each variant of each phoneme. The symbols are placed between square brackets, i.e. the symbol [ɛ] denote a more open variant of the English /e/-phoneme, the symbol [ł] is used for a dark variant of the /l/-phoneme.
