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Broad and Narrow Transcription

This document discusses broad and narrow phonetic transcription. Broad transcription indicates major phonetic features of an utterance, while narrow transcription encodes more details about allophones. The difference is a continuum. Phonemic transcription disregards allophonic differences, while allophonic transcription includes some allophonic detail linked to phonemic structure. Narrow transcription helps learners produce sounds correctly and allows detailed linguistic analysis, but may not represent all speakers. Broad transcription allows generalizations across language communities and is preferred unless narrow transcription is necessary. Examples of broad and narrow transcriptions in English are provided.

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517 views

Broad and Narrow Transcription

This document discusses broad and narrow phonetic transcription. Broad transcription indicates major phonetic features of an utterance, while narrow transcription encodes more details about allophones. The difference is a continuum. Phonemic transcription disregards allophonic differences, while allophonic transcription includes some allophonic detail linked to phonemic structure. Narrow transcription helps learners produce sounds correctly and allows detailed linguistic analysis, but may not represent all speakers. Broad transcription allows generalizations across language communities and is preferred unless narrow transcription is necessary. Examples of broad and narrow transcriptions in English are provided.

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oserobriton
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BROAD AND NARROW TRANSCRIPTION

This section deals with Phonetic transcription. Basically, we shall study the two main forms of
phonetic transcription i.e. broad and narrow transcription as we lay a foundation for future
studies in phonetics and phonology.
Topic Objectives
By the end of this topic you should be able to:
 Define phonetic transcription.
 Distinguish between broad and narrow transcription.
 Explain and illustrate broad and narrow transcriptions.
 Carry out a variety of transcription exercises.
Phonetic transcription
Phonetic transcription is the visual representation of speech sounds (or phones) by means
of symbols. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as
the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Most phonetic transcription is based on the assumption that linguistic sounds are segmentable
into discrete units that can be represented by symbols. Many different types of transcription, or
"notation", have been tried out: these may be divided into Alphabetic (which are based on the
same principle as that which governs ordinary alphabetic writing, namely that of using one single
simple symbol to represent each sound), and Analphabetic (notations which are not alphabetic)
which represent each sound by a composite symbol made up of a number of signs put together.

Phonetic transcription may be used to transcribe the phonemes of a language, or it may go


further and specify their precise phonetic realization. In all systems of transcription there is a
distinction between broad transcription and narrow transcription.

Broad and narrow transcription

Broad transcription indicates only the most noticeable phonetic features of an utterance, whereas
narrow transcription encodes more information about the phonetic characteristics of
the allophones in the utterance. The difference between broad and narrow is a continuum, but the
difference between phonemic and phonetic transcription is usually treated as a binary distinction.

Phonemic transcription is a particular form of broad transcription which disregards all


allophonic difference; as the name implies, it is not really a phonetic transcription at all (though
at times it may coincide with one), but a representation of phonemic structure. A transcription
which includes some allophonic detail but is closely linked to the phonemic structure of an
utterance is called an allophonic transcription.

For example, one particular pronunciation of the English word title may be transcribed using the
IPA as /ˈtaɪtəl/ (broad, phonemic transcription) or [ˈtaɪɾɫ̩ ] (narrow, allophonic transcription); the
former transcription, placed between slashes, indicates merely that the word ends with the
phoneme /l/, but the other transcription, placed between square brackets, indicates that the
final /l/ ([ɫ]) is dark (velarized or pharyngealized). Continuing with this example, in North
American English, the phoneme /t/ when it occurs after a stressed vowel and precedes an
unstressed syllable beginning with a vowel or a syllabic /l/ or /n/ is normally pronounced as a
flap or tap (t-/d-flapping) resembling a brief /d/, for which the phonetic symbol is [ɾ]:
consequently there is little or no audible difference between the pronunciation
of title [ˈtaɪɾɫ̩ ] and tidal /'taɪdəl/]. Indeed, middle /ˈmɪdəl/; [ˈmɪɾɫ̩ ] is a perfect rhyme of little in
most North American accents.

The advantage of the narrow transcription is that it can help learners to produce 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. While most
Americans, Canadians and Australians would pronounce the /t/ of little as a tap [ɾ], many
speakers in southern England would pronounce /t/ as [ʔ] (a glottal stop; t-glottalization) and/or
the second /l/ as a vowel resembling [ʊ] (L-vocalization), possibly yielding [ˈlɪʔʊ].

A further disadvantage of narrow transcription is that it involves a larger number of symbols


and diacritics that may be unfamiliar to non-specialists.

The advantage of 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. A rule of thumb in many linguistics contexts is therefore to use a
narrow transcription when it is necessary for the point being made, but a broad transcription
whenever possible. Below is a transcription of some English words.

Orthographic word Phonetic Orthographic word Phonetic


transcription transcription
that ðæt area ˈeəriə
difficult ˈdɪfɪkəlt psychology saɪˈkɒlədʒi
you ju: course kɔ:ʳs
which wɪtʃ company ˈkʌmpəni
their ðeəʳ under ˈʌndəʳ
about əˈbaʊt problem ˈprɒbləm
should ʃʊd never ˈnevəʳ
people ˈpi:pəl service ˈsɜ:ʳvɪs
also ˈɔ:lsoʊ something ˈsʌmθɪŋ
between bɪˈtwi:n place pleɪs
many ˈmeni point pɔɪnt
thicker ˈθɪkəʳ provide prəˈvaɪd
child tʃaɪld large lɑ:ʳdʒ
hear hɪəʳ general ˈdʒenərəl
system ˈsɪstəm however haʊˈevəʳ
group gru:p another əˈnʌðəʳ
number ˈnʌmbəʳ again əˈgen
however haʊˈevəʳ world wɜ:ʳld
In conclusion, it's common to distinguish between two kinds of transcription, based on how
many details the transcribers decide to ignore:
 Narrow transcription: 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.
 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 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.
STUDY QUESTIONS.
a) With examples distinguish the following;
i) Broad and narrow transcription.
ii) Phonetic transcription and orthography.
b) Both broad and narrow transcriptions have advantages and disadvantages. Discuss.
c) Make a phonemic (broad) transcription of the following words; Far, meat, show, get,
pole, want, find, rough, chirp, sound, bash, sheep.

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