Phonetic or phoneme SymbolsPhonemics, or Phonology, is the study of the distribution of sound systems in human languages. A Phoneme is a particular set of sounds produced in a particular language and distinguishable by native speakers of that language from other (sets of) sounds in that language. That's what "distinctive" means -- the English phonemes /n/ and /ŋ/ can be told apart by native speakers of English, because we use these sounds to distinguish different words -- sin ~ sing, ton ~ tongue, run ~ rung, etc. This would be impossible if these phonemes weren't distinctive in English.Phonetics, on the other hand, is simply the physiological and acoustic study of speech sounds, covering all sounds used in all languages, and relying only on the physical characteristics of the sounds without regard to their systemic patterns in various languages.Phonemes, the unit of (this variety of) phonemics, encased in /slashes/, are always specific to a language. Since phonetics is a natural science, phones, the unit of phonetics, encased in [square brackets], are universal and are not specific to any language.Thus, we say that there is such a thing as "the phone [p]", because phones are defined universally, but that there is no such thing as "the phoneme /p/", because phonemes are relative to languages. Thus "the French phoneme /p/" and "the English phoneme /p/" both exist and are meaningful, and the phone [p] is represented in both of them; but they are not the same sets of sounds, and thus not the same phonemes.

Phonetic symbols for English

This is the standard set of phonemic symbols for English (RP and similar accents).

Consonantsp pen, copy, happen

b back, baby, job

t tea, tight, button

d day, ladder, odd

k key, clock, school

g get, giggle, ghost

tʃ church, match, nature

dʒ judge, age, soldier

f fat, coffee, rough, photo

v view, heavy, move

θ thing, author, path

ð this, other, smooth

s soon, cease, sister

z zero, music, roses, buzz

ʃ ship, sure, national

ʒ pleasure, vision

Vowelsɪ kit, bid, hymn, minute

e dress, bed, head, many

æ trap, bad

ɒ lot, odd, wash

ʌ strut, mud, love, blood

ʊ foot, good, put

iː fleece, sea, machine

eɪ face, day, break

aɪ price, high, try

ɔɪ choice, boy

uː goose, two, blue, group

əʊ goat, show, no

aʊ mouth, now

ɪə near, here, weary

eə square. fair, various

ɑː start, father

h hot, whole, ahead

m more, hammer, sum

n nice, know, funny, sun

ŋ ring, anger, thanks, sung

l light, valley, feel

r right, wrong, sorry, arrange

j yet, use, beauty, few

w wet, one, when, queen

ʔ (glottal stop)department, football

ɔː thought, law, north, war

ʊə poor, jury, cure

ɜː nurse, stir, learn, refer

ə about, common, standard

i happy, radiate. glorious

u thank you, influence, situation

n) suddenly, cotton

l ) middle, metal

ˈ (stress mark)

Help your own and your students' pronunciation with our pronunciation downloads. There are 44 A4 size classroom posters of phonemic symbols with examples to download. The posters are in Portable Document Format (pdf) and have been attached in a zipped folder.

Long vowel sounds - file size 10k pdf. Click on an image to download the poster.

       

Vowel sounds - file size 8k pdf. Click on an image to download the poster.

           

Diphthongs - file size 8k pdf. Click on an image to download the poster.

             

Consonants - Unvoiced and voiced pairs 1 - file size 8k pdf.Click on an image to download the page.

Unvoiced

Voiced

Consonants - Unvoiced and voiced pairs 2 - file size 8k pdf.Click on an image to download the page.

Unvoiced

Voiced

Other consonants - file size 8k pdf. Click on an image to download the poster.

             

These phonemes are part of the phonetic chart that is used to describe the sounds of many languages. They have been established by the International Phonetic Association (IPA). For more information about the IPA and their work visit: www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/

The BBC and British Council are not responsible for the content of external sites.

Phonemic Transcription

The Phonetic Alphabet

Learn to transcribe spoken English using the International Phonetic Alphabet found in good dictionaries:

Self-correcting (interactive) tests to practise English vowel and consonant sounds

1. Sounds and spelling  - match the phonemic script with the corresponding English word

2. Sounds and spelling  - match the phoneme with the vowel sound in the first syllable of the word

3. Sounds and spelling  - select the consonant phoneme / θ / or / ð / contained within the word

4. Sounds and spelling  - select the consonant phoneme /ʃ/ , /ʧ/ or /ʤ/ contained within the word

5. Sounds and spelling  - match the vowel sound in the first syllable of the word with the phonemes / ɪ / , / i: / or / e /

6. Sounds and spelling  - identify whether the initial consonant sound of the word is / g / , / j / or the voiced postalveolar affricate / ʤ /

Sing-along pronunciation songs with texts and audio (wma)

1. Claudia Wins Again  [phonemic transcription] - practise reading phonemic script by singing along to the audio

2. Claudia Wins Again  [normal song text] - long vowel sound / i: /---diphthongs / aʊ / and / eɪ / and / aɪ /

3. The No No Song  - The diphthong / əʊ / as in "don't go!"4. No Need For Vampires Tonight  - /z/ voiced alveolar fricative: 's' pronounced as

/z/---'TH' pronounced as / ð / voiced dental fricative5. Phonemic transcription is a system used for using letters or symbols to represent

sounds in speech. It is arguably different from the better known phonetic transcription. Phonemictranscription gives less detail than phonetic transcription, and aims only to cover the information needed to avoid confusion.

6. The basis of phonetic and phonemic transcription is the phoneme. This is defined as the smallest part of a word's sound that can be clearly defined as a separate sound that could affect the meaning of what a person says. This can vary from

language to language. For example, in English the difference between "d" and "t" in "dime" and "time" should be clearly distinguishable and is enough to change meaning. In some other languages the two sounds would be pronounced the same way, meaning the two words couldn't be distinguished.

7. Phonetic transcriptions attempt to represent sounds as letters and symbols, making it possible for people to know how a word is pronounced without hearing it. The most common place people will see a phonetic transcription is in dictionaries. Many transcriptions use a standardized set of symbols, which means it can be possible for people to read and understand the pronunciation of words regardless of the language they speak.

TRANSCRIPTION FROM DICTATION

Transcription Buddy  plays pre-recorded audio files and allows you to listen and control the playback, while at the same time, transcribing the audio into another PC application like Microsoft Word. An optional foot pedal is available to control the playback.

Dictation Buddy  has all of the playback features of Transcription Buddy, including support for an optional foot pedal, but also includes the ability to record audio from a microphone on the PC's mic input jack.

Both Dictation Buddy and Transcription Buddy provide a complete range of playback controls for transcribing audio on a PC. When transcribing, the programs allow a text editing program, such as Microsoft Word, to remain the active program, during playback. This allows the user to type, at the same time that the recording is played back. Additionally, playback functions such as Pause, Resume, and Rewind, may also be used, without the user getting out of the text edit program. Follow these links for more information about:

Using Foot Pedals  to control playback or, Using Hot Keys  to control playback or, Using the Play / Pause / Play  feature that momentarily pauses playback,

automatically, throughout playback.

Also, follow this link for information on additional transcription features such as:

Variable Speed Playback with automatic constant pitch control Support for a number of Audio File Compression methods including

Olympus DSS and Truespeech. Always-On-Top Thin View Auto Stepback on Pause The ability to imbed bookmarks and associated text, to identify specific

points in the audio file

VEC Infinity USB Foot Pedal Support

The programs support foot pedal control of the playback functions through a USB connected foot pedal. To access the foot control options, go to View=>Options=>Foot Control. In order to use foot pedal support, you must enable this function, by checking the "Enable foot control" box in this Window. You must also have a USB port foot pedal.

Transcription Buddy and Dictation Buddy support the VEC Infinity foot pedal from VEC Electronics. If you already have an Infinity pedal, you may use it with Dictation Buddy or Transcription Buddy.

Users may customize the foot pedal controls according to their individual requirements. The pedals have a 3-pedal configuration. A large, center pedal is used to Play / Pause the playback. Depress the pedal to cause playback to begin. Release the pedal, and playback will stop. Optionally, the playback can Step-Back on pause, so the typist has a moment to determine where they are in the recording.

The left pedal can either Rewind the recording at a previously specified speed, or jump the recording back, a specified number of seconds. The right pedal can either FF the recording at a previously specified speed, or jump the recording forward, a specified number of seconds.

Follow this link for information about installing the VEC Infinity USB foot pedal.

Hot-key Support

The programs also supports Hot-keys to control playback. With hot-keys, a person can control playback at the same time that they type text into their word processor.

Prior to using the hot-key function, it must be enabled. To enable this function, go to View==>Options==>Hot-keys==>Enable Hot Keys.

Once you have Applied this change, the default hot-keys will become active. The default hot-keys include:

Default Hot-keysHot-key Function

Keystrokes

Play Ctrl+Alt+P

Pause / Resume

Ctrl+Alt+U (once to pause, again to resume)

Stop Ctrl+Alt+T

Jump back* Alt+Pg Dn

Jump forward* Alt+Pg Up

Jump to beginning

Alt+Home

Jump to end Alt+End

Minimize / Restore

Ctrl+Alt+F10 (once to minimize, again to restore)

Record Ctrl+Alt+R

Decrease Play Speed

Ctrl+Alt+D

Normal Play Speed

Ctrl+Alt+N

Increase Play Speed

Ctrl+Alt+I

New BookMark

Ctrl+Alt+F2

AutoPause Parameters

Ctrl+Alt+Q

*the jump back (rewind) and jump forward (FF) options are modified by the Step Value option that can be found on the main menu Window.

The keystrokes associated with the various playback controls, may be modified by the user. Use the View=>Options=>Hotkeys parameter box to alter the keystrokes.

Once the hot-key function has been activated and the appropriate hot-keys selected, the user may begin working with the program and a word processing program, such as Microsoft Word. To begin transcription, the user should:

Open our program and select an audio file to transcribe, Minimize our program so it doesn't take up space on the

desktop, Start your word processing application, Microsoft Word for

example Type Ctrl+Alt+P to begin playback Type Ctrl+Alt+U to pause and then resume playback

Play / Pause / Play Feature

The Play / Pause / Play feature that allows a user to play a recording and have the playback intermittently pause. This feature allows the typist to periodically catch up to the playback. This feature has three associated parameters. The Playback Duration parameter indicates how long playback should continue, prior to the occurrence of a Pause. The Size of Pause parameter indicates the duration of each pause. The Step Back parameter causes play to begin some seconds prior to the point at which it stopped. All of these parameters are specified in seconds. These parameters are set in the following Window. In this example, Play Duration is set to 15 seconds, the Size of Pause is 2 seconds and the Step Back is set to 1 second.

To set these parameters, go to View => Options => Playback or to Audio => Auto Pause Parameters. To start this mode of Playback, click

the Auto Pauses button    on the toolbar, or go to the Audio pull down menu and select Automatic Pauses.

Additional Transcription Features

Variable Speed Playback with Automatic Pitch Control

The ability to vary the speed at which playback occurs. The software will automatically adjust the pitch associated with the altered speed, to eliminate the high-pitched tones usually associated with advanced play-back speeds. Once a file has begun playing, the Play button changes to a speed button as illustrated here:  . As either the double left or double right arrows are clicked, the speed is altered according to the Speed Settings in the View => Options => Playback Window settings. Hot Keys are also available to alter the playback speed. See View => Options => Hotkeys for more information about the Hotkeys controlling playback speed.

Audio File Compression Support

The programs can playback many types of audio files. Supported audio files are: RIFF-WAV (compressed and uncompressed); MP3; WMA; Olympus DSS (with restrictions); Dialogic VOX; BCB TrueSpeech. Follow this link for more information about compressed audio files.

Always On Top

This feature places the application window on top of other windows on your desktop. The window will never be "behind" other applications and it will always be seen. Go to the View pull down menu and select Always on Top to activate this feature.

Thin View

This feature presents a very small Buddy Window that will only use a small portion of the available desktop space. This view has only the most important controls and information. You can enter into Thin View

by clicking the Thin View icon   on the application taskbar, or you can go to the View pull down menu and select Thin View. You can drag the thin view around on your desktop, by clicking on the first icon on the display.

The view will look like this Window.

Use the expand icon    to return to full view.

Auto Stepback on Pause

There are three separate "Step-Back" options within the program. When used with a pause, each of these settings causes the current point of playback to be reset. This feature allows the last few seconds of the recording to be replayed, so the transcriptionist can "find their place" and resume typing.

One Step-Back setting is used with a foot pedal. When the "play" pedal is released, and the playback is paused, the playback position may be reset to begin playback from just prior to where the playback stopped. The setting for this parameter can be found in the Window with the other settings for the pedal functions. See View => Options => Foot Control => Set Pedal Functions to set this amount of time to Step-Back.

Another Step-Back setting is associated with the Play-Pause-Play facility. This automatic facility allows the playback to continually play and pause. The Step-Back setting associated with this feature can be found on the same Window as other Play-Pause-Play settings. See Audio => AutoPause Parameters to set this Step-Back parameter.

The final Step-Back parameter is associated with the Pause setting that is available on the primary Window. Set this Step-Back parameter on the View => Options => Playback Window.

Imbedded Bookmarks

The Buddy programs have the ability to imbed bookmarks within a sound file, to allow for comments and allow for easy access of specific points within the file.

TRANSCRIPTION FROM A WRITTEN TEXT

Transcribing and writing texts directly   It is also possibly to transcribe audio and video files directly in MAXQDA. To do so:

Right-click on a document group or the Documents icon in the “Document System”

and select Transcribe audio/video from the context menu that appears.

You will then see a dialog field, in which you can select the file to be transcribed.

MAXQDA automatically creates an empty document named like the media file,

connects it with the media file and opens it in the Edit mode in the “Document

Browser.”

You can now play this file in MAXQDA’s multimedia browser and start the transcription in the empty document. The waveform of the media file will be opened in the Multimedia Browser so that you can navigate easily.

To transcribe an audio or video file, first activate the Media Player toolbar from

the Toolbars drop-down menu. It looks like this:

Click on the icon   to activate the toolbar. You can now play (or pause) the clip by

clicking the  button or pressing the “f4″ button on your keyboard. You can enter text

into the Document Browser window while the clip is being played. Just click f4 again to

pause the clip if you can’t keep up. Pressing the   button will stop the clip and return

you back to the beginning (point 00:00). The control panel icon opens up the

transcription options menu.

You can choose to play your media file a bit slower, so it is easier to transcribe. The rewind interval sets how many seconds the media file jumps backwards when you pause and play. Check the box next to “Timestamp on enter” if you want MAXQDA to enter a timestamp each time you press enter and start a new paragraph. This is what your

setup may look like during transcription: If you later double-click on a time stamp symbol in the document browser, MAXQDA will jump right into the media player and start to play exactly this part of your audio or video file. 

Import transcripts that were created with an external software

MAXQDA11 is also fully compatible with stand-alone transcription software such

as f4. So you could choose to transcribe in an external software and import your

transcripts afterwards. If the time stamps in the transcripts are formatted in a specific

way (#00:00:00-0#), MAXQDA recognizes them and can link them to your media file

in the same way as if you transcribed directly in MAXQDA.

DIACRITICS

 a mark near or through an orthographic or phonetic character or combination of characters indicating a phonetic value different from that given the unmarked or otherwise marked element.

Rhymes with DIACRITICammonitic, anaclitic, analytic, anchoritic, anthracitic, catalytic, cenobitic, coprolitic, dialytic,doleritic, dolomitic, dynamitic, eremitic, granulitic, higher critic, hypercritic, laryngitic,paralytic, parasitic, sodomitic, stalactitic, stalagmitic, sybaritic, syphilitic, thallophytic,thrombolytic, troglodytic, Ugaritic.

CENTRALISATION

In phonetics and phonology, relative articulation is description of the manner and place of articulation of a speech sound relative to some reference point. Typically, the comparison is made with a default, unmarked articulation of the same phoneme in a neutral sound environment. For example, the English velar consonant /k/ isfronted before the vowel /iː/ (as in keep) compared to articulation of /k/ before other vowels (as in cool). This fronting is called palatalization.

The relative position of a sound may be described as advanced (fronted), retracted (backed), raised, lowered, centralized, or mid-centralized. The latter two terms are only used with vowels, and are marked in the International Phonetic Alphabet with diacritics over the vowel letter. The others are used with both consonants and vowels, and are marked with iconic diacritics under the letter. Another dimension of relative articulation that has IPA diacritics is the degree of roundedness, more rounded and less rounded.

In English, the back vowel /u/ is farther forward than what is normally indicated by the IPA letter ‹u›. This fronting may be shown explicitly, especially within a narrow transcription: [uA]. Whether this is as far front as the central vowel [ʉ], or somewhere between [u] and [ʉ], may need to be clarified verbally.

In General American English, the /t/ in the word eighth is farther front than normal, due to assimilation with the interdental consonant /θ/, and may be transcribed as [eɪtAθ].

The difference between a fronted and non-fronted consonant can be heard in the English words key [kAʰi] and coo [kʰu], where the /k/ in key is fronted under the influence of the front vowel /i/.

In verbal description, the prefix pre- may be used to indicated fronting, especially in the terms prepalatal and prevelar. Otherwise phrases like "fronted u" may be used.

In English, the plosive in the affricate /tʃ/, as in the word church, is farther back than an alveolar /t/ due to assimilation with the postalveolar fricative /ʃ/. In narrow transcription, /tʃ/ may be transcribed [tL ʃʰ].