Transcription (linguistics)

Author: Leandro Alegsa Creation date: November 13, 2022

Transcription is the conversion of a text from another medium.

That can be the conversion of human speech into written, typewritten or printed form. But it can also mean the scanning of books and making digital versions. A transcriber is a person who performs transcriptions.

Transcription as going from sound to script must be distinguished from transliteration, which creates a mapping from one script to another that is designed to match the original script as directly as possible.

Standard transcription schemes for linguistic purposes include the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), and its ASCII equivalent, SAMPA. See also phonetic transcription

In this table IPA is an example of phonetic transcription of the name of the former Russian president known in English as Boris Yeltsin, followed by accepted hybrid forms in various languages. Note that 'Boris' is a transliteration rather than transcription in strict sense.

The same words are likely to be transcribed differently under different systems. For example, the Mandarin Chinese name for the capital of China is Beijing in the commonly-used contemporary system Hanyu Pinyin, and in the historically significant Wade Giles system, it is written Pei-Ching.

Practical transcription can be done into a non-alphabetic language too. For example, in a Hong Kong Newspaper, George Bush's name is transliterated into two Chinese characters that sounds like "Bou-sū" (布殊) by using the characters that mean "cloth" and "special". Similarly, many words from English and other Western European languages are borrowed in Japanese and are transcribed using Katakana, one of the Japanese syllabaries.

Questions and Answers

Q: What is transcription?

A: Transcription is the conversion of a text from another medium, such as human speech into written, typewritten or printed form. It can also mean the scanning of books and making digital versions.

Q: Who performs transcriptions?

A: A transcriber is a person who performs transcriptions.

Q: What is the difference between transcription and transliteration?

A: Transcription involves going from sound to script, while transliteration creates a mapping from one script to another that is designed to match the original script as closely as possible.

Q: What are some examples of standard transcription schemes for linguistic purposes?

A: Examples of standard transcription schemes for linguistic purposes include the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and its ASCII equivalent, SAMPA.

Q: How can practical transcription be done into a non-alphabetic language?

A: Practical transcription can be done into a non-alphabetic language by using characters that represent sounds similar to those in the original language. For example, George Bush's name could be transcribed into two Chinese characters that sound like "Bou-sū" (布殊). Similarly, many words from English and other Western European languages are borrowed in Japanese and are transcribed using Katakana.

Q: How do different systems affect how words are transcribed?

A: The same words may be transcribed differently under different systems; for example, Beijing is written Pei-Ching in Wade Giles system but Hanyu Pinyin uses Beijing instead.