What is transcription?
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.
