Narrow Transcription and Diacritics in Clinical Phonetics

Narrow Phonetic Transcription

Involves inserting additional notation or diacritics to capture subtle variations in phoneme realization.

Covert Contrast

A phenomenon where a speaker produces two sounds differently, but the difference is so subtle that a typical listener perceives them as the same.

Clinical Importance of Narrow Transcription

It helps in perceiving and describing subtle phonetic distinctions that are clinically significant.

Coarticulation

The concept that neighboring sounds overlap with and are influenced by one another in speech production.

Advanced

Tongue positioned farther forward than typical during speech production.

Aspirated

Stop consonant produced with an audible burst of air after release.

Backed

Sound produced farther back in the vocal tract than expected.

Breathy

Voice quality with excessive air escaping through the vocal folds.

Denasalized

Reduced or absent nasal resonance when nasal resonance is expected.

Dentalized

Tongue tip contacts the back of the upper teeth.

Derhotacized

Reduced or absent r-coloring.

Diacritic

Small IPA symbols used to indicate a modification of a speech sound.

Frictionalized

Stop produced with excessive fricative-like noise.

Fronted

Sound articulated farther forward than normal.

Glottalized

Speech produced with irregular or creaky vocal fold vibration.

Inverted Lip

Lower lip curls inward during articulation.

Labialized

Additional lip rounding accompanies a consonant.

Lateralized

Air escapes along one or both sides of the tongue.

Lowered

Tongue is positioned lower than expected.

Nasal Emission

Audible air escapes through the nose during speech.

Nasalized

Sound produced with excessive nasal resonance.

Palatalized

Tongue blades move toward the palate during articulation.

Raised

Tongue positioned higher than expected.

Retracted

Tongue pulled farther back than expected.

Retroflexion

Tongue tip curls backward.

Rhotacized

Speech sound produced with r-coloring.

Rounded

Lips are rounded or protruded during speech.

Syllabic Consonant

Consonant functions as the nucleus of a syllable.

Trilled

Rapid repeated opening and closing of an articulator.

Velarized

Tongue dorsum constricts toward the soft palate.

Whistling

Fricative distortion producing a whistle-like sound.

Substitution

A phoneme is substituted for another phoneme.

Omission

The target sound in a word is omitted/deleted by the speaker.

Distortion

The target sound is distorted by the speaker.

Addition

The presence of an additional phoneme when producing a word.

Glottal Stop

A stop made by a quick closing and forceful opening of the vocal folds.

Narrow Transcription

Uses diacritic markings to document slight changes in phonemes.

Continuant

A sound produced with incomplete closure of the oral vocal tract.

Fricative

A manner of articulation in which a continuous noise is generated as air is channeled through a narrow articulatory constriction.

Sibilant

A speech sound characterized by an intense, high-pitched noise, as in the fricatives /s/ (see) and /ʃ/ (she).

Dentalized Sibilants

Sibilants produced with the tongue against the upper teeth.

Lateralized Sibilants

Sibilants produced with airflow over the sides of the tongue.

Derhotacized /r/

A sound produced without the typical rhotic quality of /r/.

SODA Classification

A system to classify speech sound errors: Substitutions, Omissions, Distortions, Additions.

Glottal Stop Substitutions

Glottal stops can be challenging to transcribe due to their quiet nature.

Phonetic Properties

Related to velopharyngeal function, that is, the valving between the oral cavity and the nasal cavity.

Substitution Error Format

Always put the substituted sound on the LEFT side of the slash mark and the target sound on the RIGHT side.

Final Position of Word

(F) indicates the final position of the word in transcription.

Initial Position of Word

(I) indicates the initial position of the word in transcription.

Medial Position of Word

(M) indicates the medial position of the word in transcription.

Phoneme Examples

Examples of substitutions include /tʌp/ for /kʌp/ and /do/ for /go/.

Nasal Symbols

Describe phonetic properties related to velopharyngeal function.

Distortion Errors

Use of diacritic markings to transcribe small variations to sounds.

Reliability

The extent to which repeating the same process, such as phonetic transcription or scoring, can be expected to produce the same results

Intrarater Reliability

How consistently a person can reproduce her own previous transcription or scoring

Interrater Reliability

How consistently two or more individuals assign the same scoring or transcription to a single speech sample

Percentage of Agreement

# of units scored similarly / total # of united scored x 100

Synchronic Tie

When two distinct articulations are linked or tied together in one segment

Synchronic

together in time; at the same time

Unintelligible Syllable

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