Phonetic Examples
Whether you’ve paid attention to them or not, you have probably seen IPA symbols in dictionaries, or on the results page of Google when you search how a word is spelled or pronounced (try it and see for yourself). Typically, phonetic spellings are printed between a word and its definition in a dictionary entry, and look something like this:
ˈɔː.di.əʊ
What you’re looking at is a phonetic spelling of “audio.” As is the trouble with many English words, it may not be obvious how to say “audio” if you are not a native speaker. But, when transcribed phonetically, each sound in the word is represented by a symbol.
One of the things that makes IPA so special is that it works for every spoken language, not just English. That means non-English speakers who know how to read IPA can read back a phonetic transcription with the correct English pronunciation, even if they don’t know the meaning of the words within it.
Here is an example of what the phonetic transcription of a full sentence looks like:
hi ˈhæd‿ɪz ˈfɑːðəz‿ˈɪəz‿ ǀ ‿ənd‿ɪz ˈmʌðəz‿ˈəʊpn̩ ˈhɑːt ǁ
Can’t make heads or tails of it? Don’t worry, here’s the orthographic (regular) transcription of the same sentence:
“He had his father’s ears and his mother’s open heart.”
As you can see, they are very different texts that have very different uses.
Phonetic vs. Phonemic Transcription
Ready to dive a little deeper? Now that you know a little more about phonetic transcription, we can introduce another type of transcription that most commonly uses IPA–phonemic transcription.
“Narrow” phonetic transcription notes the words a speaker says as a series of sounds, and every sound has its own symbol. This can lead to a very complex transcription document. To avoid this and make the phonetic transcription easier to understand, there is a simpler way to transcribe these sounds: phonemic (“broad”) transcription.
With phonemic transcription, two similar sounds may share the same symbol if the difference between the sounds does not change the word’s meaning. Thus, a phonemic transcription is less nuanced than a phonetic one.
A broad transcription can be a useful compromise between a narrow transcription and an orthographic one. However, depending on the use case or ultimate goal of creating a phonetic transcription, it might not have as much detail as some specialists need.
What Is a Phonetic Transcription Used For?
Typically, phonetic transcription is a niche requirement. For most purposes, regular transcription will do.
In fact, phonetic transcription can muddle things for the average reader. If you just want a transcribed text to study without confusing symbols, good quality regular transcription, like the ones provided by Rev’s AI or Human Transcription Services, will do the trick.
So, when might you want to use a phonetic transcription service?
- If you need an accurate written record of how your foreign language or linguistics lecturer pronounces their words.
- If you intend to read parts of the text aloud, but it includes unfamiliar words or a foreign language.
- If you are using the document for forensic, educational, pathological, or sociophonetic analysis.
- If the audio is dense with unfamiliar industry-specific terms, a phonetic transcription can help you learn how to pronounce them.
As you can see, unless you have specialist requirements, phonetic transcription is an unnecessary expense, and can even sometimes compromise your text’s clarity. Most online dictionaries include a playback option to demonstrate how a word is said. So, if the text contains only a few odd words, it makes sense to use a non-phonetic transcription service. You can always run a quick internet search to find how to pronounce an unfamiliar word.
Rev provides regular orthographic transcription with a minimum 99% accuracy guaranteed. Our professional transcribers can turn your video or audio recording around in under 12 hours. And the best part? There’s no need to learn the international phonetic alphabet to read it.
