Transcription

Definition
A method of writing down speech sounds in a systematic way.

There are two ways of transcription: phonemic (or broad) transcription and phonetic (or narrow) transcription. Square brackets enclose phonetic transcription, oblique lines enclose phonemic transcription. In phonemic transcription only phonemes are used, and phonetic detail is left out. In a phonetic transcription, allophonic detail is added by way of diacritics, e.g. aspiration on syllable-initial /p/ and nasalisation on the vowel in the English word 'pin'.

Links

 * Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics
 * IPA symbols for broad and narrow transcription