Phonetic Transcription

Catalog description

This course will introduce you to the International Phonetic Alphabet, which we will use to transcribe and understand sound patterns across a diverse set of languages. In order to effectively transcribe languages phonetically, you will also learn about the articulatory properties of each sound of the worlds languages and how to produce each sound (even those that are not native to you) in isolation and in various contexts. You will also gain practical skills in recording and labeling acoustic files in Praat (a program for acoustic analysis and other phonetic work). The final project for the class, which will take place in the final two weeks of the course, will involve applying the skills you learned towards describing and transcribing patterns of variation in a language or dialect that you do not speak.