BROAD AND NARROW TRANSCRIPTION
An interesting point about phonemes is that they are not always pronounced with the same pronunciation. In fact, the co-text and environment of the occurrence of a phoneme plays a crucial role in the way the phoneme is pronounced. All of us have the experience of changing the sound /n/, unconsciously of course, into the sound /m/ in such Persian words as /ʃænbe/ (meaning Saturday) so that the word is pronounced as /ʃæmbe/. In fact, the /b/ sound following the /n/ sound causes this pronunciation difference. For the most part, these pronunciation differences are surface phenomena. In other words, our brains form the exact pronunciations of words (i.e., similar to those found in standard dictionaries). When the brain orders the vocal organ to vocalize these words, the physiological shortcomings of the human vocal organ cause these pronunciation differences. Many phonologists use the phrase 'Ease of Pronunciation' to refer to this physiological phenomenon.
We can now conceptualize two types of pronunciations: phonetic and phonemic. Phonemic representation refers to the pronunciation of words as they exist in our minds; phonetic representation refers to the pronunciation of words as they are actually pronounced by our tongues. We should, however, be aware that only a very limited number of phonemes have different phonemic and phonetic representations. Take the phoneme /p/ in English as an example. When this phoneme appears in word-initial contexts, it is pronounced with a puff of air. This phenomenon is known as aspiration. In non-word-initial contexts, however, the phoneme /p/ is reduced to a phoneme which stands between the phonemes /p/ and /b/.
Phonologists have developed two types of phonetic writing system to capture these differences: (a) one in which only the mental (phonemic) representation of phonemes is shown, and (b) one in which the actual-speech (phonetic) representation of phonemes is shown. The former is called broad transcription while the latter is called narrow transcription. Broad transcription only utilizes a basic set of symbols. Narrow transcription utilizes the same set of symbols with the addition of diacritics and other symbols. The second difference between broad and narrow transcriptions is that phonemes represented in broad transcription are put between two slant lines // whereas phonemes represented in narrow transcription are put inside square brackets []. Take the following examples:
The different representations of a phoneme in narrow transcription are called the allophones of that phoneme. Take the following examples:
Allophones of a phoneme are in complimentary distribution. That is, they cannot occur in the same context. For example, [ph] comes at the beginning of a word while [p] occurs in other contexts.
Another point to notice about allophones is that the differences between them are phonetic rather than phonemic. A phonetic difference does not cause a change in meaning. A phonemic difference, however, brings about a change in meaning. For instance, the difference in words like ship /ʃɪp/ and sheep /ʃi:p/ is phonemic because these two words have two different meanings. Therefore, we cannot consider /ɪ/ and /i:/ to be allophones of a basic phoneme. Words like sheep /ʃi:p/ and ship /ʃɪp/ are called minimal pairs. Traditionally, minimal pairs were defined as pairs of words that differ in one and only one phoneme. Take the following examples:
If one of the words in a minimal pair is repeated, a minimal set will result. Take the following examples:
One classic book with a good number of minimal pairs in it is the American PDs (or American Pronunciation Drills). The American PDs is still widely used in phonetics classes in a good number of language schools throughout the world. It should be noted that some phonologists are inclined to use the diacritic symbols that represent primary and secondary stress in ordinary writing too. In this case, the symbol ˊ is used to represent primary stress and the symbol ˋ to represent secondary stress. In phonetic transcription, however, the symbol ˈ is used for primary stress and the symbol ˌ for secondary stress. The other difference is that in ordinary writing, the symbols appear over the vowels that carry them. In phonetic transcription, on the other hand, the ˈ symbol is put at the top-left corner and the symbol ˌ at the bottom-left corner of the syllables that carry them in British English. In American English, the ˈ symbol appears at the top-right corner and the symbol ˌ at the bottom-right corner of the syllables that carry them. Take the following examples:
