Re: VMs: Worry - information loss in transcription - pictures ...

[illumin8@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

PK#01 wrote:

> Are we throwing away information in our transcriptions? Is the
> transcription more "lossy" than it should be?

Yes, if your transcription is too broad.

As a native New Englander I always wondered why everyone else "a funny
accent". So I studied dialects and phonetics since childhood. Phonetics
is all about transcription. If your transcription is too broad then
information in lost. I say the four "a" & "e" vowels in "May Mary merry
marry" completely different. They are four phonemes to me (say
meaningful glyphs in VMs). Some people merge two or more of them. But
the International Phonetic Alphabet only has three vowel signs (glyphs)
to transcribe my four sounds /e, _, epsilon, æ/. Information is lost.
Some have recognized this inadequacy and propose /e, small-cap-E,
epsilon, æ/.


> To be fair, EVA has built-in mechanisms that alleviate many of my problems
> with its source material, if only these mechanisms had been enacted.  Take
> for instance the "cc" problem.  In
> EVA the connectivity can be demonstrated by "Cc".  I assume the 'm'
> connectivity could be demonstrated by "IIn" as well.  Point me to a
> transcription that contains these finer points and I will say that EVA has
> done its job.  To date these nuances don't exist in EVA transcription, and
> therefore, EVA is a failed transcription system, having not accurately
> presented the data it sought to portray.  Currier on the other hand, was

Glen is right. The problem with VMs transcription is that we don't even
know the "language" that we're trying to transcribe. Is that a letter?
Is that letter meaningful? Who knows! All we can do is try to copy as
accurately as possible.


> Is it worth it to re-study the
> basic units of the text?

It is always worth it to go back to basics to make sure you're going in
the right direction.


illumin8

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