The main objective of the transcription of a word list is
consistency. A word list has to be logical in itself and also in
comparison to other word lists. How difficult it is to keep long lists
consistent can be seen from the standard works on German pronunciation
like the "DUDEN - Das Aussprachewörterbuch", for example. This and the
fact that we now and then aim at a somewhat more phonetic
transcription than that provided by the canonic forms of the DUDEN
makes it necessary to suggest some modifications and own
conventions. Nevertheless, the DUDEN should be considered the decisive
reference for all transcriptions.
The transcription conventions are structured such that different word
lists from different sources can be edited with different amounts of
effort (depending on the requirements). The conventions that can be
found in the chapter 'Basic Transcription' hold for all types of word
lists. All other conventions only have to be paid attention to if the
information they regulate is relevant to the respective transcription
task.
To give an account of the type of transcription made, a simple check
list like the following will be enough. It should be infact always
attached to the transcribed list. The example shows a check list for
the VERBMOBIL lexicon:
Transcription according to | (URL of this document) |
Primary accent | + |
Secondary accent | + |
Morpheme markers | - |
Compound markers | + |
Function word markers | + |