Tuesday 12 October 2010

Phonetic Transcription Editor (2)

A follower of this blog asked me to publish a larger stretch of text transcribed by the editor tool. Here it is:

Do take something more. That's not enough to keep a bird alive. Well I won't be having any meat. I'm a vegetarian, you know. Oh! Well, do have more vegetables. More potatoes, would you like? Well, I don't usually eat starchy foods. I'm on a diet, you see. I'm sure you don't need to be. I only wish I was as slim as you are. Well, I'm not really overweight, of course, but I do it for my health's sake. Oh! Is this your own idea or are you following your doctor's orders? Actually I've never been in the habit of setting much store by physicians. Oh! Perhaps, you're like Prince Charles into alternative medicine, then?| də teɪk ˈsʌm.θɪŋ mɔː | ðæts nɒt ɪ.ˈnʌf tu kiːp ə bɜːd ə.ˈlaɪv | wel aɪ wəʊnt bi ˈhæ.vɪŋ ˈe.ni miːt | aɪm ə ˌve.dʒɪ.ˈteə.rɪən | ju nəʊ | əʊ | wel | də həv mɔː ˈve.dʒɪ.təb.l̩z | mɔː pə.ˈteɪ.təʊz | wʊd ju laɪk | wel | aɪ dəʊnt ˈjuː.ʒə.li iːt ˈstɑː.tʃi fuːdz | aɪm ɒn ə ˈdaɪət | ju siː | aɪm ʃʊə ju dəʊnt niːd tu bi | aɪ ˈəʊn.li wɪʃ aɪ wəz əz slɪm əz ju ɑː | wel | aɪm nɒt ˈrɪə.li ˌəʊ.və.ˈweɪt | əv kɔːs | bət aɪ də ɪt fə maɪ ˈhelθs seɪk | əʊ | ɪz ðɪs jər əʊn aɪ.ˈdɪə ɔːr ə ju ˈfɒ.ləʊɪŋ jə ˈdɑːk.tərz ˈɔː.dəz | ˈæk.tʃuə.li aɪv ˈne.və biːn ɪn ðə ˈhæ.bɪt əv ˈse.tɪŋ mʌtʃ stɔː baɪ fɪ.ˈzɪʃ.n̩z | əʊ | pə.ˈhæps | jə laɪk prɪns tʃɑːlz ˈɪn.tə ɔːl.ˈtɜː.nə.tɪv ˈmed.sn̩ | ðen |
As you can see there are quite a few mistakes in it. Although I checked British English as the reference accent to be used, the word "doctor's" came out as /ˈdɑːk.tərz/. Nonetheless, I believe that correcting the mistakes made by the PhoTransEdit tool is less time-consuming than having to write the whole text using the Unicode Phonetic Keyboard provided by UCL.
If you'd like to see the same text transcribed in Amercan English, write a comment, and I am going to put the AE-version online. See my blog entry of the 15th of October.

4 comments:

  1. It strikes me that correcting the errors in that passage would make a good exercise for a fairly advanced student.

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  2. I agree with Kraut that "correcting the mistakes made by the PhoTransEdit tool is less time-consuming than having to write the whole text using the Unicode Phonetic Keyboard provided by UCL", and with John Maidment that "correcting the errors [...] would make a good exercise for a fairly advanced student".

    As for the transcription of "Do take" ("something more") and "do have" ("more vegetables"), I think that "do" should be transcribed as /du:/, not as /də/: am I right? In fact, I'm under the impression that "do" and "does" in their emphatic use have no weak form. But I may be wrong.

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  3. @Jack-in-the-box: You /ɑː/ right in assuming that 'do' is used in its strong form in the two sentences.

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