CALLHOME TRANSCRIPTION CONVENTIONS - General
What to transcribe: 10 minutes (600 seconds) from the recorded
telephone conversations. This should not
include the beginning of the conversation
where the speakers are getting permission
for being recorded.
Definition of turns: Separate turns are defined by the following
criteria:
(1) speaker change, e.g.
A: Well I was thinking about that
B: I know I talked to &Jan about it yesterday
(2) within one speaker's stretch of talk, a long
turn should be broken up in terms of what makes
grammatical/semantic sense, e.g.
A: And I told her um I didn't I wasn't
setting you up to be a spiritual director or
anything {laugh} but I did say to her that if she
were to talk if she felt that she wanted to
talk about her prayer experience in Spanish
A: that you would probably be able to certainly
to understand her but to empathize a little bit
with what she was experiencing
(3) If there is an extra-long pause within a
single speaker's turn, break the turn up into two
turns, e.g.
B: When we were fishing out on &Lake &Travis last
August I thought I saw, uh [[long pause]]
B: uh, &George &Martin, but I wasn't sure it was him.
Timestamps: Each speaker turn is marked with a unique timestamp
(in seconds). The timestamps mark the beginning and
end time of each turn relative to the beginning of the
recording. Each timestamp is precise to the 100th of a
second, and is in the format: beginning time [space]
ending time, followed by the turn.
Some samples:
27.98 28.72 A: You know so
137.49 139.47 A: yeah {breath} (( )) [distortion]
284.54 286.79 B: %ah &Lydia &Van &Damme.
Special Conventions:
Acronyms Acronyms pronounced like a word are written in all caps
with no spaces, e.g.
AIDS NARAL
Acronyms pronounded like the individual letters are
written in all caps with spaces between the letters:
C I A H I V C E O
Numbers Write all numbers out, do not use digits
twenty-two nineteen-ninety-five
Non-lexemes Use the most standard spelling (as given on the
lexicon list, if it's there); don't try to
represent lengthening by writing multiple consonants
(like 'ooooh').
uh-huh mm-hm uh-oh okay jeez uh
Special symbols:
Noises, conversational phenomena, foreign words, etc. are marked
with special symbols. In the table below, "text" represents any
word or descriptive phrase.
{text} sound made by the talker
{laugh} {cough} {sneeze}
[text] sound not made by the talker (background or channel)
[distortion] [background noise] [buzz]
[/text] end of continuous or intermittent sound not made by
the talker (beginning marked with previous [text])
[[text]] comment; most often used to describe unusual
characteristics of immediately preceding or following
speech (as opposed to separate noise event)
[[previous word lengthened]] [[speaker is singing]]
((text)) unintelligible; text is best guess at transcription
((coffee klatch))
(( )) unintelligible; can't even guess text
(( ))
speech in another language
? indicates unrecognized language; (( )) indicates
untranscribable speech
-text
text- partial word
#text# simultaneous speech on same channel
(simultaneous speech on different channels is not
explicitly marked, but is identifiable as such by
reference to time marks)
//text// aside (talker addressing someone in background)
//quit it, I'm talking to your sister!//
+text+ mispronounced word (spell it in usual orthography)
+turbot+
**text** idiosyncratic word, not in common use
**poodle-ish**
%text This symbol flags non-lexemes, and is added
automatically to the transcripts according to
the non-lexeme list given in the document
'Principles of Transcribing ECA'.
&text used to mark proper names and place names
&Mary &Jones &Arizona &Harper's
&Fiat &Joe's &Grill
text -- marks end of interrupted turn and continuation
-- text of same turn after interruption, e.g.
A: I saw &Joe yesterday coming out of --
B: You saw &Joe?!
A: -- the music store on &Seventeenth and &Chestnut.
PRINCIPLES OF TRANSCRIBING ECA (as of 9/10/96)
1. Spelling
When a question arises about the proper spelling of a word (such as
/H/ or /h/, /a/ or /i/), our "authoritative" source is the Badawi &
Hinds "Dictionary of Egyptian Arabic". In general, we are avoiding
writing long vowels at the ends of words (with some exceptions below).
Initial glottal stops are not written, since they are fully predicable
and occur before all word-initial vowels.
2. Definite articles
The definite article /il/ is followed by a "+" if immediately followed
by a noun, regardless of its actual pronunciation. Some examples:
il+rAgil "the man"
il+salAm "the peace"
il+qizAzaB "the bottle"
The exception to this involves a high frequency set phrase:
ilHamdulillA "Thank God"
For words that begin with the definite article 'il', preceding a word
that begins with 'k' or 'g', assimilation of the 'l' is variable, producing
either /ikk/ or /ilk/, and /igg/ or /ilg/ respectively. In devtest02
and train03, the particular pronunciation of each such case in the
transcripts is notated as:
il+k unassimilated
il(k)+k assimilated
il+g unassimilated
il(g)+g assimilated
2.1. Definite articles and proper names
If a proper name is preceded by the definite article /il/, place the
"&" symbol after the "+" before the name itself:
il+&sucudiyyaB
il+&raml
3. tEh marbUta "B"
In ECA, many feminine nouns and some feminine adjectives ending in
/-a/ can be pronounced as either [-a] or [-it], depending upon what
word comes after it in a sentence. To capture the generalization that
only the pronunciation is changing, all words which have the tEh
marbUta in MSA are written with a final /-B/ for ECA, regardless of
the actual pronunciation. The rules for deriving the set of pronunciations
are in the Lexicon. Examples:
HAgaB
ca$araB
diyya
tuscumiyyaB
tuscumiyyaB wi xamsIn
tuscumiyyaB dulAr
baqiyyaB
mAmaB (many speakers say "mamti" for 'my mama')
However, in devtest02 and train03 transcripts, words that end in the
orthographic symbol 'B' (e.g. feminine nouns) which may be pronounced
either /a/ or /it/, are coded for the specific pronunciation used in each
case with the alternatives 'B~' and 'B(t)', respectively:
B~ /a/
B(t) /it/
4. Verbal prefixes and suffixes (not pronominal suffixes)
Verbal prefixes and suffixes will be written as part of the verb (just
as in MSA), without the use of "+" or the inclusion of a space. The
vowel deletions which occur in such forms will be recorded in the
spelling. Some examples:
biyitxAniq (not bi+yitxAniq) "he is fighting"
biyifham "he understands"
Hayifham "he will understand"
mafhimti$ "I don't understand"
5. Pronominal suffixes
Pronominal suffixes are also written as part of the word without a "+"
or space between the verb and the suffix. The reason for this is that
for maintaining constancy with negated verbs such as /mafahimtaha$/ "I
don't understand it", where the /$/ remains attached to the verb as in
(4) above. Examples:
katabha "he wrote it (fem.)"
katabu "he wrote it (masc.)"
katabtaha "I wrote it (fem.)"
6. "Inseparable" prepositions
The "inseparable" prepositions /bi-/ "with", /li-/ "to, for", /ka-/
"like" are all written with the following word, separated by a "+".
If the definite article comes between the inseparable preposition and
the word stem, it is written in the same manner. Example:
bi+il+lEl
li+il+madInaB "to the city"
*NOTE*: only prepositions and the definite article are separated by
the "+".
7. Numerals
The numerals should all be written in citation form. The lexicon will
include the rules for deriving their pronunciation, since numerals
behave differently from other adjectives. Examples:
xamsaB "five"
ca$araB "ten"
ca$araB ayyAm "ten days"
Note: The word for "days" will always be written /ayyAm/ even though
it is pronounced [iyyAm] after the numerals 3-10. We will include
this as a rule in the lexicon.
8. Foreign words and placenames
Foreign words are transcribed using the convention . However, there are some instances where the words or
placenames have been nativized. These words should be written as
pronounced. Some examples:
&niujirsi "New Jersey"
&niuyOrk "New York"
&lusanjilus "Los Angeles"
yA "yeah"
"Seven Up"
9. Standard spellings
The words below should be transcribed as shown, regardless of variant
pronunciations.
matuqcudI$ "don't sit down"
kuwayyis "well"
nuSS "half"
bass "enough"
bAba "father"
mAmaB "mother"
diqiqtEn "two minutes"
mazilt "still"
ya xUya "my brother"
ya xti "my sister"
walla "or / a short version of wallAhi"
la "no"
10. Words with variable spellings
The words below should be transcribed as shown depending upon what one
hears:
iwci / iwca "don't"
buqq / buqqi "mouth, my mouth"
ca / cala "on"
kat / kAnit "was"
laHsan / li+aHsan "for the better"
ca$An / cala$An "because"
ana xadt / ana axadt "I took it"
11. Miscellaneous cases
The following phrases are written as one word, the reason being that
they are high frequency and occur as set phrases:
in$ACallA / in$alla "God willing" (depending upon what is said)
biCiznillA "God willing"
wallAhi "swear to God"
liCinn "because"
allAhuakbar "God is greatest"
12. List of standardized non-lexemes. The following are marked
automatically with '%' in the transcripts:
ah
Ah
aha
E
Eyy
hm
M
mm
mhm
O
OhO
yaa
yOO
yuu
uh
ayyO
yA
yO
yOO
ha
hE
wAw
Hay
13. On indicating dialectal words
If a speaker pronounces a word in marked dialect (especially if the
word changes shape due to the dialect), the word will be flagged as if
it is a foreign word with either or , the two
main dialect areas of Egypt.