Hi Reader!

New Dialect Unit - Transcriptions!

It's been a hot strike/new covid strain summer - but we have a new unit up on the digital dialect club!

Wherever you are in your training, or got busy with other summer priorities, I suggest you jump into Level 3 - Starting Transcriptions (<< click the link to jump in).

In level 1 - you built awareness and isolation in your facial articulators

In level 2 - you started to discover how your target speaker holds their articulators and hopefully tried a few of their features out on you!

Now in level 3 - you will write your first orthographic and phonemic transcriptions (the way in which we record expected or perceived speech sounds with phonetic symbols) - presenting yourself!

Plus there is a full hour orientation to the International Phonetic Alphabet chart and symbols relative to your anatomical structures!

As these three levels are complementary not sequential, you can jump right into transcriptions and then return to Level 1 & 2 and experience how your understanding of those exercises has deepened.

Dialect decoding and then the craft of developing a new dialect require cycling through the materials multiple times as you become more familiar with more pieces of the puzzle. I commend you for your linguistic adventurous!

I too cycle through the material, adding updates and videos, and I appreciate your patience this summer as I still have many more to upload!

What will come next?

The next units will teach you:

• how to pronounce the most common the IPA symbols (at least 35 or so)
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• the major American English phonemic rules so you can translate written speech into the phonetic transcriptions of how their expected to be pronounce (which as you know if not how they're written)
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• and, with this familiarity with the IPA transcription system, starting to transcribe actual speech from your target speaker so you can start to identify their phonemic patterns --> ultimately with the goal that you can transcribe any written material on how that person's dialect would be expected to pronounce it!

We'll also start to add more transcription conventions such as indication stress and intonation, so you can begin to embody the most important part of any dialect - the melody!

Plus, once we complete building these skillsets, future units will be actual accent breakdowns of various popular dialects.

Email Me Your Transcriptions for Review!

Once you've complete the first lesson assignment, please send me a photo of your written transcription along with your video and I'll give you feedback!

Plus, it's a fun way for me to get to know you!

Have a great rest of your summer

Nikolina Page

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