Uncertain phones

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Uncertain phones

Uncertain phones are transcribed when the transcriber is unsure of the correct phone to use in a particular case. While reading phonetic data from a data source, Phonology Assistant (PA) recognizes such phones as being uncertain when it encounters them in groups of two or more phones separated by slashes and enclosed in parentheses ( ).

For example, the phonetic transcription b(a/ã)g contains one uncertain phone group and the uncertain phones are [a] and [ã].

There is no practical limit to the number of phones PA allows in an uncertain phone group, nor the number of uncertain phone groups in a transcription.

Primary and non-primary uncertainties

PA assumes the first phone in an uncertain phone group is most likely the correct phone. PA calls this the primary uncertainty or primary uncertain phone. The uncertain phones in the group following the primary uncertainty are called non-0primary uncertainties or non-primary uncertain phones.

Uncertainties that represent the absence of phones

PA also recognizes uncertain phone groups that represent an uncertainty between one or more phones and the absence of a phone. For PA to recognize such uncertain phone groups, the absence of a phone in the group must be transcribed using a zero (0), the empty set symbol (U+2205), or nothing.

For example, consider the following transcriptions containing uncertain groups:

(n/n̩/0)dɔ, (n/n̩/∅)dɔ, (n/n̩/)dɔ, (n/0/n̩)dɔ, (n/∅/n̩)dɔ, and (n//n̩)dɔ

Each transcription represents the following three possible transcriptions:

ndɔ, n̩dɔ, and dɔ

In PA, the first phone in an uncertain phone group (primary uncertainty) may not be absent. Therefore, the following transcriptions are invalid:

(0/n/n̩)dɔ, (∅/n/n̩)dɔ, and (/n/n̩)dɔ

Tip

A red triangle () is at the upper right of a cell in the Phonetic column in a word list if the record contains uncertain phones. The primary uncertain phones have a blue font color.

If you let the mouse pointer rest on the cell, a ScreenTip displays the phonetic transcription in the data source and all possible uncertain transcriptions.
In Consonant Chart or Vowel Chart view, if you let the mouse pointer rest on any phone in the chart or histogram, or on a histogram bar, a ScreenTip displays the number of times the phone occurs as a primary or non-primary uncertainty.
Neither Consonant or Vowel Chart views displays uncertain phones that occur only in invalid groups in which the absence of a phone appears as the primary uncertainty.