Reliability studies in broad and narrow phonetic transcription

A 16-category framework is proposed to review the sources of variance in studies of phonetic transcription reliability. The same framework is used to analyse transcription agreement data collected in the course of a project in child phonology, including 22 reliability estimates from five consensus transcription teams who transcribed eight subject groups. Detailed agreement data at the level of consonants, vowels and diphthongs, feature classes, and diacritics are presented for each of the 16 categories, including such traditional measurement variables as sampling mode (continuous speech; articulation tests), agreement type (intra-judge; inter-judge), and level of transcription (broad; narrow). Tabular and plotted data are deliberately presented at the lowest feasible levels for readers interested in specific questions at these levels. A total of 16 generalizations about transcription reliability are derived from descriptive and inferential statistical findings. The primary conclusion is that for certain clinical and research tasks in communicative disorders, broad phonetic transcription appears to be reliable, whereas narrow transcription may be unreliable.