Segmental transcription

The CRIL (Computer Representation of Individual Languages) principles for representing transcriptions in computer based work were developed at the 1989 Kiel Convention of the International Phonetic Association, and include:

1. A mapping of IPA categories to standard IPA numbers and IPA symbol names, to enable broader use and dissemination of the descriptive IPA categories: i.e. the IPA symbols as well as the IPA diacritics needed for the narrow transcription of normal and defective utterances.
2. Three distinct levels of representation for natural speech production, devoted to a standardised representation of natural speech productions and introduces three systematically distinct levels for specifying what could be called the text of a spoken utterance. These levels are as follows:
   1. Orthographic level. This level contains the orthographic representation of the spoken text.
   2. Phonetic level. This level specifies the phonetic form of a given word in its full (unreduced) segmental form. This form would only appear when the word is spoken in isolation: i.e. it is the citation form.
   3. Narrow Phonetic level. This level gives the narrow phonetic transcription of the words that were actually spoken. It is only on this level that phonetic categories can be directly related to the speech signal itself.

The SAMPA alphabet can be consulted here.