| . |
Period |
Closing, usually falling intonation |
| , |
Comma |
Continuing, slightly upward intonation |
| ? |
Question mark |
Rising intonation |
|
Underline |
Underlining |
Talk that is emphasized by the speaker |
| Rea::lly |
Colon(s) |
Elongation or stretch of the prior sound |
|
c: |
Underlining preceding colon |
When letters preceding colons are underlined the pitch rises on the letter and the overall contour is ‘up‐to‐down’ |
|
:
|
Underlined colon |
Rising pitch on the colon in an overall ‘down‐to‐up’ contour |
| ! |
Exclamation mark |
Animated tone |
| ‐ |
Hyphen/dash |
A sharp cut‐off of the prior word or sound |
| ↑ |
Upward arrow |
Precedes a marked rise in pitch |
| ↓ |
Downward arrow |
Precedes a marked fall in pitch |
| < |
‘Greater than’ sign |
Talk that is ‘jump‐started’ |
| >faster< |
‘Lesser than’ & ‘greater than’ signs |
Enclose speeded up or compressed talk |
| <slower> |
‘Greater than’ & ‘lesser than’ signs |
Enclose slower or elongated talk |
| LOUD |
Upper case |
Talk that is noticeably louder than that surrounding it |
| °quiet ° |
Degree signs |
Enclose talk that is noticeably quieter than that surrounding it |
| huh/hah/heh/hih/hoh |
|
Various types of laughter token |
| (h) |
‘h’ in parentheses |
Audible aspirations within speech (e.g., laughter particles) |
| .hhh |
A dot before an h or series of hs |
An inbreath (number of hs indicates length) |
| hhh |
An h or series of hs |
An outbreath/breathiness (number of hs indicates length) |
| $ or £ |
Dollar or pound sign |
Smile voice |
| * |
Asterisk |
Squeaky vocal delivery |
| ( ) |
Empty single parentheses |
Non‐transcribable segment of talk. |
| (talk) |
Word(s) in single parentheses |
Transcriber's possible hearing |
| (it)/(at) |
A slash separating word(s) in single parentheses |
Two alternative transcriber hearings |
| ((laughs)) |
Word(s) in double parentheses |
Transcriber comments or description of a sound |
