Such as a court stenographer or someone transcribing an important speech or such.
In: 5
If it is a language mistake, you can add the [*sic*] to show you are transcribing exactly what is said, even if it a mistake. For example, “That’s [*sic*] place is dangerous, don’t be wenting [*sic*] there.”
If you mean pure gibberish, they might make a comment saying “unintelligible.” The court reporter has the ability to ask people to repeat what they said in order to make a proper record. If someone says something that does not sound like English, the court reporter and even the judge will probably intervene.
If you wanted to transcribe the gibberish so that someone else could read it out exactly as it originally sounded, you could use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This is what you see in a dictionary written between two slashes (//) after the main word, and it uses symbols (some of which are the same as our letters, some not) to accurately note down every exact sound in the word and how it was pronounced. The IPA can be used to transcribe words in any language across the world.
Court stenography works with phonetics, not letters and words. The court record is later transcribed into plain language. But any utterance, linguistic or guttural, is initially recorded based on how it sounds, not on what it means.
U.S. legal transcriptionist here. It varies per transcribing firm, but for my contract, if it’s actual gibberish, it gets a legal dash in the transcript.
Q So what happened upon impact?
A (spoken) Well I heard this screech, like EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. And then …
.
.
(transcribed) Well I heard this screech, like — and then …
Ideally someone will say, “unfortunately, the digital reporter can only transcribe words, but I understand it was a loud squealing. Is that right?”
When I transcribed recoded statements for insurance carriers, we’d put a notation in that the person made a sound, so it definitely varies.
When shit is truly unintelligible it gets notated. Folks trip over their tongues a lot and partially start words or combine them. Attorneys and witnesses in equal measure on that 🤣
Edited: formatting on mobile.
Different transcription companies have different style guides, so it might be {speaker unclear} or {unintelligible}. You may also be told to do your best to spell the gibberish and include a {sp?}
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