Significance of Narrow Phonetic Transcription in Recording Mother Tongues: A Case Study of Mazandarani Oral Literature

The international Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is primarily based on the Latin script and can be used to represent the qualities of speech that are part of lexical sounds in oral language including phones, phonemes, and intonation. Each phonetic symbol is composed of two main elements of letters and diacritics. Narrow phonetic transcription is an accurate way of recording sounds and provides the possibility for individuals to read the oral literary texts of each region in its original language and with the correct accent. Accordingly, this study aimed at examining the efficiency of using narrow transcription in recording and preserving the oral literature of Mazandaran. In doing so, two samples of Mazani oral literary texts which had been tape-recorded were transcribed narrowly. The findings of the study indicate that narrow phonetic transcription contributes to preserving various dialects and accents in different regions over time.