Abstract
Phonetic transcription may be regarded as an important tool, applicable whenever it is necessary to visually capture the sound patterns of speech. In the international context, the IPA transcription system is used for this purpose; the IPA comprises a set of symbols corresponding to speech sounds occurring in various languages of the world, as well as diacritics which allow the transcriber to capture modifications of speech sounds.
In the Czech linguistic environment, conventions for transcribing with the IPA do exist, but a local system making use of Czech alphabet symbols is often preferred. This Czech phonetic transcription is frequently used for transcribing standard pronunciation and minor deviations from it.
However, transcription of speech which falls within the domain of speech pathology has not been sufficiently discussed in Czech literature, and transcription is not commonly applied in SLT practice. The objective of this paper is therefore to introduce to SLT practitioners transcription as such and principles of transcribing canonical Czech pronunciation.
In the second part, we discuss possibilities of recording speech defects and propose a way of transcribing common pronunciation defects in Czech; we are convinced that this tool may be valuable for the purpose of effective diagnostics and therapy.