We hear what we expect to hear.
That’s a problem in court, where covert audio recordings are often unclear. Who decides what goes into the transcript that lawyers, judges, and juries will see?
We’re talking to Dr Helen Fraser about forensic transcription on this episode of Talk the Talk.
Listen to this episode
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http://danielmidgley.com/talkthetalk/talk_classic.xmlIndigenous Australian Word of the Week (IA-WoW): wanggarnangin (Marra)
This weeks IA-WoW is wanggarnangin which means black crow in Marra. This word comes to us from Angelina Joshua and the interactive story “My Grandmother’s Lingo” from SBS.
Reflections on 382: There’s No Enhance Button
Welcome to… Reflections. 🎹
You know what the hardest part of doing this episode was? Naming it.
Everyone knows titles are hard, but I must have cycled through about five names. Forensic Transcription was accurate but not very exciting. What Did He Say? (with variations) felt weird. I like this title though, because it addresses a misconception that people have about forensic phonetics: that there’s some magic way to make audio clear. Okay, so as Helen says, it is possible to enhance audio, but it’s not exactly NCSI (or whatever the acronym is).
So, like everyone knows, titles are hard. But the easy part was having Helen on the show. I first met Helen at the conference for the International Association of Forensic Linguists in July, but I was aware of her work, and we’d had a few emails back and forth. It was great to meet up, find out more about forensic transcription, and plan a recording.
Fast forward to Sunday morning, and we recorded (sadly without Ben).
So from this episode, I learned that Helen’s work has two foci: • work at getting the best transcriptions possible from reliable, accredited, independent transcribers, and • making sure that it’s those transcripts that make it into the hands of lawyers, judges, and juries (instead of police making transcripts of what they thought they heard). Sounds fair to me.
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Show notes
The Inuit agree on a common writing system
https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2019/10/03/the-inuit-agree-on-a-common-writing-system
Writing the Inuit Language
https://tusaalanga.ca/node/2505
Inuktitut language, syllabary and pronunciation
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/inuktitut.htm
Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics | Atlas of Endangered Alphabets
https://www.endangeredalphabets.net/alphabets/canadian-aboriginal-syllabics/
Simon Ager: Standard Writing for Inuit
https://www.omniglot.com/bloggle/?p=18367
Martin et al. Cross-linguistic evidence for cognitive universals in the noun phrase
https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/lingvan.2019.5.issue-1/lingvan-2018-0072/lingvan-2018-0072.xml
Theseus’s paradox (Washington’s Axe)
https://yandoo.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/theseuss-paradox/
My Grandmother’s Lingo | SBS
https://www.sbs.com.au/mygrandmotherslingo/
Ngukurr language centre
https://ngukurrlc.org.au
‘Blackbird’ Sung In Mi’kmaq Seeks To Raise Awareness Of Indigenous Language | Here & Now
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/05/22/blackbird-mikmaq-indigenous-language
Prabhu Deva – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabhu_Deva#Soramimi_spoof
Sine-wave speech demos
http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/Chris_Darwin/SWS/
Forensic Transcription Australia
https://forensictranscription.com.au/
Fraser 2018: ‘Enhancing’ forensic audio: false beliefs and their effect in criminal trials
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00450618.2018.1491115?journalCode=tajf20
Fraser: Why comparing alternative transcripts doesn’t necessarily yield the truth of what was said
https://forensictranscription.com.au/oh-fortuna/
Fraser: Fun audio examples … … that pack a powerful theoretical punch
https://forensictranscription.com.au/tag/fun/
A call to action: Australian linguists call on the judiciary to reform practices for using covert recordings as evidence in court | Forensic Transcription Australia
https://forensictranscription.com.au/a-call-to-action/
Winter Blues | Emma Russack
https://emmarussack.bandcamp.com/album/winter-blues
Matt Gaetz Calls Adam Schiff “a Malicious Captain Kangaroo”: Watch | SPIN
https://www.spin.com/2019/10/matt-gaetz-captain-kangaroo/
Kangaroo Court | Definition of Kangaroo Court by Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kangaroo%20court
Kangaroo Court | Encyclopedia.com
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/law/law/kangaroo-court
‘Kangaroo court’ – the meaning and origin of this phrase
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/kangaroo-court.html
That Music You’re Dancing To? It’s Code
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/style/live-code-music.html
messenger (n.) | Etymonline
https://www.etymonline.com/word/messenger
Transcript
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