Tugg: A transcription tool for language documentation

Abstract

Modern language documentation is less about field linguists treating the speakers of a language as rather passive informants, and more about actively involving them in the work as language consultants. This includes handling tools like recording equipment and being able to transcribe language data on their own. Catering to non-expert users of transcription software presents new challenges for a category of tools that traditionally was the exclusive domain of expert users. We will describe a new transcription tool that aims to be directly usable without any special knowledge of the tool, and only requiring modest amounts of previous computer knowledge for the end user. The tool is geared towards producing fully Leipzig glossing rules compliant transcriptions with a minimum of effort. This chapter will describe the tool, how to set up the server part of the tool, and practical instructions on how to use it, including suggested workflows. The chapter ends with a brief description of a practical use case and future directions.