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(U) Trade Jargon: Got Your 'Ears'? (repost)
FROM: SIGINT Communications
Unknown
Run Date: 09/29/2004
FROM: SIGINT Communications
Unknown
(U//FOUO) There are many different professions at work within SID, and each speaks its own
specialized "language". Once a person becomes accustomed to hearing the jargon, it becomes
second nature -- but an outsider sitting in on a typical SID meeting would likely have no idea
what's going on! We thought it would be interesting to document some of this "SID jargon" -we'll start by looking at the vocabulary of one of the core SIGINT professions: transcription.
(U//FOUO) Transcription is sometimes confused with translation. What's the difference? A
translator takes text in one language and converts it into another. Transcription, on the other
hand, is when one listens to speech and writes down -- in the original language -- what was
said.** Sounds easy? It isn't! Aside from the fact that the sound quality may not be the
greatest, there's the need to be proficient in a foreign language, not to mention that the
speakers may have dialects, quirks of speech, use unfamiliar slang, etc.
(C//SI) Here's a list of commonly used transcription terms. It may give some insight into what
it's like to be a transcriber (or "scribe" for short):
"foot pedal" : a device used to allow the scribe to back up, play, fast forward, etc. a
recording using his feet, thereby freeing up the hands for typing.
"rock on it" : the act of listening to a certain garbled word over and over to try to figure out
what is being said.
"A%" (called A-validity or simply A-val): a "reliability indicator" that shows how certain the
transcriber is that the text is accurate. A% means "certain"; B% is used with "numbers, words,
or phrases that are audibly questionable to the transcriber but otherwise bona fide." (In other
words, probably accurate.) C% is "the phonetic rendition of words or phrases that cannot be
found in available reference materials." [Quotes taken from USSID 101, Annex C.] In a
transcript, such a term might appear something like this: "Mr. Smith(B%) said he was the
director of the newly-formed company."
"read" (or readability) : this is a scale indicating how clear a recording is. A read of 1
indicates that there is nothing intelligible. A read of 5 (the highest, called "5-by") means nearperfect audio quality. You might hear a scribe say, "This read of 2 is terrible! I can only pick out
a word here and there!"
"a cut" : a recorded conversation. "There was nothing to report on the first three cuts, but
the reporters will want us to work on the fourth cut asap, as a VIP was speaking!"
"voice id" : when a scribe knows a speaker's voice so well that he can identify the person on
that basis alone. "The caller didn't say his name, but the senior scribe knew the voice well
enough to do a voice id on the person: it was Mr. Jones."
"ears" : a scribe's earphones. "Put on your ears and come listen to this cut."
"ui fem" : an unidentified female. "A ui fem came on the line and asked to speak to the
operator." The counterpart to this is "ui male".
"scan" : to listen quickly through a recording to determine whether or not it merits
transcription.
"a gist" : when a scribe summarizes in English what was said in a conversation. "It was very
long and complicated, so I did a gist to explain what was happening."
"qc" : quality control. An experienced scribe usually qc's the work of a beginner to check for
accuracy.
"ntr" : nothing to report.
"1-2G" : one or two words are garbled. "XG" means an indeterminate number of words are
garbled. Likewise, "1-2M" means "1 or 2 words missing."
"reverse dictionary" : a working aid that lists the words of a language alphabetically starting
with the last letter and working towards the first letter. (So in the Latin alphabet, words ending
in "a"- rather than those starting with "a" - would be at the front of the reverse dictionary.) This
is used when the first part of a word is garbled or indistinct, but the end is clear. Let's say a
scribe hears "....partment". He can refer to the reverse dictionary to search for a word that
would make sense in the context of the sentence (e.g. com partment, de partment, etc.)
"perschat" : personal chatter (i.e. talk that is not business-related, and therefore of no
interest).
**(U) Note: A third variant is interpreting, which is speech-to-speech.
(U) This is a slightly modified version of an article that first appeared in December 2003. Do you
know of a profession that has highly-specialized jargon? Let us know!
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108