Phonetic transcription is a system used to visually represent the sounds of speech. It employs symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to indicate how words are pronounced, capturing variations in accents and dialects. This method helps linguists, language learners, and speech therapists understand and analyze spoken language more accurately. By using phonetic transcription, one can see the exact pronunciation of words, which is especially useful for languages with complex spelling rules. It allows for a consistent way to document speech sounds, making it easier to teach pronunciation and study linguistic features across different languages and cultures.