:''This article is about linguistics. For other uses, see Transcription disambiguation page''

'''Transcription''' is the conversion into written, typewritten or printed form, of a spoken language source, such as the proceedings of a court hearing. It can also mean the conversion of a written source into another medium, such as scanning books and making digital versions. A '''transcriptionist''' is a person who performs transcription.

In a strict linguistic sense, ''transcription'' is the process of matching the sounds of human speech to special written symbols using a set of exact rules, so that these sounds can be reproduced later.

Transcription as a mapping from sound to script must be distinguished from transliteration, which creates a mapping from one script to another that is designed to match the original script as directly as possible. 

Standard transcription schemes for linguistic purposes include the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), and its ASCII equivalent, SAMPA. See also phonetic transcription

Transcription is often confused with transliteration, due to a common journalistic practice of mixing elements of both in rendering foreign names. The resulting practical transcription is a hybrid called both transcription and transliteration by general public.

In this table IPA is an example of phonetic transcription of the name of the former Russian president known in English as Boris Yeltsin, followed by accepted hybrid forms in various languages. Note that 'Boris' is a transliteration rather than transcription in strict sense. 

{| border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 style="border:1px solid #999; margin:1.5em 0;"
|-
! colspan=2 align=left | Transcription and transliteration examples
|-
| Original Russian text
| Борис Николаевич Ельцин
|-
| Official transliteration ISO 9 (GOST 7.79-2000)
| Boris Nikolaevič Elʹcin
|-
| Scholarly transliteration
| Boris Nikolaevič Elʼcin
|-
| IPA phonetic transcription
| 
|-
| colspan=2 align=left | 16 examples of the same name rendered in other languages
|-
| English
| Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin
|-
| Croatian
| Boris Nikolajevič Jeljcin
|-
| Chinese (Mandarin)
| 鲍里斯·尼古拉耶维奇·叶利钦 (pinyin: Bàolǐsī Nígǔlāyēwéiqí Yèlìqīn)
|-
| Macedonian
| Борис Николаевич Елцин
|-
| Serbian
| Борис Николајевич Јељцин (translit. ''Boris Nikolajevič Jeljcin'')
|-
| Slovene
| Boris Nikolajevič Jelcin
|-
| Arabic
| بوريس نيكولايفتش يلتسن (approx. translit. ''Būrīs Nīkūlāyafitsh Yīltsin'')
|-
| French
| Boris Nikolaïevitch Ieltsine
|-
| German
| Boris Nikolajewitsch Jelzin
|-
| Hebrew
| בוריס ניקולאיביץ' ילצין (approx. translit. ''bwrjs njḳwlʾjbjṣ' jlṣjn'')
|-
| Hungarian
| Borisz Nyikolajevics Jelcin
|-
| Japanese
| ボリス・ニコライェヴィッチ・イェリツィン (approx. translit. ''borisu nikorayevicchi yeritsin'')
|-
| Korean
| 보리스 니콜라예비치 옐친 (approx. translit. ''boris nikolayevich yeltsin'')
|-

| Polish
| Borys Nikołajewicz Jelcyn
|-
| Spanish
| Boris Nikoláyevich Yeltsin
|-
| Turkish
| Boris Nikolayeviç Yeltsin
|}

The same words are likely to be transcribed differently under different systems. For example, the Mandarin Chinese name for the capital of the People's Republic of China is ''Beijing'' in the commonly-used contemporary system Hanyu Pinyin, and in the historically significant Wade Giles system, it is written ''Pei-Ching''.

Practical transcription can be done into a non-alphabetic language too. For example, in a Hong Kong Newspaper, George Bush's name is transliterated into two Japanese and are transcribed using syllabaries.

'''転写'''（てんしゃ、transcription）とは言語学において、言語の音声を一定の規則に基づいて文字表記することをいう。すなわち「音声→文字」の過程を指すのであり、「文字→文字」の過程である「翻字（transliteration）」と対を成す概念である。ただし、「転写」という言葉がtransliterationの意味で使われることもあり、transcriptionであることを明示する訳語としては「音訳」、「音声表記」、「音声転写」等がある。

転写には音韻的な転写と音声的な転写の二種類が存在する。例えば、朝鮮語「」（馬鹿）における最初の「」は、2つ目の「」はとして発音されるが、音韻論的には単一の音素の条件異音である。よって、音韻に基づいた転写ではとなり、音声に基づいた転写ではとなる。（言語学においては音韻に基づいた転写をで括り、音声に基づいた転写をで括るのが一般的である。）

上記二つの転写は一長一短があり、どちらが優れているとは言いがたい。音韻に基づいた転写は限られた文字セットのみで言語の音声を記述することができるが、そのためには当該言語の音韻に関する知識が必要となる。一方で、音声に基づいた転写は音韻に関する知識なしに可能であるが、完璧に表記しようとすると無数の文字が必要となる。