Fact · Transcription
The CHAT transcription manual says that if you can tell how many words were unintelligible, you may write several xxx strings in a row.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“If you believe you can distinguish the number of unintelligible words, you may use several xxx strings in a row.”
CHAT Manual: Transcription Format (Unintelligible Speech and Other Symbols), Brian MacWhinney, TalkBank, Carnegie Mellon University, n.d., Unintelligible Speech.
Open the original- What it measures
- The manual gives an example in which one utterance is fully unintelligible and a later one has some words that can be heard and some that cannot.
- What it does not show
- The count is only as reliable as the transcriber's judgment of the audio. Use this rule when you can actually count the words, and a single xxx when you cannot.