On this DVD in the directory /tools/viewers/praat/ the PRAAT software (versions for various platforms) can be found. PRAAT can be used to read the audio files and the transcription/annotation files. On the local copy of the PRAAT website you can find all the information you need for installing the program. PRAAT can be used to view the transcription/annotation files. These are:
By means of PRAAT transcriptions/annotations can be viewed with or without the audio files. When PRAAT is opened together with an audio file it is also possible to listen to short stretches of speech (chunks).
For more information about installing and using the PRAAT software, see the local copy of the PRAAT website that can be found on /tools/viewers/praat/website/index.html.
More information about PRAAT can be found in the "Help" menu of the "Praat Object" window (select "Introduction to Praat", then "7. Annotation", and then "View and Edit"). The same information can be found on the Intro page on (the local copy of) the Praat website.
Below a brief introduction can be found in which it is explained how
the transcriptions/annotations can be viewed once PRAAT has been
installed and started.
Viewing the transcriptions and annotations: a short introduction
PRAAT opens with two windows: the "Praat Objects" window and the "Praat Picture" window. You will not be needing the "Praat Picture" window for viewing and playing the files. In order to open an audio file:
From the "Read" menu in the "Praat Objects" window select the option "Open long sound file". In the dialog box that appears, select the audio file you wish to view and/or play (the audio files can be found in the directory /data/audio/wav/ or on the WAV DVDs with the label CGN_WAV_xx), click on the name and click on "openen" (open). In the "Praat Object" window now the file appears as "LongSound bestandsnaam".
For opening the transcription file (in PRAAT terminology: a TextGrid file) you select from the "Read" menu the option "Read from file" and proceed in the same fashion as above (opening the audio file). CGN transcription/annotation files that you can view with PRAAT have the extension .ort, .fon, .wrd, .pro or .awd and can be found in a subdirectory of /data/annot/text/. The file appears in the "Praat Object" window as "TextGrid file name".
If you want to view/play the audio file together with the transcription/annotation, select both the "LongSound" object and the "TextGrid" object in the "Praat Object" window (by first clicking on the one object, pressing the Shift key and then clicking on the other object). Next click on the grey button "Edit".
In the window that appears you can now see the audio signal with the transcription below it. Sometimes the transcription comprises one tier, sometimes there are several tiers. For each speaker a separate tier is used, so that there are always as many tiers as there are speakers.
By means of the button "all", "in", "out" and "sel" at the bottom to the left of the window you can view the entire file, zoom in, zoom out, and view a selection of the file. You can select a stretch of speech by clicking on the left mouse button in the audio signal, holding the mouse button and dragging it to the right, and then releasing the mouse button. You can play the audio by clicking on the grey bar below the lowest transcription tier or by pressing the TAB key. If you press the Escape key or press the TAB key a second time, the playing stops.
For more information about the PRAAT software we refer you to the manual that comes with the program (select "Go to manual page" in the "Praat Object" window under the "Help" menu).