Introduction to Praat

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Introduction to Praat

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Praat Installation

• Windows users can install the latest version of Praat from http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/download_win.html

Double-click the setup file to install Praat. This will create a praat.exe file.

• Linux users can install Praat from http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/

It is better if you run Windows version of Praat by running it under „wine‟ in Linux.

• Additional installations –

Doulos SIL Font - Has phonetic symbols, can be downloaded from http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/DoulosSIL4.106.zip or

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=DoulosSIL_downl oad#FontsDownload

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Praat Objects and Praat Picture

• The Praat objects window contains all the analysis options. Using the Praat picture window, pictures of various aspects of the objects can be exported.

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Recording Sounds

• From the main menu in the

'PRAAT objects window' select 'NEW'

• Choose 'Record mono Sound'

• Choose 22050 Hz

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Recording Sounds

• Click Record

• Speak and make sure the meter indicates green bars

• Click stop when you finish speaking

• Click Play to check the sound

• Add a name to the recording and click to List

• Your sound file appears then in the list in the Object Window

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Saving the sound

• Click Save and save as WAV file

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Opening File and the Spectogram

• In the Praat Objects window click Read -> Read from file

• Then a file selection window will appear. Browse, locate and select your file's name

• Click Open. Highlight its name in the list of objects and click Edit.

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Basic Analysis with Spectogram

• Formant

• Intensity

• Pitch

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Basic Analysis with Spectogram

• Go to ‘Pit.’ and select ‘Get pitch’ (F10 will also do the trick).

• Go to ‘Form.’ and select ‘Get first formant’ (F1). The local first formant value will be displayed in a separate window. Do the same for the second formant (F2), third formant (F3), and fourth formant (F4)

• Go to ‘Int.’ and select ‘Get intensity’ (F11). A local intensity value will be displayed in a separate window

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Formants

• A formant is a concentration of acoustic energy around a particular frequency in the speech wave. There are several formants, each at a different frequency, roughly one in each 1000Hz band. Or, to put it differently, formants occur at roughly 1000Hz intervals. Each

formant corresponds to a resonance in the vocal tract.

• Formants can be seen very clearly in a wideband spectrogram, where they are displayed as dark bands. The darker a formant is reproduced in the spectrogram, the stronger it is (the more energy there is there, or the more audible it is

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Formants

• The formant with the lowest frequency is called F1, the second F2, and the third F3.

• F1 and F2, are sufficient to identify the vowel.

• F1: vowel height

• F2: vowel backness and frontness

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Formants

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Formants

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Formants

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Pitch

Pitch is the rise and fall of our voice when we speak, sometimes called

"highness" or "lowness."

The use of pitch is called intonation, but the words "pitch" and "intonation"

are often used interchangeably

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Tone

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Intonation

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Intensity

• Amplitude (loudness)

• measured in decibels (dB)

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Recording Practice

Record these following sounds:

• Say mean.

• Say man.

List F1, F2

Describe the intonation and intensity of the sounds.