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LING 211 Phonetics of Indigenous Languages

A Community Linguist Certificate Course

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LING 211 – Introduction to Linguistic Analysis for

Indigenous Language Revitalization INSTRUCTOR Dr. Benjamin V. Tucker, Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta

COURSE DESCRIPTION This is a practical course where students will learn about the speech sounds in their language and how they are produced. They will be introduced to other sounds in Canadian Indigenous languages they may not occur in their language. They will also learn transcription using the IPA, elementary acoustic phonetics, and techniques for describing language sound systems.

COURSE GOALS At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Recognize and understand how the basic anatomy is used in speech production • Recognize and produce speech sounds using the International Phonetic Alphabet • Transcribe language using the International Phonetic Alphabet • Transcribe language using the computer • Elementary acoustic phonetics, digital recording

TEXT CLC Coursepack for LING 211

CALCULATION OF COURSE GRADE Class Participation 10% Terms 5% Assignments (4 at 10% each) 40% Final Language Sounds Project 45%

POLICY ON LATE ASSIGNMENTS: Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the due date. Ten percent will be deducted each day. The instructor may consider an extension if notified within 48 hours of due date and documentation (e.g., medical note) is provided.

ATTENDANCE: Since presence at lectures, participation in classroom discussions and projects, and the completion of assignments are important components of most courses, students will serve their interests best by regular attendance. Those who choose not to attend must assume whatever risks are involved. Students who are repeatedly absent may receive an email notifying them of the risks associated with absenteeism. The CILLDI office will be copied on these emails

FINAL PROJECT: Your final project could be one of two project types. (1) Language Sounds Archive: this is a digital archive of the sounds in your language (an example will be provided in class). For example, a student could use PowerPoint and give written examples and sound examples of each sound in their language. Alternatively, they could create a webpage that conveys the same information. (2)

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Language Transcription: this is a transcription of a short story in your language using the IPA in a software package like ELAN (an example will be provided in class).

GRADING SYSTEM

Course Recording Policy: Recording is permitted only with the prior written consent of the professor or if recording is part of an approved accommodation plan.

Final course grades are determined according to the University calendar §23.4:

Grades reflect judgments of student achievement made by instructors. These judgments are based on a combination of absolute achievement and relative performance in a class.

LING 211 Schedule Classes meet 9am-12 noon and 1pm-3:30pm

Day Time Topics Assignments

Day 1 Thurs July 18

9am-noon Course Orientation Your goals for this course Articulation: Consonants and Vowels International Phonetic Alphabet

Look over course materials…

1pm-3:30pm Lab session: CAB 331 Practice session: Articulation sites

HW1: Sounds and writing (due Friday)

Day 3 Fri July 19

9am-noon Language sounds: Tone, Stress, Intonation Discussion: Dialects, spelling systems 1

1pm-3:30pm Lab session: CAB 331 Practicing transcription

HW2: Sounds and words (due Monday)

Day 4 Mon July 22

9am-noon Introduction to digital and acoustic phonetics Recording and identifying sounds

1pm-3:30pm Lab session: CAB 331 Making recordings on computers (Praat and Audacity)

HW3: Reflections on dialects and ‘correct’ speech (due Tues)

Day 5 Tues July 23

9am-noon Language sounds: phonemes and processes 1pm-3:30pm Lab session: CAB 331

ELAN (transcription with the computer)

Day 6 Wed July 24

9am-noon Connected speech: sentences, stories, conversation

1pm-3:30pm Lab session: CAB 331 Recording sentences, stories, conversation

HW4: Relating class to your work (due Thurs)

Day 7 Thurs July 25

9am-noon Final lab session: CAB 331 (all day) 1pm-3:30pm

Day 8 Fri July 26

9am-noon Lab session: CAB 331 Discussion: What next? Goals Course Summary and Wrap-Up

Language sounds archive due

1pm-3pm CILLDI Closing Ceremony

Grading In Undergraduate Courses

Descriptor

Letter Grade

Point Value

Excellent A+ A A-

4.0 4.0 3.7

Good B+ B B-

3.3 3.0 2.7

Satisfactory C+ C C-

2.3 2.0 1.7

Poor Minimal Pass

D+ D

1.3 1.0

Failure F 0

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EXCERPTS FROM THE CODE OF STUDENT BEHAVIOUR (UPDATED WITH CHANGES EFFECTIVE MAY 1, 2003) 30.3.2(1) Plagiarism No Student shall submit the words, ideas, images or data of another person as the Student's own in any academic writing, essay, thesis, project, assignment, presentation or poster in a course or program of study. 30.3.2(2) Cheating 30.3.2(2)a No Student shall in the course of an examination

or other similar activity, obtain or attempt to obtain information from another Student or other unauthorized source, give or attempt to give information to another Student, or use, attempt to use or possess for the purposes of use any unauthorized material.

30.3.2(2)b No Student shall represent or attempt to represent him or herself as another or have or attempt to have himself or herself represented by another in the taking of an examination, preparation of a paper or other similar activity. See also misrepresentation in 30.3.6(4).

30.3.2(2)c No Student shall represent another’s substantial editorial or compositional assistance on an assignment as the Student’s own work.

30.3.2(2)d No Student shall submit in any course or program of study, without the written approval of the course Instructor, all or a substantial portion of any academic writing, essay, thesis, research report, project, assignment, presentation or poster for which credit has previously been obtained by the Student or which has been or is being submitted by the Student in another course or program of study in the University or elsewhere.

30.3.2(2)e No Student shall submit in any course or program of study any academic writing, essay, thesis, report, project, assignment, presentation or poster containing a statement of fact known by the Student to be false or a reference to a source the Student knows to contain fabricated claims (unless acknowledged by the Student), or a fabricated reference to a source.

30.3.6(4) Misrepresentation of Facts No Student shall misrepresent pertinent facts to any member of the University community for the purpose of obtaining academic or other advantage. See also 30.3.2(2) b, c, d and e. 30.3.6(5) Participation in an Offence No Student shall counsel or encourage or knowingly aid or assist, directly or indirectly, another person in the commission of any offence under this Code. The Truth In Education (T*I*E) project is a campus wide educational campaign on Academic Honesty. This program was created to let people know the limits and consequences of inappropriate academic behavior. There are helpful tips for Instructors and Students. Please take the time to visit the website at: http://www.ualberta.ca/tie.

http://www.ualberta.ca/tie

LINGUISTICS 211 University of Alberta/CILLDI Dr. Benjamin V. Tucker July 2013

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1. INTRODUCTION What is linguistics? More specifically, what can phonetics do for speakers, learners, and teachers of First Peoples languages?

A. The traditional levels and subfields of linguistic analysis:

LEVELS SUBFIELDS

discourse analysis language acquisition (L1/L2), language teaching pragmatics sociolinguistics (language/dialectal variation)

semantics psycholinguistics (language processing)

syntax anthropological linguistics (language & culture)

morphology historical linguistics (language change)

phonology comparative linguistics (typology)

phonetics speech perception, speech production, speech pathology and clinical linguistics

What we’ll concentrate on:

phonetics sound features and segments (a little) phonology sound systems and sound processes (All the other stuff you’ll get in later courses)

B. What is phonetics? A simple definition: the study of speech sounds.

A more formal definition: A simple, formal definition: the study of the physical and physiological

basis of speech sounds.

Among other things, phoneticians want to know:

• how to describe the physical properties of speech sounds (Acoustic Phonetics)

• how speech sounds are transmitted and perceived (Articulatory Phonetics)


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Acoustic phonetics is concerned with the physical properties of the speech sound and their transmission.

Articulatory phonetics is concerned with how sounds are made in the vocal tract.


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C. Representing sound What are some ways in which we represent sound?

• Musical notation • Writing (orthography) • Physics (acoustics) • Transcription

Writing systems or orthographies are the main way in which languages are represented. In this case we are using symbols to represent the language. Orthographies vary in how they represent the actual sounds produced in the language. Transcription is a way to represent the sounds of language in a written form that is consistent across all languages. We use the International Phonetic Alphabet which is a standard used all over the world. This standard allows us to “write” or represent the sounds of any language in the world.

D. First Peoples languages and phonetics: Knowledge of phonetics can give speakers a better understanding of the inner workings of their language. Phonetics provides learners, teachers and speakers with a better understanding of how speech sounds are produced. As a result learners, teachers and speakers are better able to communicate how to produce certain sounds. It can be helpful in identifying dialects and the way in which they sound different. Knowledge of phonetics allows for a more accurate description of the sounds of the language. This description is useful for conservation and documentation activities.

2. Articulatory Phonetics Speech Mechanisms:

1. Airstream process

2. Laryngeal process

3. Oral/Nasal process

4. Articulatory process


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A. Primary articulations: Describing basic sounds (segments) 1. airstream mechanisms (glottal states)

glottal states (voiced, voiceless, whisper, murmur)

vowels vs. consonants vs. glides

2. place of articulation

C: bilabial, labio-dental, interdental, dental, alveolar, alveo-palatal,

velar, uvular, glottal, pharyngeal, laryngeal

V: tongue height, tongue position (front/back)

3. manner of articulation

types of consonants: stops, fricatives, sonorants

stop = a consonant with a complete closure of the oral tract

fricative = a consonant with an almost complete closure and air forced through a mall space

sonorant = a sound with a partial closure somewhere between a vowel and a consonant

types of sonorant consonants: nasals, laterals, glides/semi-vowels, approximants

additional manners of articulation:

C: aspirated, ejectivized, labialized, palatalized

V: tense/lax, high/mid/low tone, long/off-glide (diphthong)

3. affricates

Combination of two manners stop + fricative SOME RELATED WEBSITES WHICH MIGHT BE OF INTEREST: http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/chapter1.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet http://www.phonemicchart.com/ http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/ http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~krussll/phonetics/anatomy/anatomy.html http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~danhall/phonetics/sammy.html http://www.ipaarticulation.arts.gla.ac.uk/uti/index1.html

C

aspirated ch

V

long vː ejectivized cˀ or c’ voiceless v labialized cw nasalized ṽ or v̜ velarized cx high tone v́

palatalized cj mid tone v̄ unreleased c˺ low tone v̀

*here C is any consonant and v is any vowel.

diac

riti

c


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B. Secondary articulations (or co-articulations) C: aspirated, ejectivized, palatalized, unreleased, etc.

V: long/short, nasalized/unnasalized, rounded/unrounded, voiceless, etc.

C. Suprasegmental (prosodic features) V: pitch (tone), loudness, length

D. Phonemes vs. Allophones Phonemes are sounds that contrast in exactly the same environment, causing a meaning

difference. They have a “psychological” value for a speaker.

Allophones are sounds that contrast acoustically, but not psychologically. They are either (a) in exactly the same environment, but are in free variation or (b) in complementary distribution, only showing up in different environments. In short, most allophones are “phonologically conditioned” or else the difference in pronunciation is dialectal, based on register or speech rate, or it just doesn’t matter.

/X/ , /Y/ /X/ [X]

[Y]

E. Some co-articulation effects (that cause language change, dialectal variation, and differences between “citation forms” and “rapid speech”)

PROCESS [xxx] [yyy]

Assimilation Voicing [V-s-V] [V-z-V] [sg] [sk] or [zg]

Nasal [vn] [ṽ]

Place [np] [mp] input --> imput ENGLISH

Manner [atimosis] [atsimosis] CREE

Deletion (remove a sound) [tɑnɪsɪ] [tɑnsɪ] CREE [chok] [cho] DENE S. [ta-ok] [tok]

Epenthesis (add a sound) [ta-ok] [tawok] CREE

Lenition (weaken a sound) [chok] [chogh] DENE S.

Palatalization (add y-color to a sound) [dɪd yuʷ] [dɪʤuʷ] ENGLISH ‘did you?’

Metathesis (change sound order) [ʔīdlítà] [ʔīdítłà] TSUUT’INA ‘blood’ old/new

F. Types of Transcription Phonetic (narrow) [ k ͪæt˺ ] [ sʌ̃mpθɪŋ̃ ] [ ˀeʲt ͪi:n ]

Phonemic (broad): / kæt / / sʌmθɪŋ / / etin /

Orthography: cat something eighteen


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International Phonetic Alphabet A sonic version (you can click on a symbol to hear it in context) of this IPA chart can be found at:

http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm


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4. Consonants & minimal pairs.

A. Chemehuevi Consonant Inventory Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Plosive p b t d k ʔ Fricative β/v s ʃ ɣ h Affricate ts tʃ ɾ Lateral l Nasal m n ŋ Approximant w j Tap of Flap ɾ

Labialized [kʷ, ɣʷ]

B. Navajo Consonant Inventory (In slightly modified IPA format)

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Plosive plain p t k ʔ

aspirated tx kx ejective t’ k’

Fricative v s ʒ ʃ x ɣ h Affricate plain ts tʃ ɾ

aspirated tsʰ ejective ts’ tʃ’

Lateral ɬ l Lateral

Affricate plain t ɬ

aspirated t ɬʰ ejective t ɬ’

Nasal m n Approximant j w

Labialized [kxʷ, xʷ, ɣʷ] C. Minimal Pairs Chemehuevi katsü [katsɨ̥] ‘no’ patcü [patsɨ̥] ‘man’s daughter’ English pat [pæt̚] bat [bæt̚]


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D. An orthography to IPA chart for Chemehuevi Practice: Describe the sounds on this chart that do not have a description.

ORTHOGRAPHY ARTICULATORY DESCRIPTION IPA

CONSONANTS p voiceless bilabial stop [p]

b voiced bilabial stop [b]

t voiceless alveolar stop [t]

k voiceless velar stop [k]

kw labialized voiceless velar stop [kʷ]

g [ɣ]

gw [ɣʷ]

’ [ʔ]

h [h]

m [m]

n [n]

ng [ŋ]

r [ɾ] c [ʃ] s [s]

tc [tʃ] ts [ts]

v [v] or [β]

w [w]

y [j]

Vowels i high front unrounded [i]

u [u]

a [ɑ]

ü [ɨ] o [o]


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5. Vocalic segments, length, & tone

A. Chemehuevi Vowel Inventory

front central back

high i ɨ u

mid o

low ɑ

IPA Style Chemehuevi Inventory

Secondary Articulations: Length and Tone on Vowels: Length (short, long): v v: Tone (high, mid, low): v́ v̄ v̀

Vowel Length (Chemehuevi) katsü [katsɨ̥] ‘no’ kaatsi [kɑːtsi̥] ‘rat’ angavi [aŋavi ̥] ‘small red ant’ angaavi [aŋaːvi̥] ‘arm’

Tone (Tsuut’ina)

H tsá 'rock, mountain'

M mās 'knife'

L dzà 'gum'

ɑ

ɨ

o

i u


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6. Acoustic Phonetics

A. Waveform A graphical representation of Simple Harmonic Motion. For sound generally: x-axis = time y-axis = amplitude, intensity A simple sine wave

Real Speech

0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04-1

-0.8

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

Time (s)

Ampl

itude

Time (s)0 0.0257767

-0.1202

0.1387

0


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B. Three Acoustic Characteristics of Sound 1. Frequency = what we hear as pitch 2. Amplitude = what we hear as loudness 3. Duration = what we hear as long vs. short

Aperiodic Sound

• Aperiodic Waves have no periodicity, the vibratory pattern is random. • Aperiodic waves are often produced by flowing gases or liquids. Example: Jet noise, air leaking

from a tire, fricative consonants.

D. The Spectrogram

0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04-2

-1.5

-1

-0.5

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

Time (s)

Ampli

tude

Time (s)0 0.823855

0

5000


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7. Class Assignments

HW1: Sounds and writing: For this assignment you should make a list of all the sounds in your language and the corresponding

orthographic character and the description of the sound as follows:

Orthography Description IPA

p voiceless bilabial stop [p]

HW2: Sounds and words: For this assignment we will be building on your first assignment. You should use the description you have already created for each sound in your language. For this assignment you should find example words for this sound: One word with the sound at the beginning of the word and one word with the sound in the middle of the word (if you can’t find an example of this sound in the middle of the word then use provide another example with it at the beginning).

For example: p voiceless bilabial stop [p]

pantofi “pants” apă “water”

HW3: Reflections on dialects and ‘correct’ speech: For this assignment you will write a one page paper based on your reflections and our discussion in class regarding dialects and ‘correct’ speech.

HW4: Relating class to your work: For this assignment please write a one page response to the following question: How does phonetics, the material you have learned in this class, relate to your work with your language?

FINAL PROJECT: Your final project could be one of two project types. (1) Language Sounds Archive: this is a digital archive of the sounds in your language (an example will be provided in class). For example, a student could use PowerPoint and give written examples and sound examples of each sound in their language. (2) Language Transcription: this is a transcription of a short story in your language using the IPA using something like ELAN (an example will be provided in class).


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8. The basics of using Audacity for recording Audacity is free software that can be downloaded from the internet, which will allow the user to record sound using their computer, save it as a WAV file and manipulate it later. Getting started:

1. To get started you should first download audacity from <http://audacity.sourceforge.net/>. I would recommend downloading the most recent version (1.3 Series (Beta)) since it is Unicode compliant and works with most recent operating systems. Once you have downloaded the file please install it on your computer.

Creating a recording: 2. Open Audacity (It should look something like this):

3. The next step is to make sure you have a microphone connected to your computer. This could be

through a USB connection or with a 1/8 inch connection (like most headphone connections on a computer). You may have to adjust the volume of the microphone in Audacity if the recording is to quiet.

4. Now we can record. To record we click on the button with the round red circle, the person being recorded then says whatever they would like to say, and then to stop we click on the yellow square button (illustrated below). If the recording is working you should see a window open up with a waveform (the blue lines) being created (shown in step 5).

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/


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Record Stop

5. Now we have a recording that we can listen to and save. First listen to the recording to make sure everything sound alright. You can do this by pressing the green rectangle button.

6. To save a good recording click on ‘File’ then ‘Save Project’. This will save an Audacity project file (.aup). This is fine as long as you always intend to use Audacity. To save an actual audio file (.wav) that can be readable by any audio program you want to select ‘File’ then ‘Export’


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Then in the new window select the location on your computer where you would like to save the file. In the “File name:” field provide a name for the file (in my case “test_file”). You can leave the “Save as type:” field as it is (this is a standard uncompressed format and is readable by most computers).

After clicking “Save” a new window will open up. This window gives the user an opportunity to record metadata about the recording. This is not necessary but isn’t a bad idea to do since it will help document the circumstances and who was recorded. You are also not limited to the fields provided you can add additional fields at the bottom and remove fields that are inappropriate.


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7. Now to access a saved file from a previous session, select “File” then “Open” in the main Audacity window. Navigate to the folder were you saved you file (like on a USB disk) and click on the file. Then click “Open” and the audio file should open.

When you open a file for the first time when you are using Audacity a warning window will pop open. All this window is trying to say is when you are opening your original file be very careful and don’t make changes and then save it over your original file. This is good advice! You always want to keep your original file free of any manipulations. So if you make a change and want to save it, always select “Save as” or when you “Export” the file give it a unique name.


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9. Recording Techniques The key to producing good recordings is to have a clear, well thought out plan and spending an appropriate amount of time preparing so that the technology (recording equipment) intrudes as little as possible. In this section, some basic advice on recording is provided. A last piece of general advice is to do the best you can with the material available to you. It is better to have a recording of something than no recording at all. Speaker One of the first considerations when performing a field recording is the speaker. What kinds of things do we need to think about with regard to the speaker? Location Try listening to the sounds around you. What do you hear? How will these sounds impact your recording?


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What do you record? Technical Aspects: Equipment Microphones

(images from the Wikipedia Commons)

From Cieri (2011)


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Recording equipment Digital vs. Analog


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Compression A useful link with some good tips for making recordings: <http://courses.washington.edu/l453/recordings1.pdf>

http://courses.washington.edu/l453/recordings1.pdf


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10. An introduction to ELAN (Courtesy of Chris Cox) ELAN ('EUDICO (European Distributed Corpus) Linguistic ANnotator') is a tool used to produce time-aligned transcriptions of digital audio and video recordings. It saves its transcripts in a well-documented, XML-based format, supports Unicode through and through, and is still under active development by the good people at the Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen. It has an impressive list of features (including good cross-platform compatibility and the ability to import and export data in a number of different formats), and seems to be becoming increasingly popular in professional documentary linguistics.

Let's get this out of the way early on: all other well-deserved praise aside, ELAN is not the most immediately intuitive piece of software to use. Its interface definitely takes some getting used to. Once you do get used to it, though, ELAN reveals itself to be a high-quality piece of software. You just have to take the time to get to know how it sees linguistic annotation, and then ELAN's behavior will (hopefully) make more sense.

Much of ELAN's idiosyncratic world-view revolves around four basic data types: annotations, tiers, linguistic types, and stereotypes. Understanding what each of these does can help alleviate some frustration in getting started with ELAN:

Annotations are the basic units of transcribed information that appear within an ELAN transcript. That is, if you had sentence-level annotations in a transcript, annotations would contain the text of the sentences. If you had broken up your transcript by words, then each word would likely be its own annotation. The length, position, and contents of annotations is essentially up to you: this is where your transcription goes.

Tiers are just containers for annotations of a particular kind. One of the strengths of ELAN is that you can define multiple levels of annotation: you might want to have one tier for sentences, another tier for words within those sentences, another tier for phonemes within those words, and so forth. There is no practical limit on the number of tiers that you can have, or the number of annotations that can appear within a tier -- again, all of this is up to you.

Linguistic types describe the kinds of tiers that appear in an ELAN transcript. Each tier has a linguistic type which tells us something about the kind of annotations which can appear in it. One kind of information that linguistic types specify is the relationships of annotations to the media: tiers can either be aligned to the media (e.g. sentences are associated with sections of audio, as are words and phonemes), or aligned with another annotation (e.g. sentence translations probably aren't associated with sections of audio, nor are word glosses or notes about phonemes). Linguistic types make the relationship between tiers and the media files explicit.

ELAN allows us to define as many linguistic types as we want. Thus, we might have one linguistic type which represents big "chunks" of text that can be aligned to the media, and another type for time-aligned "subchunks" which only appear within larger chunks. We could also define separate types for "glosses", which aren't time-aligned, but instead are associated with some other time-aligned unit. We could make up distinct types for as many different situations as we feel are necessary and informative, but the basic idea still holds: the types we define are just different ways of stating the basic relationship between tiers and media.

Stereotypes, finally, are the building-blocks out of which linguistic types are made. Whenever you create a new linguistic type, you begin by assigning it a constraint stereotype that states its fundamental relationship to the media. This might sound very similar to linguistic types as described above, but the critical difference between stereotypes and linguistic types is that stereotypes are limited: there are exactly five stereotypes that are built into ELAN, and no more. These are what give linguistic types their general relationship to the media and to other annotations -- choosing from this limited palette of stereotypes, you can create as many different linguistic types as you want.


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The critical piece of information to take away from this discussion is this: ELAN not only allows you to have any number of annotations within a tier, but those tiers exist in relationships to one another that make sure your final transcript is both informative and internally consistent. That's really the long and short of it. If you're interested in learning more, the ELAN manual is available on-line.

Requirements and installation Windows ELAN is written in Java, which can sometimes make installing software trickier than it might otherwise be. Thankfully, MPI provides a convenient installer for the latest version (3.7.1) at the ELAN website. Follow the steps in the install wizard, and you should have a working copy of ELAN in no time.

Mac OS X Starting with ELAN version 3.7.0, MPI is providing a single installer for Mac OS X. It relies on Java 1.5, which means that users have to be running Mac OS X 10.3 or later. The installer for the latest version (3.7.1) can be found at the ELAN website. When running the installer, make sure that ELAN is being installed in the main "Applications" folder, rather than any other location: by default, the installer seems to want to place files in your "Home" folder, which is probably not what you really want. The installer may also ask if you want to create any aliases to ELAN: if you've installed ELAN in the "Applications" folder, though, these aliases are superfluous, and aren't needed.

Creating a new transcript using ELAN This section describes the steps involved in creating a new transcript in ELAN. Actually, it does you one better than that: it describes how to create a new transcript from an ELAN template (.etf) that configures all of the tiers and linguistic types for you.

Imagine that you want to begin a new transcript in ELAN for a recording named example.wav. Assuming that you have a copy of this recording on your computer already, these are the steps you would follow:

1. Open ELAN. In the File menu, select New....


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2. A dialogue window will open. This window allows you to select which media and template files will be associated with your new transcript. We will start by finding the recording to the transcript.

1. To begin selecting a media file, click on the radio button called Media near the middle of the window.

2. Find your media file in the left-hand file browser, and add it to the right-hand pane using the "> >" button.

3. Once your media file is in the right-hand pane, click OK. ELAN should now produce a new, unnamed transcript, which you can begin editing.

4. How to rename and create new tiers in your transcript


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1. Open the Tier menu and select “New Tier”

2. A new dialogue window will open. In this window we can control all aspects of the tiers. 3. To add a new tier in the field named “Tier Name” type in the new name. For example

“Transcription” and then click “Add” at the bottom. 4. To change a tier name click on the tap labeled “Change” in the Select Tier drop down

menu select the tier name you want to change (like “default”) and then delete the previous text in “Tier Name” and type in what you want the tier to be called like “Translation” and then click “Change” at the bottom.


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5. The other tabs and fields allow you make other changes to the tiers and tier structure and include additional information about the tier.

5. To create a new annotation within your transcript: 1. Highlight a portion of the audio in the waveform display towards the middle of the

window. 2. Once you have the selection that you want, double-click in one of your tiers to create a

new annotation there. 3. Add some text to your annotation. To make your text "stick" within the annotation,

you have to hit Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Cmd+Enter (Mac OS X). 4. Lather, rinse, repeat.

6. Save your changes in the File menu ("Save as..."), giving your transcript a name that matches the media file you're working on.

Those are the basic steps to getting started with a new transcript in ELAN. There are definitely a lot more little tricks to using ELAN than just these, for more information, consult Albert Bickford's ELAN quick-start guide or the full ELAN manual.

Editing an existing transcript using ELAN Making changes to an existing transcript is not really all that different from working on a new transcript. To open an existing transcript in ELAN, you can always locate and open the file with the Open... option in the File menu. If you were just working with this transcript, it may also show up in your list of recently-used transcripts, in the File > Open Recent File menu:


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In either case, once your transcript has been loaded, you can edit it in the same way described for working with new transcripts in the preceding section. A number of useful options for working with existing annotations (e.g. merging two adjacent annotations into one, deleting an existing annotation, etc.) are found, not surprisingly, in the Annotations menu.

Once you've made your changes, don't forget to save them (File > Save), and then commit them, either to your local copy of the collection for further work.

SOME USEFUL WEBSITES: ELAN website <http://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/elan/>

ELAN manual < http://www.mpi.nl/corpus/html/elan/index.html >

ELAN quick-start guide < http://arts-sciences.und.edu/summer-institute-of-linguistics/teaching-

linguistics/_files/docs/using-elan.pdf >


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Glossary and Examples

affricate A consonant that starts stop and ends fricative. Examples: [tʃ] [dz] [t]

allophones Sounds that contrast acoustically, but not psychologically. They are either (a) in exactly the same environment, but are in free variation or (b) in complementary distribution, only showing up in different environments. In short, most allophones are “phonologically conditioned” or else the difference in pronunciation is dialectal, based on register or speech rate, or it just doesn’t matter.

alveolar ridge The gum ridge directly behind the front-top teeth.

analog (analogous recording) A recording medium which tries to replicate the original. Analog recordings include wax cylinders and long-play records (LPs), where the entire sound is mirrored in the depth of the record grooves.

approximant A sound that is made by almost creating an articulation. Good examples: [j]

articulator The anatomical body used to produce a speech sound (e.g. the tongue).

aspiration A ‘puff of air’, usually after a voiceless consonant. Written in IPA [ʰ]

background noise Any sound other than what you are interested in. Examples of background noise might include humming lights, whirring fans, slamming doors, etc.

bilabial Referring to two lips. Examples of bilabial sounds include /b/ (voiced bilabial stop) and /p/ (voiceless bilabial stop).

cardioid Heart-shaped. Unidirectional microphones can be cardioid, meaning that they pick up a heart-shaped area of sound in one direction.

clipping The loss of highest and lowest frequencies in a recording. Clipping often happens when the amplitude (volume) of your audio source is higher than your recording device can handle.

compressed format A method of encoding digital information which produces files smaller than the original source, but which loses information. Examples of compressed audio formats: MP3, WMA, ATRAC.

dental Referring to teeth. Examples of dental sounds include /ð/ (voiced dental fricative, as in /ðɪs/ 'this') or // (voiceless dental fricative, as in /θɪn/ 'thin').


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diacritic A mark added to a grapheme which adds more information. In the IPA, diacritics are used to add information about length (e.g. Cree /sa:kahikan/ 'lake'), tone (e.g. Tsuu T'ina /sikà/ 'my foot'), nasals, and glottalization of sounds.

dialect The way two or more people speak.

digital Information stored in ones and zeroes.

digital formats Methods of encoding digital information. For audio files, digital formats include WAV and AIFF (uncompressed format) and MP3, WMA, and ATRAC (compressed format).

diphthong Two vowel sounds pronounced together. Examples of diphthongs include /aɪ/ (as in /flaɪ/ 'fly'), /aʊ/ (as in /kaʊ/ 'cow'), and /oɪ/ (as in /boɪ/ 'boy').

ejective (glottalized) A consonant made with the glottis (voice box) raised, so that a small additional burst of air is heard when the sound is released. Written in IPA [’]

epiglottis A flap in the pharyngeal cavity which can be used for articulation.

font A set of characters in a particular style or design (e.g. Arial, Times New Roman, Aboriginal Serif)

fricative A consonant that is made with buzzing, hissing, or some kind of whooshing in the mouth. Good examples: [s] [z] [x] []

grapheme A symbol used in writing. Examples of graphemes include. <b>, <th>, and <gw>.

hyper-nasal More nasal than usual. (Used to describe speech in certain cases of cleft palate, where air escapes continually through the nasal cavity during speech)

idiolect The way one person speaks.

labio-dental Referring to lip and teeth, usually combining the lower lip and the upper teeth. Labiodental sounds include /f/ (voiceless labiodental fricative) and /v/ (voiced labiodental fricative).

lateral A consonant made with air flowing over the sides of the tongue. Examples: [l] [ []


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metadata Information about a recording. Linguistic metadata may include information about the location and date on which a recording was made, as well as who was present and what languages were spoken.

mid-sagittal: A sideways view of the major speech articulators as seen above.

mono Records sound on one channel (usually one channel representing both ears)

monophthong A single vowel sound. Examples of monophthongs include /u/ (as in /but/ 'boot'), /ɛ/ (as in /lɛt/ 'let'), and /ɪ/ (as /mɪt/ in 'mitt').

nasal cavity Area from the nose to where the velum and the soft palate meet

nasal: A consonant made with air flowing out the nose: [m] [n] []

omnidirectional (Of a microphone) Having a range extending in all directions; picking up sounds in all directions.

oral tract (also vocal tract) The area in the mouth between the lips and the vocal folds.

oral-nasal process The raising or lowering of the velum.

periodic Regular; cyclic; repeating. Things that are periodic: a spring bouncing up and down; a wheel in motion; an ambulance siren; a clock ticking; a metronome. Periodic speech sounds are voiced.

pharyngeal wall The back wall of the vocal tract

phonemes Sounds that contrast in exactly the same environment, causing a meaning difference. They have a “psychological” value for a speaker.

phonetics Phonetics is the scientific study of speech. Phonetics is generally concerned with the articulation and acoustics of speech.

pulmon Latin for 'lungs'

pulmonic Speech driven by the lungs.

rounded The nature of the lips (smiling = unrounded, puckered = rounded).


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spectrogram A different picture of sound over time, that shows how much energy is focused at each frequency, at every point in time. The details are not important for us: the important thing is that spectrograms are the other way (besides waveforms) to look at a speech signal, and distinguish one sound from another. A three-dimensional picture of sound which shows time, frequency (high or low sounds), and amplitude (loudness). Examples of spectrograms 1. A recording of a male saying ‘phonetics’

f n ɛ ɾ k s


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speech mechanisms

stereo Records sound on two channels (typically, one channel for your left ear and one for your right ear)

stop (plosive): A consonant that is not a continuant; that you cannot make over a period of time. Good examples: [p] [tʰ] [k’] [g]

the International Phonetic Alphabet: A writing system that provides a unique letter for every speech sound in the world’s languages. This is the alphabet we use to write down exactly how a sound, word, or sentence is pronounced; writing a word in IPA is often very different than writing it in the language’s own alphabet.

transcription Converting sound into a written format.

transparent orthography An orthography in which each symbol corresponds exactly to one sound (i.e. one symbol = one sound).


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uncompressed format A method of encoding digital information which produces large files which are true to the originals. Examples of uncompressed audio formats: WAV, AIFF, AU.

Unicode A universal “code” for representing characters in digital formats (e.g. in fonts).

unidirectional (Of a microphone) Having a range limited to one direction; picking up sounds only in one direction.

velum The soft palate, a place of articulation; the anatomical body which opens and closes, allowing air into the nasal cavity

vocal tract (also oral tract) The area in the mouth between the lips and the vocal folds.

vocal tract


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voiced: A sound produced with your vocal folds vibrating. Good examples: [z], [a], [n]

voiceless: A sound produced without vocal folds vibrating. Good examples: [s] [tʃ] [h]

vowel length The amount of time spent producing a vowel.

vowel quadrilateral A representation of the 'space' of possible vowels in a four-sided shape

waveform A picture of sound over time, that shows two things: (1) how loud it is at every point in time and (2) how periodic it is at every point in time.A two-dimensional picture of sound which shows both time and amplitude (loudness) Examples of waveforms 1. A man saying ‘phonetician’

f n ɛ ɾ k s

wax cylinder A recording medium which uses wax (a small, wax-coated barrel into which a needle etches grooves, representing sound)


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