1. technology and computing
2. internet technology
3. isps

InField
2010
Institute
on
Field
Linguistics
and
Language
Documentation
University
of
Oregon
Workshop Coursepack:
ELAN 1: Aligning Text to Audio and Video
Using ELAN
Instructors:
Andrea Berez & Christopher Cox
June 22, 23, 24, 28, 2010
1:30-3:15 PM
Knight Library, Room 267B
Table of Contents:
Syllabus
Lecture Slides
Quick Start Guide
Exercise 1: Creating a single language transcript with one speaker
Exercise 2: Creating a single language transcript with multiple speakers
Exercise 3: Creating a two language basic transcript
Exercise 4: Creating a two language transcript with full IGT
Exercise 5: Working with video
Exercise 6: Some tricks for automating transcription
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InField 2010
ELAN: Syllabus
Syllabus
About ELAN:
ELAN is a professional tool for the creation of complex annotations of audio and video
resources. Creating transcripts in ELAN has several advantages for the language
documentation workflow. First, it creates an archival XML document that links your
annotations (text) to the timeline of the media in a way that is long-lasting and not reliant
on proprietary software for recovery (meaning that your transcription will be available
well into the future). Second, ELAN is flexible enough to be used when you have a
recording of one speaker, or five speakers, or several languages at once, etc. Third,
ELAN allows import from and export to a range of other popular linguistic software and
format (like Transcriber, Toolbox, CHILDES, etc.). Fourth, ELAN files can be used in the
creation of pedagogical and presentation products for language maintenance and
revtalization.
ELAN is highly specialized software, and it can take a while to learn how to set up your
files. This workshop will help you climb over the learning curve, and youʼll see that ELAN
isnʼt difficult once you know how to use it!
**The Level 1 workshop assumes students have very little or no experience with ELAN.
The Level 2 workshop assumes students have at least a little experience with ELAN (but
the Level 1 workshop is not required).**
Course overview:
In this class we will learn how to use the ELAN software to link transcriptions to audio
and video media. We will talk extensively about how to conceptualize tiers (layers of text,
linguistic analysis, and translations) so that you can create annotations that are flexible
enough for a range of configurations of speakers and languages.
Day-by-day schedule for Level 1 workshop:
Day 1 (Tuesday June 22)
Introduction: a tour of ELAN
Starting up, file naming, file storage
Creating a single-language annotation file with one speaker
Creating a single-language annotation file with two speakers
Day 2 (Wednesday June 23)
Review of yesterday
Creating a two-language simple annotation (sentence-level)
Day 3 (Thursday June 24)
Creating a two-language complex annotation (full interlinearized glossed
text)
Day 4 (Monday June 28)
Working with videos
Some advanced features of ELAN: Working with templates, gaps, silence
Andrea Berez & Chris Cox
1
InField 2010
ELAN: Syllabus
Beyond ELAN: Importing from and exporting to other useful file types
Brainstorming for your own projects
File storage during the class:
There is no central shared server space where you can store your files, so you will need
to keep everything on your thumb drive. Please be sure to save all your files and keep
them, because you may want to see them later.
Contact information:
Andrea: [email protected]
Chris: [email protected]
Andrea Berez & Chris Cox
2
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((Pear Story, Kannada. Speaker: Keshava Subramanya))
KAN Sentence:
Ii kathe obba, ha!!u maaliya bagge, mattu, obba hu"ugana bagge
ide.
Intonation Unit:
Morphemes:
Gloss:
Ii
kathe
ii
kathe
this story
Intonation Unit:
Morphemes:
Gloss:
ha!!u maaliya
ha!!u maali
-ya
fruit gardenerSRC
Intonation Unit:
Morphemes:
Gloss:
mattu,
mattu
and
Intonation Unit:
Morphemes:
Gloss:
obba
hu"ugana
obba
hu"uga
someone.M boy
obba,
obba
one
bagge,
bagge
about
-na
-GEN
bagge
bagge
about
Free Translation: !This story is about a fruit farmer and a boy.’
ide.
ide
be.3SM
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c?
InField 2010
ELAN: Quick Start Guide
ELAN Quick Start Guide
Downloading and installing ELAN
ELAN is free software developed by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in
Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The ELAN website is found here:
http://www.lat-mpi.eu/tools/elan/
From this page, you can download ELAN and the manual, as well as visit their support
forum. Once you have downloaded the latest version of ELAN, open the installer and
follow the instructions.
Starting and working with a new file:
1. Start ELAN.
2. To start a new file, go to File > New.
3. Navigate to your media file (.mpg, .mpeg, .wav, etc.), then click the double arrow
(>>) button to move your file into the right-hand window. Click OK. (note: there
are occasions when you would want to put more than one file into the right-hand
window, for example if you had a video stream, an audio stream, and a
predefined template).
4. Save your file right away: File > Save. The ELAN file extension is .eaf. See “On
file naming” below.
5. Set your Automatic backup to 1 minute. File > Automatic Backup > 1 minute.
6. Set up Linguistic Types and Tiers.
7. To select areas for annotation, use the mouse to highlight a certain section of the
waveform. The selected areas will be blue.
8. To add an annotation, double-click inside the blue area. Type your annotation.
9. To make the annotation “stick,” use ctrl-Enter (or cmnd-Enter).
10. To delete an annotation, click the annotation so that the horizontal line is blue.
Then use Edit>Delete Annotation.
Be sure to save your file. If you later move your audio file into another location, ELAN will
“lose” it and ask you where it is. Youʼll have to renavigate to it.
On file naming:
You can name your ELAN file anything you want—youʼll be able to identify it later by the
file extension .eaf. However, it makes sense to give it a name that you can easily
associate with the media file too. For example, if my audio file of the Kannada language
is called KAN-2008-06-15-KS-PearStory.wav, then I will name my ELAN file KAN-200806-15-KS-PearStory.eaf. Also, I will keep them both in the same folder on my computer
(which Iʼll also name KAN-2008-06-15-KS-PearStory). Pick a naming convention that
works for you and stick with it.
If you are working with an ELAN template for a batch of similarly structured recordings,
give your template a name that helps you know which project it belongs to—for example,
KannadaNarratives.etf.
Andrea Berez & Chris Cox
29
InField 2010
ELAN: Exercise 1
Exercise 1
Creating a single-language transcript with 1 speaker
Goals:
In this exercise we will make our first ELAN file using a recording of an English
monologue. A one-speaker, one-language project like this one is easiest kind of ELAN
transcript to create, since we can use almost all of ELANʼs default settings. We will also
learn how to work with the features of the ELAN workspace.
Todayʼs files are found in the folder called ʻexercise1_language_opinionʼ.1
Step one: Create a new ELAN file.
 Open the ELAN software.
 Go to File > New.
 Navigate to the audio file weʼre using today: language_opinion.wav
 Highlight the audio file in the left hand box by clicking on it, then click the double
arrow (>>) to move it over to the right hand box, under “Selected Files.”
 Click OK. The ELAN window will initialize for a moment and then display the
waveform.
 Now save your file immediately. Go to File > Save.
 Give your new ELAN file a name that makes sense (e.g., the same name as the
audio file minus the .wav; here ʻlanguage_opinionʼ), and click Save.
 Now set your automatic backup to save your file every minute so that you donʼt lose
your work in case of a crash. Go to File > Automatic Backup > 1 minute.
Step two: Add some descriptive metadata to the default tier.
In the Multi-tier Viewer area, you will see a tier already present, labeled ʻdefault.ʼ ELAN
provides this tier already configured to contain a text representation of the contents of
the media stream. However, ʻdefaultʼ isnʼt a very helpful name, and we should add some
more information (descriptive metadata) that is specific to this tier.
 Right click on the tier label ʻdefaultʼ and select ʻChange Attributes of default.ʼ
This opens up the ʻChange Tier Attributesʼ dialog box. Youʼll see several things in this
box:
• an upper area that contains a list of all the tiers that are present in this file
• four tabs: Add, Change, Delete, Import (Youʼre currently looking at the Change
tab)
• Some drop down menus and input boxes.
In the lower half of the ʻChange Tier Attributesʼ dialog box, do the following:
 Change the tier name to something a little more helpful, like ʻNatasha Warner Text.
1
The audio is from a lecture entitled ʻLanguage Opinionʼ from a course entitled ʻLanguage:
Individuals and Societies” by Dr. Natasha Warner at the University of Arizona and is available on
iTunes U.
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ELAN: Exercise 1
 Insert the name of the speaker in the ʻParticipantʼ box (in this case, Natasha
Warner).
 Insert your own name in the ʻAnnotatorʼ box.
 Leave everything else (ʻParent Tierʼ, ʻLinguistic Typeʼ, ʻDefault Languageʼ) alone for
now. Weʼll learn more about these in future exercises.
 Click ʻChangeʼ, which will close the dialog box and change your tier name.
Now when you hover over the new tier label ʻtextʼ, you should see a pop-up box with
your new information.
Step three: add annotations.
Now comes the fun part, adding annotations. Use the audio controllers in ELAN to listen
to the transcript. You can highlight a portion of the waveform by clicking and dragging
with your mouse. When you find an area that you want to annotate, highlight it—it will
turn blue. Then, double click in the blue area across from the ʻtextʼ tier label. A white text
box will open up there. Place your cursor in the box and type the words that you hear
here.
Now you have to make the annotation “stick”. Youʼll be tempted to just press Enter—try
it, and youʼll see that it doesnʼt make the annotation stick, it just moves the cursor down
a line.
 To make your annotation stick, click control-Enter (Mac cmd-Return).
Now go through the entire transcript and add annotations as you hear them.
Step four: editing annotations.
If you make a mistake, you donʼt have to delete the entire annotation (although you can).
You can move the edges around in the timeline, shift an entire annotation earlier or later,
or merge it with the next annotation. You should spend some time practicing these.
1. To move one edge of an annotation either forward or backward in time:
 Click on the annotation so that the horizontal line turns blue (it is now selected):
 While holding down the ALT key, place your cursor on the blue vertical bar at the
starting or ending edge of the annotation. Click and hold them mouse, then drag the
bar into the desired position.
2. To move an entire annotation either forward or backward in time:
 Like above, click on the annotation so that the horizontal line turns blue (it is now
selected).
 While holding down the ALT key, place your cursor on the blue horizontal bar. Click
and hold them mouse, then drag the entire annotation into the desired position.
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ELAN: Exercise 1
3. To merge an annotation with the following one:
 Like above, click on the annotation so that the horizontal line turns blue (it is now
selected).
 Right-click on the selected annotation, then choose ʻMerge with Next Annotation.ʼ It
will automatically merge both the timeline and the text of the annotation.
4. To delete an annotation entirely:
 Like above, click on the annotation so that the horizontal line turns blue (it is now
selected).
 Right-click on the selected annotation, then choose ʻDelete Annotation.ʼ
Step five: Saving your file.
Donʼt forget to save your file when youʼre done. ELAN will create a few different file types
that you will see in your directory:
.eaf: this is your actual ELAN transcript file. You can double-click on this file the next
time you want to work on it and it will open automatically.
.psfx: this file contains your personal preferences about how the ELAN window should
look when you open it. This file is not necessary, so if you lose it, donʼt worry. ELAN will
create a new on automatically.
.eaf.001: this is your temporary backup file. Again, you donʼt need to have this file, so
donʼt worry if itʼs missing.
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ELAN: Exercise 2
Exercise 2
Creating a single-language transcript with multiple speakers
Goals:
In this exercise we will make an ELAN transcript of an audio clip of a English
conversation between four people: Alvin, Lea, Peter, and Allison. We will learn how to
create new tiers, and begin to think about linguistic types.
Todayʼs files are found in the folder called ʻexercise2_television.ʼ
Step one: Create a new ELAN file.
 Open the ELAN software.
 Go to File > New.
 Navigate to the audio file weʼre using today: television.wav
 Highlight the audio file in the left hand box by clicking on it, then click the double
arrow (>>) to move it over to the right hand box, under ʻSelected Files.ʼ
 Click OK. The ELAN window will initialize for a moment and then display the
waveform.
 Now save your file immediately. Go to File > Save.
 Give your new ELAN file a name that makes sense (e.g., the same name as the
audio file minus the .wav; here ʻtelevision), and click Save.
 Your automatic backup should already be set from the previous exercise, but if not,
set your automatic backup to save your file every minute so that you donʼt lose your
work in case of a crash. Go to File > Automatic Backup > 1 minute.
Step two: Define linguistic types.
Because weʼre starting to work with multiple tiers, itʼs a good time to start thinking about
ELANʼs ʻlinguistic types.ʼ This transcript will have four tiers, one for each of the four
speakers, and they will all contain a textual representation of the actual words that are
spoken on the recording. Remember that text representations of the contents of the
recordings are considered to be top-level parent tiers, So, weʼll need a linguistic type that
is associated directly with the timeline of the audio stream. Any tiers we make using this
type will be used for dividing the audio stream into time-based portions. ELAN has a
default type like this already assigned when you create a new file. Itʼs called ʻdefault-ltʼ,
but letʼs give it a better name.
 Go to Type > Change Linguistic Type
This opens up the ʻChange Typeʼ dialog box. Youʼll see several things in this box:
• an upper area that contains a list of all the types you have defined for this file
• four tabs: Add, Change, Delete, Import (Youʼre currently looking at the Change
tab)
• Some drop down menus and input boxes.
The first drop down menu contains a list of all the types that are defined for the file—right
now, it only has ʻdefault-ltʼ available.
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ELAN: Exercise 2
Below that is a text box that contains the name of your current type, the one ELAN has
named ʻdefault-lt.ʼ
 Give it a better name now: something like ʻtextʼ (or anything else you can easily
remember). When picking a name for your type, remember that youʼre not giving a
name to an actual tier here. For example, itʼs a bad idea to call this type ʻJoeʼs
utterancesʼ because you can use this type for any tier that is associated directly to
the audio timeline—i.e., not just Joeʼs utterances, but also Maryʼs utterances, or even
Maryʼs individual words. Save those more specific names for your tiers.
The other items in the dialog box contain some information about the behavior of this
linguistic type. Youʼll see that the stereotype is ʻNone.ʼ This is the correct stereotype for
this linguistic type (weʼll talk about the other stereotypes later). The menu called ʻUse
Controlled Vocabularyʼ can be ignored for now, as can the text box called ʻISO Data
Categoryʼ and the ʻReferences to Graphics Allowedʼ check box.
Notice that the ʻTime-alignableʼ check box is checked. This is correct for this type, since
tiers made with this type are aligned directly to the audio timeline.
 Click ʻChangeʼ to accept the name change to this tier. Notice that the name changes
in the window at the top of the dialog box.
This is the only type we need for our single-language transcript, so click ʻCloseʼ to close
the dialog box.
Step three: Define tiers.
Today we are going to make a transcript for the television.wav audio clip. If you like, you
can follow along with the pre-typed transcript by opening television.txt in a text editor
(wherein the symbol @ stands for a pulse of laughter). Youʼll see that we have four
speakers in this transcript, so we need to create four tiers: one each for Alvin, Lea, Peter
and Allison. Each of these will be a top-level parent tier, and directly associated to the
audio time line. Again, ELAN gives you a default tier of the correct configuration (but only
one), so weʼll give it a better name and then create more tiers just like the first one for
each speaker.
 Go to Tier > Change Tier Attributes
A dialog box similar to the type dialog box will open up. You will see:
• an upper area that contains a list of all the tiers you have defined for this file
• four tabs: Add, Change, Delete, Import (Youʼre currently looking at the Change
tab)
• Some drop down menus and input boxes.
 The first drop-down menu contains all the tiers you have set up for this file (it only
contains one, called ʻdefaultʼ). Below that is an input box with the current tierʼs name.
Letʼs give it a better name. Since we need a tier for each speaker, letʼs start by
calling this tier ʻAlvinʼ, named after our first speaker.
 The next input box is labeled ʻParticipant.ʼ Here you can type the full name of the
speaker if you wish (Alvin Smith, for example). In the box labeled ʻAnnotatorʼ you can
type your own name if you wish (or the name of whoever annotated this tier for you).
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ELAN: Exercise 2
 The drop-down menu labeled ʻParent Tierʼ already contains ʻNone.ʼ This is correct—
remember, this is going to be a parent tier, so it has ʻnoneʼ for its parent. The menu
labeled ʻLinguistic Typeʼ already has the correct type selected, the ʻtextʼ type that we
previously defined. The ʻDefault Languageʼ menu allows you to pick a language for
this tier.
 Click ʻChangeʼ to accept the renamed tier. Notice that the name has changed both in
the upper portion of the dialog box and in the main ELAN window.
 Now we have to set up three more tiers just like this one for the other speakers in our
audio file. Leave the dialog box open and click on the ʻAddʼ tab (or, if youʼve closed
the box, go to Tier > Add New Tier).
 In the ʻTier Nameʼ box, type the name of the second speaker: Peter. Again you can
type the speakerʼs full name in the ʻParticipantʼ box, and your own name in the
ʻAnnotatorʼ box. Leave the ʻParent Tierʼ and ʻLinguistic Typeʼ settings as they are
(ʻnoneʼ and ʻtextʼ respectively). When youʼve defined everything correctly, click ʻAddʼ
to add this tier (if you make a mistake, click on the ʻChangeʼ tab and fix it!).
 Now add tiers just like this for the other two speakers, Allison and Lea. Click ʻCloseʼ
to close the dialog box.
Step four: add annotations.
 Now you can begin to add annotations for each speaker. Just like in the previous
exercise, use the media controllers to listen to selected portions, and then you are
ready to transcribe, double-click on a blue-highlighted area to open up a text box.
 Note that the multi-tier structure of ELAN allows you to overlap annotations in time
whenever the recording contains overlapping speech. You may need to listen
carefully for the overlaps!
 As you work, try to keep the edges of the annotations as close as possible to the
actual beginnings and ends of the utterances you are transcribing.
 If you would like to cut-and-paste from the text version of the transcript, feel free.
Keep in mind this is a good time-saving technique if you are working with files that
have already been transcribed in a separate text editor, which you are now timealigning in ELAN for the first time.
Step five: save your file.
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ELAN: Exercise 3
Exercise 3
Creating a two-language basic transcript (sentence level)
Goals:
In this exercise, we will learn to make a very basic two-language ELAN file. By two
languages, we mean a language spoken in the audio or video recording plus a
translation language (as opposed to two different languages being spoken in the
recording). By basic, we mean that utterances are given at the sentence level (as
opposed to being broken down into smaller units or with any kind of linguistic or
analytical information).
Todayʼs files are found in the folder called ʻexercise3_tortilla_making.ʼ
Step one: Create a new ELAN file.
Follow the directions from the previous exercises for creating a new ELAN file, but use
todayʼs audio file: tortilla_making.wav.
Step two: Define linguistic types.
For this file we now need two different linguistic types. The first type is just like the ones
we used with the television.wav recording: a type for the top-level parent tier that is
associated directly with the timeline.
 Follow the directions from the last exercise to rename ELANʼs default type to
something a little nicer, like ʻtextʼ. This will be the type we use for tiers that contain
the actual words the speaker in the recording is saying.
Now we need another type that we havenʼt used before. We need a type that will be
used for tiers that contain translations of the content of their parent tiers. That is, we
need a type whose behavior says ʻIʼm not the actual words on the recording, but Iʼm a
symbolic representation (i.e., not a literal representation) of the actual words (e.g., in
another language) that are on the recording.ʼ
 Go to Type > Add New Linguistic Type
 This brings up the Add Type dialog box, which works like the other boxes weʼve
seen. In the first input box in the lower half, insert the name of our new type,
something like ʻtranslation.ʼ Notice that calling this type ʻtranslationʼ means we can
use it for translation of units of any size, like the sentences in this lesson, or
morpheme-level glosses in the next lesson.
 In the ʻStereotypeʼ drop-down menu, select ʻSymbolic Association.ʼ This tells ELAN
essentially what was stated above, that tiers using this type are symbolic
representations of the contents of their parent tiers (they are second-language
translations of the actual words on the recording).
 Notice that the ʻTime-alignableʼ check-box becomes unchecked. This is correct,
because this linguistic type is not associated directly to the time line of the audio
stream.
 For now you can leave the other settings as they are (ʻUse Controlled Vocabularyʼ =
ʻnoneʼ, ʻISO Data Categoryʼ = blank, ʻReferences to graphics Allowedʼ = unchecked).
 Click ʻAddʼ to add this type to our list of defined types, and then click ʻCloseʼ to close
the dialog box.
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ELAN: Exercise 3
Step three: Define tiers.
For this exercise, weʼll need just two tiers: one parent tier, linked directly to the timeline
to contain the original language transcription, and one child tier, linked to its parent, to
contain the translation. Remember that ELANʼs default tier is a parent tier.
 Follow the directions from the last exercise to rename the default tier. You can
choose to call it ʻOtomi textʼ and set the ʻParticipantʼ name to ʻAlejandra,ʼ or you can
simply name the tier ʻAlejandra.ʼ Under the ʻDefault Languageʼ menu, for now you
can leave ʻEnglishʼ selected, even though the contents of this tier are Otomi and not
English. This menu is used for languages with non-Roman orthographies, or for IPA
symbols. Weʼll talk more about this menu later.
 Now you need to create a tier for the translation. Either click the ʻAddʼ tab or go to
Tier > Add New Tier.
 In the ʻTier Nameʼ box, put in a name for your translation tier. I can be something like
ʻEnglish Translationʼ or ʻEnglish Free Translationʼ. Now go to the ʻParent Tierʼ dropdown menu. Youʼll see the name of your parent tier there—go ahead and select it.
This tells ELAN that your ʻEnglish Translationʼ tier is a child of the tier called ʻOtomiʼ.
Notice that if you filled in a Participant name for your parent tier, itʼs automatically
filled in for you now.
 Also notice that ELAN has automatically selected ʻtranslationʼ as the Linguistic Type
for this tier. That is correct.
 Click ʻAddʼ to add your tier, and then click ʻCloseʼ to close the dialog box.
Step four: add annotations.
Adding annotations is very similar to the previous exercises.
 Listen to the audio, and use the mouse to select/highlight a portion of the waveform,
double-click in the blue highlighted portion in the area of your Otomi tier, and add
your first line of annotation.
 Now try adding the English translation of the first line. Double click on the English
Translation tier just below the first Otomi annotation. Even if that portion of the wave
form is no longer selected (blue), a text box will open up that is directly under the
parent annotation. It has the same starting and ending times as the parent. This is
because the linguistic type we used for this tier tells ELAN to link it to its parent tier,
rather than to the time line of the audio stream. Try as you might, you wonʼt be able
to change the start and end times to be different from the parent annotation.
 Now go through the entire audio file and transcription, and add the Otomi and
English annotations. Donʼt forget to save the file when youʼre done.
Question to think about:
What would you do if you had two (or more) Otomi speakers? How would you change or
add new types and tiers?
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ELAN: Exercise 4
Exercise 4
Creating a two-language transcript with interlinearized glossed text (IGT)
Goals:
In this exercise, we will learn to make an ELAN file for IGT. This is the most complicated
structure weʼve seen so far, but itʼs only a small conceptual leap away from the twolanguage basic annotation we created yesterday. We will use a recording of Kannada
language with the following structure for our IGT (structures may vary for your own
project):
• Tier 1: Kannada sentences (normative sentences)
• Tier 2: Kannada intonation units (prosodic phrases)
• Tier 3: Kannada words by morphemes (words with hyphens to show morpheme
boundaries)
• Tier 4: English morpheme glosses
• Tier 5: English free translation of the entire Kannada sentence.
Todayʼs files are found in the folder called ʻexercise3_pear_story.ʼ
Step one: Create a new ELAN file.
 Follow the directions from the last exercise for creating a new ELAN file, but use
todayʼs audio file: pear_story.wav.
Before beginning to define linguistic types and tiers, letʼs take a moment to think about
what types weʼll need for the tiers listed above.
• Tier 1: This will be a top-level parent tier, linked directly to the audio stream. It will
contain a transcription of the actual utterances found in the recording, and they
will be the size of a sentence.
• Tier 2: This tier will also contain transcriptions of the actual utterances in the
recording, but they will be in smaller units than the first tier (i.e., subdivisions of
the first tier). This tier is a child of Tier 1, because we want to show that the
intonation units are subparts of the sentences. However, it will also be a parent
tier to the tiers below it (because we will want to show that the items in the next
tier, words and morphemes, are subparts of the intonation unit). This tier is also
linked to the timeline is the sense that you can click on a single intonation unit
and hear that part of the audio stream.
• Tier 3: This tier is not linked to the timeline (you couldnʼt click and hear just a
single word or morpheme)1; rather, itʼs a child of Tier 2. Its contents are
subdivisions of Tier 2.
• Tier 4: This tier is a child of Tier 3, and contains a one-to-one translation of the
items in its parent (a morpheme-by-morpheme gloss).
• Tier 5: This tier is a translation of, and thus a child of, Tier 1.
Step two: Define linguistic types.
For this file we need four linguistic types. You are already familiar with the first two: a
type called ʻtextʼ for the top-level parent tier, the one containing the Kannada sentences;
1
Itʼs not that you could never do this with words or morphemes, itʼs just that here weʼre going to set it up so
that you canʼt just hear a single morpheme by clicking on the annotation. You could certainly set it up that
way if you wanted to!
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InField 2010
ELAN: Exercise 4
and a type called ʻtranslationʼ for the two tiers that contain translations (both morpheme
glosses and the sentence-level free translation). Notice that we can use the same type
for two different tiers.
 Follow the instructions in the previous exercises to create these two types.
You will also need two more types, and they are conceptually similar—they are both for
tiers that are subdivisions of their parents. However, ELAN handles them a little
differently because one of these types is linked to the audio stream (so you can clickand-play), but the other is not.
 Go to Type > Add New Linguistic Type
 The first of these two types we will make will be called ʻtimed chunkʼ (go ahead and
put that in the ʻType nameʼ box). In the ʻStereotypeʼ menu, select ʻTime Subdivision.ʼ
This means that the type will be used for tiers that are a subdivision of some other
tier, but are still linked to the timeline. Notice that the ʻTime-alignableʼ check box is
checked. This is correct.
 Click ʻAddʼ to add this type.
 The second of these two types we will make is for tiers that are subdivisions of some
other tier but are not linked to the timeline. Call this type ʻchunkʼ. 2 In the ʻStereotypeʼ
menu, select ʻSymbolic subdivision.ʼ This is because we are not making timeline
subdivisions, we are just creating a space to separate words and morpheme
boundaries. Notice that the ʻTime-alignableʼ checkbox is now unchecked. This is
correct. Click ʻAddʼ and then ʻCloseʼ.
Step three: Define tiers.
For this file we need five tiers.
 As before, we can use ELANʼs default tier as our top-level parent tier, but we should
give it a better name, like ʻKannada Sentence.ʼ Please do so.
 Next, letʼs work our way down the list of tiers and set each up in turn (you could do
this in any order, and the way you specify the parent/child relationships will turn out
correct, but itʼs easier to just go from top to bottom).
 We need a tier for the intonation units. Add a new tier called ʻIntonation Unitsʼ (or
ʻprosodic phrasesʼ or something equally descriptive), fill in the Participant and
Annotator, and select this tierʼs parent, ʻKannada Sentence.ʼ Note that ELAN
suggests a Linguistic Type in the drop down menu—it doesnʼt always get it right so
be sure to double check. For this tier, we want to set the ʻLinguistic Typeʼ to ʻtimed
chunk.ʼ Click ʻAddʼ to create the tier.
 Now we need a tier for the words and morphemes. Create a new tier called ʻWords
and Morphemesʼ 3, and set its parent tier as ʻIntonation Units.ʼ Its proper Linguistic
Type is ʻchunkʼ (not ʻtimed chunkʼ). Click ʻAdd.ʼ
 Next we need a tier for the glosses of words and morphemes. Make a new tier called
ʻGlossʼ, whose parent is ʻWords and Morphemes.ʼ Remember that this is one of our
two translation tiers, so set the Linguistic Type accordingly. Click ʻAdd.ʼ
2
Remember, these names can be anything you want, but names like ʻchunkʼ and ʻtimed chunkʼ are
conceptually appropriate for what theyʼll be used for.
3
Do not use an ampersand (&)! ELAN sometimes has trouble with these as they can be part of the
underlying programming language.
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ELAN: Exercise 4
 Our final tier can be called something like ʻEnglish Free Translation.ʼ This tier will
contain a translation of the entire Kannada sentence (not just of words or of
intonation units), so its parent is ʻKannada Sentence.ʼ Its linguistic type is, of course,
ʻtranslationʼ.
Once you have added all your tiers, itʼs a good idea to check to be sure that your
parent/child relationships are correct. Close the ʻAdd Tierʼ dialog box, and then
 Go to View > Tier Dependencies
You should see a tree structure something like this:
This diagram shows the following information:
• Kannada Sentence is linked directly to the audio stream timeline
• Kannada Sentence has two immediate children: Intonation Units and English
Free Translation
• Intonation Units has one immediate child: Words and Morphemes
• Words and Morphemes has one immediate child: Gloss
• Gloss and English Free Translation have no children
If you donʼt see this, youʼve made a mistake somewhere. Go back and fix your tier
relationships.
Step four: add annotations.
Now we are going to add our annotations, working with the transcription in todayʼs file,
pear_story.txt.
 Start with the first Kannada sentence, and add the annotation by listening, selecting,
and double clicking just like in the previous exercises.
 Now we want to divide this sentence into time-based intonation units. First double
click in the Intonation Unit tier directly below the annotation for the first full sentence.
A text box opens up that is just as long as its parent. Go ahead and type the words
from just the first intonation unit into that box, and then type Control-Enter to make it
stick.
 Now we want to keep adding intonation units—there are five for this first sentence.
So hereʼs what you will do for each new intonation unit:
Andrea Berez & Chris Cox
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ELAN: Exercise 4
1. click on the horizontal line containing your first intonation unit so that the line itself
turns blue
2. right-click on that blue line, and select New Annotation After. A new text box will
open up to the right of the first one.
3. Add the text for the second intonation unit and type Control-Enter.
4. Now you want to move the vertical separation line in between the units so that it
lines up with the correct point in the wave form where the first unit ends and the
second unit begins. Click either of the two intonation units so that the horizontal
line turns blue. Now, press the ALT key, and while pressing it, use the mouse to
pick up the vertical separation bar and drag-and-drop it where you want the new
division to be.
 Repeat this process until you have added all the intonation units for your first
Kannada sentence. Notice that by selecting a single intonation unit, you can press
Play and hear just that unit.
Next we want to add annotations to the Words and Morphemes tier (for the sake of this
exercise, put each word with its morphemes into a single annotation; for example, the
entire word haNN-iNA will all go into one annotation box).
 To add your first word, double click on the Words and Morphemes tier directly below
the first intonation unit. A text box that is the same length as the intonation unit above
will open up.
 Type in your first word, and then hit Control-Enter.
 To add additional words, you will do nearly the same thing you did when you added
intonation units (selecting the word so that the horizontal line is blue, clicking New
Annotation After, etc.). The difference is that you wonʼt be able to pick up the vertical
separation line and move it. Instead, because we used the ʻSymbolic Subdivisionʼ
type for this tier, ELAN divides the area into equally-sized units.
 Continue until you have added all the words for each intonation unit.
 Next youʼll add annotations to the Gloss tier by double clicking directly below each
word. ELAN wonʼt allow you to Add Annotation After in this tier because of the
properties of this tierʼs type. Continue to add glosses to all your words and
morphemes.
 Finally, you can add annotations to the English Free Translation tier. Notice that
when you double click, the text box is as long as its parent (Kannada Sentences),
and not as long as the tier that is physically above it (Gloss).
 Now go through the entire file and add all the transcriptions. Youʼll get faster as you
practice!
If you finish early, read in the ELAN manual about the following things:
• there is one linguistic stereotype we havenʼt used—itʼs called ʻIncluded In.ʼ What
is the difference between this and ʻTime Subdivisionʼ?
• read about tokenizing tiers. How can this help you in annotating IGT?
Questions to think about:
You could go even further with your IGT. For example, you could have a tier that puts
each underlying morpheme in a separate annotation (good for fusional languages). How
would you do this?
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InField 2010
ELAN: Exercise 4
What would you do if you had more than one speaker in your recording?
If you want to make a tier that contains metacommentary (notes to yourself, for
example), how would you configure it? What kind of linguistic type would you use?
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InField 2010
ELAN: Exercise 5
Exercise 5
Working with video
Goals:
In this exercise, we will see that ELAN has excellent support for video, and that working
with video is fairly straightforward. We will learn to load video and audio files for
transcription.
Todayʼs files are found in the folder called ʻexercise5_morning.ʼ We have provided a
completed ELAN project in Dene Sųłiné1 for you to explore.
About videos in ELAN.
ELAN can work with one to two video files, plus zero to one wave audio files. Wave files
are handy in a video project because they give you a visual cue of where in the timeline
to ʻgrabʼ annotations, although the audio you hear during playback comes from the first
video that you load into your new file.
 Go to the ʻexercise4_videoʼ folder. You will see there two mp4 video files, one wav
audio file, and the various ELAN files. Double-click on the .eaf file to open it in ELAN.
Spend a few minutes exploring this ELAN project: jump through annotations, move
forward and backward, etc. You will see that ELAN works very nicely with videos.
 NOTE: if your videos donʼt load, itʼs possible that your computer does not have the
right codecs installed, but this is very easy to fix. On Windows, you can download KLite Codec Pack from http://www.filehippo.com/download_klite_codec_pack/. On
Mac, you can download Perian from http://perian.org.
Creating a new ELAN file with video (+audio).
 Close the open ELAN window. We are going to make a new ELAN project from the
Dene Sųłiné files.
 First, start ELAN and go to File > New.
 In the now-familiar ʻNewʼ dialog box, you will be adding three files before clicking the
ʻOKʼ button. First, select the file called ʻ2009-12-04-chp-nm-MorningCamera_One.mp4ʼ, then use the >> button to move it over to the right-hand box.
 Do the same for the ʻ2009-12-04-chp-nm-Morning-Camera_Two.mp4ʼ file, and then
for the ʻ2009-12-04-chp-nm-Morning-Camera_Two.mp4ʼ file. Click ʻOKʼ.
 Thatʼs it! Youʼve created a new ELAN project using video and audio. You would now
continue creating types and tiers and annotations just like in any other project.
1
Many, many thanks to Sally Rice for sharing her videos and transcripts with us. Mahsi choo!
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InField 2010
ELAN: Exercise 6
Exercise 6
Some tricks for automating transcription:
The Audio Recognizer and working with gaps
Goals:
In this exercise, we will learn about a few of the features that are built into ELAN to
automate the annotation process somewhat: using the ʻAudio recognizerʼ feature,
creating a tier from gaps, and tokenizing tiers.
Todayʼs files are found in the folder called ʻexercise6_roadtrip.ʼ
Using the Audio Recognizer to segment your media.
ELAN has a mechanism called the Audio Recognizer that is designed to create
annotations based on periods of silence and non-silence in your recording. Weʼll learn
how to use this here.
 Open a new ELAN file using the roadtrip.wav recording.1
 Click on the ʻAudio Recognizerʼ tab at the top of the ELAN window.
 Using the mouse, highlight an area of silence in the media stream, and click ʻAddʼ in
the ʻSelectionsʼ box at the upper left corner of the Audio Recognizer area. This
provides a sample of what ʻsilenceʼ sounds like in your recording (which may contain
some background noise, etc.).
 Click ʻStartʼ at the lower right corner of the Audio Recognizer area. ELAN will analyze
your media, looking for sections of silence and non-silence.
 When the recognizer is ʻReadyʼ, click the ʻCreate Tier(s)ʼ button on the lower left.
 In the ʻCreate tiers from segmentsʼ dialog box, you can decide if you want the new
tier to contain annotations for both silence and non-silence, annotations only for nonsilence, or annotations only for silence. For now, letʼs create a tier with both silence
and non-silence segmented. To do this, leave both of the check boxes under ʻInclude
in tierʼ checked. If you like, you can also have ELAN number the segments for you by
checking the ʻNumber segmentsʼ check boxes.
 Click ʻcreate.ʼ You will see that ELAN has now created a new tier, with its best
guesses for areas of silence (marked with ʻsʼ) and non-silence (marked with ʻxʼ). How
did it do? It is possible that ELAN included some non-silence in an annotation
marked as silence, and vice versa. To fix this, play with the ʻMinimal silence durationʼ
and ʻMinimal non silence durationʼ sliders, and try again.
 Now, also create one tier that has annotations only for silence, and another tier with
annotations only for nonsilence.
Creating annotations from gaps.
You may also wish to include some information about silence in your transcript. For
example, you may wish to know how long speaker pauses are in your media, and to
include either the word ʻPAUSEʼ or the length in milliseconds in the silent areas of your
transcript. ELAN can create annotations from ʻgapsʼ in existing tiers, either in the same
pre-existing tier or on a new tier. Letʼs try it now.
1
This recording is from the episode Roadtrip! of This American Life, provided by WBEZ.
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InField 2010
ELAN: Exercise 6
 Without closing your window from the Audio Recognizer activity above, go to Tier >
Create Annotations from Gaps.
 In this dialog box, select the tier that contains only non-silences (that is, the tier that
contains only ʻxʼ annotations and nothing else).
 Under ʻOptionsʼ, decide whether you want ELAN to create the gap-based
annotations in a new tier, or in the same tier (either is fine here).
 Also under ʻOptionsʼ you can choose whether you want ELAN to create empty
annotations, or fill them with a fixed value (e.g., the word ʻPAUSEʼ), or fill them with
the duration of the gap. Pick one here, and click ʻOKʼ.
 You will see that ELAN has now created based on the gaps in your chosen tier, and
has filled them with your preferred text.
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