SLIDE 1 2019 Linguistic Institute Course 353: Digital Methods in Language Documentation
Days 3&4: ELAN Lesson 1
Andrea Berez-Kroeker (U Hawaiʻi) Christopher Cox (Carleton U)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Our class Google Drive folder:
bit.ly/DigLangDocLSA2019
Please download and unzip the ELAN1-Lesson 1 folder
SLIDE 2 Welcome! We ♥ teaching ELAN!
Chris and Andrea have been “Partners in ELAN” since the first CoLang in 2008.
andrea.berez@hawaii.edu christopher.cox@carleton.ca
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This workshop: Hands-on For beginners Simple →complex Time for practice
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In lesson 1 we will...
Get to know each other and ELAN Learn about time-aligned transcripts Learn about tiers Practice working in Simple-ELAN and ELAN
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Let’s get started.
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What does ELAN do?
ELAN makes time-aligned transcripts.
What’s that?
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Time-aligned transcripts
Match text (“annotations”) with sections of an audio or video recording (“media”)
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Time-aligned transcripts are everywhere!
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ELAN makes time-aligned transcripts for language documentation.
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ELAN is great for language documentation!
Developed by linguists. Unicode compliant. Free, open source, non-proprietary. XML, so very portable.
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Let’s take a tour.
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What ELAN is not: An audio/video editor
Can’t edit media. Need other software. If you do, you must change your ELAN file to match the new timeline.
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What ELAN is not: A text editor
Outputs in plain text. Add embellishments ... underlining bolding color ...in a text editor.
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ELAN has a learning curve!
You have to know what you want.
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Simple transcripts are simple...
...but complex transcripts are complex! 1. What are your goals for your transcript? 2. What are ELAN’s built-in concepts? 3. How do ELAN’s concepts map onto your goals?
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Let’s look at some common transcript goals.
SLIDE 17 Example 1: One language, one speaker
((Morality, provided by RadioLab http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab))
Josh: “How do people make this judgment? Forget whether or not these judgments are right or wrong, just, what’s going on in the brain that makes people distinguish so naturally and intuitively between these two cases? Which, from an actuarial point of view, are very very very similar if not identical...”
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Example 2: One language, multiple speakers
4 speakers Laughter/sniffs/coughs Measured pauses
SLIDE 19 ALVIN: yeah, I haven't -- like admittedly, I haven't, (SNIFF) (0.3) It's funny, I haven't watched those in years, you know, PETER: Yeah. ALVIN: so I've thought, (0.7) I've thought, it might be fun to see them again. But, (0.4) um, PETER: Or not so fun. ALVIN: (COUGH) Yeah, @@@may-, PETER: @@@@@@@@@ ALVIN: Maybe it's best just to remember the pleasant childhood memories. ALLISON: @@The way it was, LEA: @ Yeah.
((Excerpt: Television))
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Example 3: Two languages, one speaker
A subject language (the language being spoken) A translation language (a language of wider communication) With free translations (translations of sentences, not single words)
SLIDE 21 ((Glacier Water, Dena’ina. Speaker: Andrew Balluta)) Qizhjeh Vena Qizhjeh Vena veq'atl'a ghini tustes ghu łi yan nlan ha t'ent'a Dzeł Ken teh. ‘Up at the head of Lake Clark, up in that valley, there are passes in the Alaska Range in both directions.’ Yi ghini idghalzex ch'u k'etnu gguya q'andazdlen ha t'ix łi ta'a nlan ha. ‘When the glaciers start melting, all the water flows into the river.’ Ghuh q'andazdlen ch'u Chuqutenghehtnu dahkadilax ha yehdi ven edilax. ‘And then it forms into a lakelark.’ Łi ta'a ghini, yi edilax ch'uq'u Qizhjeh Vena ku'u edilax. ‘That glacier water, it forms Qizhjeh Vena [Lake Clark].’ Yi ghini edilax ch'u Nundaltin Vena kiq'u edilax. And then it flows into Nundaltin Vena [Nondalton Lake].’
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Example 4: Two languages, richer linguistic info
A subject language + a translation language Free translations Word-level translations Morphemes and glosses Intonation units...
SLIDE 23 ((Pear Story, Kannada. Speaker: Keshava Subramanya)) KAN Sentence: Ii kathe obba, haṇṇu maaliya bagge, mattu, obba huḍugana bagge ide. Intonation Unit: Ii kathe
Morphemes: ii kathe
Gloss: this story one Intonation Unit: haṇṇu maaliya bagge, Morphemes: haṇṇu maali -ya bagge Gloss: fruit gardener- SRC about Intonation Unit: mattu, Morphemes: mattu Gloss: and Intonation Unit:
huḍugana bagge ide. Morphemes:
huḍuga
bagge ide Gloss: someone.M boy
about be.3SM Free Translation: ‘This story is about a fruit farmer and a boy.’
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Those are just some of the possibilities.
ELAN can handle many others! What other features might you want?
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Some important concepts in ELAN
(They get easier with practice, I promise!)
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Tiers
Everything that is the same “kind” of information is part of the same tier. All of Lea’s utterances. All the English free translations of the Dena’ina sentences. All the glosses of the Kannada words.
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Thinking about tiers: Puppet show video
You are filming a 2-person puppet show designed to teach Finnish speakers sentences in the North Saami language.
Heide Hegon
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Thinking about tiers: Puppet show video
How many tiers do you need? What are they?
Heide Hegon
SLIDE 29 Thinking about tiers: Puppet show video
1. Heide’s utterances in North Saami 2. Translations of Heide’s sentences into Finnish. 3. Hegon’s utterances in North Saami 4. Translations of Hegon’s sentences into Finnish.
Heide Hegon
SLIDE 30 Thinking about tiers
Printed transcripts have fixed a page width. Forced split of contents of single tier across many lines :-(
Tier 1... Tier 2... Tier 3... Tier 1... Tier 2... Tier 3... Tier 1... Tier 2... Tier 3... Tier 1... Tier 2... Tier 3... Tier 1... Tier 2... Tier 3... Tier 1... Tier 2... Tier 3...
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Thinking about tiers
But ELAN is time based! :-) Tiers are continuous and contiguous to the media timeline:
Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3
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Thinking about tiers
Multiple continuous tiers can capture speaker overlap:
(Time) Alvin: [···SPEECH···] [·SPEECH·] [·····SPEECH·····] Peter: [··SPEECH··] [···SPEECH···] Lea: [·····SPEECH·····]
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Top-level tiers
Every ELAN transcript will have at least one top-level tier. It contains the contents of the recording. Better: It contains a direct representation of the contents of the recording, and is linked to the time-line of the recording.
SLIDE 34 Top-level tiers
The words spoken, in orthography (spelling). The words spoken, in IPA. Sign language. (And gestures) Background noises/activity. Comments (from the analyst).
Any or all of these can be top-level tiers in ELAN! They are direct representations of the recording contents & they are linked directly to the timeline of the recording.
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Let’s do Exercise 1
(Have you installed ELAN?) https://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/elan/download/
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Exercise 1: 1 language, 1 speaker
Goal: Make our 1st ELAN transcript in ELAN using an audio recording of an English monologue.
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Step 1: Download the exercise files
In our Google Drive, find the folder called ‘exercise1_language_opinion’. Download this entire folder onto your computer. You will put your ELAN files for this exercise inside this folder.
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Step 1: Create a new file
1. Open the ELAN software. Go to “File>New”
SLIDE 39 Step 1: Create a new file
- 2. In the pop-up, click “Add
Media File” and navigate to the language_opinion.wav file. Click “Open.”
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Step 1: Create a new file
Your file should be listed in the text box. Click “OK.”
SLIDE 41 Step 1: Create a new file
“File>Save.”
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Step 1: Create a new file
Call your file “language_opinion” and save it in the ‘exercise_1_language_opinion’ folder on your computer. Click “Save.”
SLIDE 43 Your file is now saved
Listen to this file to get familiar with it. You can listen to the recording using the controls in the middle
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Your new file is saved. Now we can start transcribing.
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Step 2: Rename the transcription tier
Use Tier>Change Tier Attributes to rename the Default tier
SLIDE 46 Step 2: Rename the transcription tier
In the box that appears, you can add some information:
- Tier Name (give it a good name)
- Participant (who is the
speaker/signer?)
Leave the rest as-is. Click “Change”.
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Step 2: Rename the transcription tier
The tier name has changed. If you hover over the tier label, you will see all the information you added.
SLIDE 48 Step 3: Listen and transcribe
When you are ready, use your mouse to highlight a portion
Use the play selection button to listen to it.
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Step 3: Listen and transcribe
Double-click in the pink area under your selection to open up an annotation box. Type your transcription in the box and press Enter.
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Step 3: Listen and transcribe
Your transcription is now committed. Even if your text is longer than the width of the box, don’t worry, it’s still there. Hover to see it.
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Step 3: Listen and transcribe
Continue this way with the rest of the recording.
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Step 4: Edit annotations & correct mistakes
Everyone makes mistakes. Maybe your annotation block is too short, or too long. Maybe you want to combine 2 blocks. Etc….
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Step 5: Editing your annotations - Move an edge forward or backward in time
1. Click on the annotation so that the horizontal line turns blue. 2. Hold the ALT key, then place your cursor on the vertical line of the edge you want to move 3. Slide the vertical bar to the position you prefer. The line will turn green as you move it.
SLIDE 54 Step 5: Editing your annotations - Move entire annotation forward or backward
1. Click on the annotation so that the horizontal line turns blue. 2. Hold the ALT key, then place your cursor on the blue horizontal line 3. Slide the annotation to the position you
- prefer. The line will turn green as you
move it.
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Step 5: Editing your annotations - Merging adjacent annotations
1. Click on the annotation so that the horizontal line turns blue. 2. Right-click on the blue line. 3. Select “Merge with Next Annotation” or “Merge with Annotation Before”
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Step 5: Editing your annotations - Merging adjacent annotations
Now your annotations are merged.
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Step 5: Editing your annotations - Deleting annotations
1. Click on the annotation so that the horizontal line turns blue. 2. Right-click on the blue line. 3. Select “Delete Annotation”
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Step 5: Editing your annotations - Deleting annotations
Now your annotation is deleted.
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What are these other files in your folder?
.eaf: This is your ELAN transcript file. DO NOT DELETE! .psfx: This is the preferences file. It’s OK to delete. .eaf.001: This is your backup file, in case of a crash while you’re working. OK to delete.
