Praat
Formant measurements (vowels)
Praat can do a lot more than just select, edit, and play sounds. It is possible to actually measure them. This is particularly easy for vowels. Vowels have a spectral makeup at consists of a number of prominent frequency ranges. These frequencies are called formants, and they are somewhat similar to overtones in music. Essentially, the first two formants are enough to define a vowel. These formants can be measured in Praat.
- Make sure formant analysis is actually enabled by clicking on ‘Formant’ and ‘Show formants’. The formants should now be visible as dotted red lines.
- Adjust the formant settings (‘Formant’, ‘Formant settings. . . ’) At the very least, you have to use different settings for men and women. The relevant variables are ‘Maximum formant (Hz)’ and ‘Number of formants’. Standard values are 5000-4 for men and 5500-4 for women.
- Click where you want to take your measurement (e.g. in the middle of the vowel).
- Click ‘Formant’ and ‘Get first formant’ (shortcut: F1) to get the measurement for the first formant. The same works for the second, third, and forth formant. Doing this while you have an active selection will give you the mean formant value for this interval.
formants of /i/
If you want to save the position of the formants as an image file click on ‘Formant’ and ‘Draw visible formant contour. . . ’. The Praat picture window will open again and you can save the picture as a file.
video tutorial: formant measurements
Your turn: