Python package: mytextgrid

This is a python package to work with Praat annotation files. You can create, read, write and query TextGrids.

The following tutorial will walk you through the basics. For more information, visit the documentation website

Getting started

1. Installation

You can get the lastest release of this package using the pip installer:

pip install mytextgrid -U

After that, you can import the package as in the following line.

import mytextgrid

2. The basics

Reading a TextGrid from a file

To read an existing TextGrid file use the read_from_file() function. TextGrid files come in three formats: long, short and binary. At this moment, only the long format is supported.

import mytextgrid

# Read TextGrid
>>> path = r'C:\Users\rolan\Documents\projects\Mary_John_bell.TextGrid'
>>> tg = mytextgrid.read_from_file(path)

Describe a TextGrid

>>> tg.describe()

TextGrid:
    Startig time (sec):    0
    Ending time (sec):     1
    Number of tiers:       3
Tiers summary:
    0   IntervalTier    Mary    (size = 1)
    1   IntervalTier    John    (size = 1)
    2   PointTier       bell    (size = 0)

Manipulating a TextGrid

# Insert tier
>>> tone_tier = tg.insert_tier("tone", False)
>>> segment_tier = tg.insert_tier("segment")
>>> word_tier = tg.insert_tier("word")
>>> phrase_tier = tg.insert_tier("phrase")

# Point tier: Inserting points
>>> tone_tier.insert_point(0.66, "H")
>>> tone_tier.insert_point(0.9, "L")

# Interval tier: Inserting boundaries
>>> segment_tier.insert_boundaries(0.23, 0.30, 0.42, 0.62, 0.70, 0.82, 0.98)
>>> word_tier.insert_boundaries(0.23, 0.42, 0.98)
>>> phrase_tier.insert_boundaries(0.23, 0.98)

# Interval tier: Populate intervals with text
>>> segment_tier.set_text_at_index(1, 'e', 'l', 'p', 'e', 'rr', 'o')
>>> word_tier.set_text_at_index(1, 'el')
>>> word_tier.set_text_at_index(2, 'perro')
>>> phrase_tier.set_text_at_index(1, 'el perro')

# Remove a tier
>>> tg.remove_tier(0)
>>> tg.describe()

traversing through a TextGrid

A TextGrid object is a container that stores one or more Tier objects. Each tier, at the same time, is a container itself and stores two types of objects: Intervals or Points. Depending on that, a tier can be a IntervalTier or PointTier. To iterate through these containers use the for loop as in the following example.

# Iterate through a TextGrid
for tier in tg:
    print(tier.name)
   # Iterate through tiers
    if tier.is_interval():
        for interval in tier:
            # For interval tiers
            # Print Interval attributes
            print(interval.xmin)
            print(interval.xmax)
            print(interval.text)
    else:
        # For point tiers
        for point in tier:
            # Print Point attributes
            print(point.time)
            print(point.text)

Writing TextGrid to a file

You can write a TextGrid to different types of files.

tg.write('example1-long.TextGrid')
tg.write('example1-short.TextGrid', True) # Write the TextGrid a short format TextGrid

# Write to a JSON file
tg.write_as_json('example1.json')

Creating a TextGrid from scratch

Creating a TextGrid from the scratch is easy, just take a look to the following lines of code.

# Create an empty TextGrid
>>> new_tg = mytextgrid.create_textgrid(xmin = 0, xmax = 1)

Becareful, the resulting object does not contain any tier.