PRAAT2CHAT – Praat TextGrid Bidirectional Conversion
Status: Current Last updated: 2026-05-12 11:29 EDT
Purpose
Converts between Praat TextGrid files and CHAT format. TextGrid files contain time-aligned interval tiers widely used in phonetic research.
Usage
chatter clan praat2chat input.TextGrid
Conversion Functions
| Direction | Function | Description |
|---|---|---|
| TextGrid to CHAT | praat_to_chat() | Convert TextGrid intervals to CHAT utterances |
| CHAT to TextGrid | chat_to_praat() | Convert timed CHAT utterances to TextGrid intervals |
Options
| Option | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
-l, --language | "eng" | ISO 639 language code for the @Languages header |
-o, --output | stdout | Output CHAT file path |
The corpus name in @ID headers is hardcoded to "praat_corpus"
(crates/clan/clan-core/src/converters/praat2chat.rs:200); there is
no CLI flag to override it. Same pattern as the other converters
in this directory.
TextGrid Format Support
Both long (normal) and short TextGrid formats are supported. Tier names are mapped to CHAT speaker codes (first 3 characters, uppercased). Empty intervals and point tiers are skipped. Untimed utterances are excluded from CHAT-to-TextGrid conversion.
Input Format
Praat TextGrid files (.TextGrid) containing interval tiers with time-aligned text segments.
Output
TextGrid to CHAT: A well-formed CHAT file with timing bullets derived from interval boundaries. Each non-empty interval becomes a timed utterance.
CHAT to TextGrid: A Praat TextGrid file with one interval tier per speaker, containing text from timed utterances.
Differences from CLAN
- Uses typed AST for CHAT generation
- Produces valid, well-formed CHAT output
- Supports bidirectional conversion (CHAT to TextGrid and TextGrid to CHAT)
- Handles both long and short TextGrid formats
Reference
See the CLAN manual for the original PRAAT2CHAT command documentation.