| Praat: doing phonetics by computer |

Download Praat: * Macintosh, Windows * Linux, Raspberry Pi, Chromebook * ( FreeBSD, SGI, Solaris, HPUX ) * license and source code | Information on Praat: * Introductory tutorial: choose Intro from Praat’s Help menus. * Extensive manuals and tutorials: in Praat’s Help menus. * Beginner’s manuals by others. * Paul Boersma’s publications on algorithms and tutorials.

The authors:
Paul Boersma, David Weenink, Anastasia Shchupak
Phonetic Sciences, University of Amsterdam
visiting: Spuistraat 134
mail: P.O. Box 1642, 1000BP Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Paul

David

Anastasia

Questions, problems, solutions:
1. Many problems can be solved by upgrading to version 7.0 of Praat.
2. Make sure you have read the Intro from Praat’s Help menu.
3. If that does not help, use the Search button in Praat’s manual window.
4. Or consult the Frequently Asked Questions directly.
5. There is a user group on the Internet: the Praat Users List.
6. If none of the above helps, you can send email to paul.boersma@uva.nl.

## Functionality

The following gives you an idea of the features of the Praat program. The links take you into the web copy of the manual. The same manual is also available from Praat's Help menus, in which case you can do searches.

Speech analysis:

- spectral analysis (spectrograms)
- pitch analysis
- formant analysis
- intensity analysis
- jitter, shimmer, voice breaks
- cochleagram
- excitation pattern

Speech synthesis:

- from pitch, formant, and intensity
- articulatory synthesis
- Klatt acoustic synthesis

Listening experiments:

- identification and discrimination tests

Labelling and segmentation:

- label intervals and time points on multiple tiers
- use phonetic alphabet
- use sound files up to 2 gigabytes (3 hours)

Speech manipulation:

- change pitch and duration contours
- filtering

Learning algorithms:

- feedforward neural networks
- discrete and stochastic Optimality Theory

Statistics:

- multidimensional scaling
- principal component analysis
- discriminant analysis

Graphics:

- high quality for your articles and thesis
- produce PDF, PNG or EPS files
- integrated mathematical and phonetic symbols

Programmability:

- easy programmable scripting language
- communicate with other programs
- (the sendpraat source code)
- create hypertext manuals with sound I/O

Portability:

- machine-independent binary files
- read and write many sound and other file types

Configurability:

- grow or shrink menus
- save prefs for fonts, views, sound devices

This homepage is praat.org or www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat.
(This page: © Paul Boersma & David Weenink 1992–2026, CC-BY-SA 4.0)