GToBI


Index

History

Ralf Benzmüller and Martine Grice of University of the Saarland, Saarbrücken, Matthias Reyelt of TU Braunschweig, Jörg Mayer of Stuttgart University and Anton Batliner of Munich University have developed a consensus transcription system for German Intonation called GToBI. We carried out an experiment to test intertranscriber consistency of the tonal categories. Results show that GToBI is already adequate for large scale database annotation with labellers of different expertise at different sites.

Basics

GToBI is a system for transcribing German intonation. The perceived intonation contour is described in terms of high and low targets, which are connected by regular (most often linear) interpolation. The relation of this tonal tier to the spoken text (text tier) is expressed relative to pitch movements in the vicinity of accented syllables and two kinds of boundaries: minor boundaries at the edges of intermediate phrases and major boundaries at intonation phrase edges. These relations are indicated by the following diacritics:
All tonal targets must be related to either an accent or the edge of a prosodic constituent. Thus, there are no tones without a diacritic. There is one optional label: The co-occurrence of an intermediate phrase edge tone and a postnuclear stressed syllable may be indicated by an L(*) or H(*). This tendency for the tonal target to align with postnuclear stressed syllables is reported on in Grice & Benzmüller (1998) and is evidence for it being a phrase accent, as discussed in Grice, Ladd & Arvaniti (2000). This leads to the following inventory for German:
 
Accents Edge tones
H*, L*

L+H*, L*+H, H+L*, H+!H*

 H-, L-, H(*), L(*)

L-%, L-H%, H-%, H-^H%

The tonal and the text tier can be related to other tiers like the break index tier, where boundary strength is encoded.  The following Break Indices are used:
 

Break Indices
  • 2r = rhythmic break with tonal continuity 
  • 2t = tonal break with rhythmic continuity 
  • 3 = intermediate phrase 
  • 4 = intonation phrase 
  • 4- = uncertain level of phrasing 

Modifications and rules

The tones can be affected by two kinds of modifications: Downstep and Upstep. Any H tone except H% can be downstepped. Downstep is marked explicitly by a ! (exclamation mark) diacritic.

Upstep is now also marked explicitly using a ^ (upward arrow) diacritic. It is not only used to indicate a step up within a sequence of pitch accents, it also describes a step up to a boundary tone.

More detailed info and examples can be found in the training materials.

Online Training materials (German only)

In the "Online Training Materials" we introduce basic pitch accents and edge tones along with such as upstep and downstep. For training purposes we provide schematic diagrams, lists of important criteria for canonical examples of each category, and speech files containing examples.

The most up to date GToBI references

in German:
  • Grice, Martine & Stefan Baumann (2002). Deutsche Intonation und GToBI. Linguistische Berichte 191. 267-298.

    In English:
  • Grice, Martine, Stefan Baumann & Ralf Benzmüller (2005). German
    Intonation in Autosegmental-Metrical Phonology.     In: Jun, Sun-Ah (ed.) Prosodic Typology: The Phonology of Intonation and Phrasing. Oxford University Press.

    Abstract

    • In this paper we present an updated version of GToBI, an annotation scheme for capturing aspects of the intonation of Standard German within the autosegmental-metrical framework. We also give an overview of older accounts of German intonation. Furthermore, we provide an inventory of commonly occurring contours, and discuss issues which are still controversial within the framework, such as leading tones and phrase accents.
     

    A compressed version of this book chapter is also available:
     

  • Baumann, Stefan, Martine Grice & Ralf Benzmüller (2001). GToBI - a phonological system for the transcription of German intonation. In: Puppel, Stanislaw & Grazyna Demenko (eds.) Prosody 2000. Speech Recognition and Synthesis. Poznan: Adam Mickiewicz University, Faculty of Modern Languages and Literature. 21-28.

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    Other (GToBI) References

  • Benzmüller, R. & M. Grice (1999). Slides of the talk "Describing German intonation with GToBI" Satellite Workshop on Intonation: Models on ToBI labelling. San Francisco

    • Abstract: Besides some basics about the German language, the tonal inventory of GToBI is described. The characteristics of accent and boundary tones are given along with stilysed diagrams of canonical realisations, and information about the use and the function of tones. In addition modifications of the tones like downstep and upstep are described as well as break indices and the handling of (un-)certainty.

     

  • Grice, M. & R. Benzmüller (1998). Tonal Affiliation in German Falls and Fall-rises. Poster presented at the 5th Conference on Laboratory Phonology, York.

  • Grice, M., D.R. Ladd & A. Arvaniti (2000). On the Place of Phrase Accents in Intonational Phonology. Phonology 17.2. 143-185.

  • Grice, M., M. Reyelt, R. Benzmüller, J. Mayer & A. Batliner (1996). Consistency in Transcription and Labelling of German Intonation with GToBI In: Proc. ICSLP 96 Philadelphia

    • Abstract: A diverse set of speech data was labelled in three sites by 13 transcribers with differing levels of expertise, using GToBI, a consensus transcription system for German intonation. Overall intertranscriber-consistency suggests that, with training, labellers can acquire sufficient skill with GToBI for large-scale database labelling.

    Download: GToBI-ICSLP96.pdf

  • Reyelt, M., M. Grice, R. Benzmüller, J. Mayer & A. Batliner (1996). Prosodische Etikettierung des Deutschen mit ToBI. In: D. Gibbon, (ed.) Natural Language and Speech Technology, Results of the third KONVENS conference, Bielefeld, November 1996. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 144-155.


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    Other German ToBI style intonation sites

    ToBI sites for other languages