MFA tutorial

digital-humanities-mfa_tutorial/mfa-tutorial

Author(s)
Jessica Wallace
Version
1
Last updated
Jul 22, 2026
License
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Tags
linguistics
phonetics
MFA
humanities
linguistics
phonetics
MFA
humanities

Features
Tutorial
Montreal Forced Aligner
Workflow Testing
Tests: ✅
Results: Not yet automated
FAIRness PURL
https://gxy.io/GTN:
RO-Crate logo with flask Download Workflow RO-Crate
Launch in Tutorial Mode
Download 
flowchart TD
  0["ℹ️ Input Dataset\nthe_fox_and_the_grapes.zip"];
  style 0 stroke:#2c3143,stroke-width:4px;
  1["MFA Find OOVs"];
  0 -->|output| 1;
  35f07810-07c3-450d-b915-4aeeea9bb916["Output\nArchive containing unknown words"];
  1 --> 35f07810-07c3-450d-b915-4aeeea9bb916;
  style 35f07810-07c3-450d-b915-4aeeea9bb916 stroke:#2c3143,stroke-width:4px;
  2["Unzip the file to get the list of unknown words oovs_found"];
  1 -->|output_archive| 2;
  49853025-c3ca-4719-af11-09c503061660["Output\nList of unknown words"];
  2 --> 49853025-c3ca-4719-af11-09c503061660;
  style 49853025-c3ca-4719-af11-09c503061660 stroke:#2c3143,stroke-width:4px;
  3["MFA G2P"];
  2 -->|unzipped_single| 3;
  8bb68187-29f9-4606-a0c5-ef8db83b0f59["Output\ndictionary of generated pronunciations for OOVs"];
  3 --> 8bb68187-29f9-4606-a0c5-ef8db83b0f59;
  style 8bb68187-29f9-4606-a0c5-ef8db83b0f59 stroke:#2c3143,stroke-width:4px;
  4["MFA Merge"];
  3 -->|output_dictionary| 4;
  1a78dddc-f54a-401c-8ff0-7b49e3324761["Output\nUpdated dictionary including OOVs"];
  4 --> 1a78dddc-f54a-401c-8ff0-7b49e3324761;
  style 1a78dddc-f54a-401c-8ff0-7b49e3324761 stroke:#2c3143,stroke-width:4px;
  5["Run the aligner"];
  0 -->|output| 5;
  4 -->|merged_dict| 5;
  c080e198-cc0f-44ff-85a0-752d4781ca7b["Output\nAligned TextGrid"];
  5 --> c080e198-cc0f-44ff-85a0-752d4781ca7b;
  style c080e198-cc0f-44ff-85a0-752d4781ca7b stroke:#2c3143,stroke-width:4px;

Inputs

Input Label
Input dataset the_fox_and_the_grapes.zip

Outputs

From Output Label
mfa_find_oovs MFA Find OOVs
toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/repos/imgteam/unzip/unzip/6.0+galaxy5 Unzip Unzip the file to get the list of unknown words (oovs_found)
mfa_g2p MFA G2P
mfa_merge MFA Merge
mfa_align MFA Align Run the aligner

Tools

Tool Links
mfa_align
mfa_find_oovs
mfa_g2p
mfa_merge
toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/repos/imgteam/unzip/unzip/6.0+galaxy5 View in ToolShed

To use these workflows in Galaxy you can either click the links to download the workflows, or you can right-click and copy the link to the workflow which can be used in the Galaxy form to import workflows.

Importing into Galaxy

Below are the instructions for importing these workflows directly into your Galaxy server of choice to start using them!
Hands On: Importing a workflow
  1. Click on Workflows in the Galaxy activity bar (on the left side of the screen, or in the top menu bar of older Galaxy instances). You will see a list of all your workflows
  2. Click on Import at the top-right of the screen
  3. Provide your workflow
    • Option 1: Paste the URL of the workflow into the box labelled “Archived Workflow URL”
    • Option 2: Upload the workflow file in the box labelled “Archived Workflow File”
  4. Click the Import workflow button

Below is a short video demonstrating how to import a workflow from GitHub using this procedure:

Video: Importing a workflow from URL

Version History

Version Commit Time Comments
1 9395855d8 2026-07-22 09:04:40 Added corrected workflow and tests. Corrected formatting issues in lines 145 & 157

For Admins

Installing the workflow tools

wget https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/topics/digital-humanities/tutorials/mfa_tutorial/workflows/MFA-tutorial.ga -O workflow.ga
workflow-to-tools -w workflow.ga -o tools.yaml
shed-tools install -g GALAXY -a API_KEY -t tools.yaml
workflow-install -g GALAXY -a API_KEY -w workflow.ga --publish-workflows