Phonomaton: Phonological rule engine

Phonological rules

Comments

Phonemic inventory (optional)

Custom phonemes (optional)

Rule format

1. ENVIRONMENT must have a single underscore (_), preceded optionally by a PREVIOUS CONTEXT and followed optionally by a SUBSEQUENT CONTEXT.
2. The TARGET and CONTEXT parts may be multiple "characters", where a "character" may be
   • any Unicode sequence representing a segment (see the table), optionally followed by one or more of these diacritics, which can also be entered via the keyboards:
     • [+nasal] (nasalized):   ̃ (hex 0303)
     • [+syllabic] (syllabic):   ̩  (hex 0329)
     • [-voice] (voiceless):   ̥  (hex 0325)
     • [+constr_gl] (creaky-voiced): for vowels,   ̰   (hex 0330); for consonants,   ʼ   (hex 02bc)
     • [+spread_gl] (breathy-voiced): for vowels,   ̤   (hex 0324); for consonants,   ʰ   (hex 02b0)
     • [+distributed]:    ̪ (hex 032a)
     • [+front]:    ̟   (hex 031f)
     • [+back]:    ̠   (hex 0320)
     • [+round]:    ʷ   (hex 02b7)
     and at most one of these mutually exclusive tone marks:
     • [+tone_top]:   ̋   (hex 030b)
     • [+tone_high]:   ́   (hex 0301)
     • [+tone_mid]:   ̄   (hex 0304)
     • [+tone_low]:   ̀   (hex 0300)
     • [+tone_bottom]:   ̏   (hex 030f)
     • [+tone_rising]:   ̌   (hex 030c)
     • [+tone_falling]:   ̂   (hex 0302)
     • [+tone_highRising]:   ᷄   (hex 1dc4)
     • [+tone_lowRising]:   ᷅   (hex 1dc5)
     • [+tone_highFalling]:   ᷇   (hex 1dc7)
     • [+tone_lowFalling]:   ᷆   (hex 1dc6)
     • [+tone_peaking]:   ᷈   (hex 1dc8)
     • [+tone_dipping]:   ᷉   (hex 1dc9)
     and at most one of these mutually exclusive secondary articulations:
     • labial ([+labial, +round]):   ʷ   (hex 02b7)
     • palatal ([+dorsal, +high, +front]):   ʲ   (hex 02b2)
     • velar ([+dorsal, +high, +back]):   ˠ   (hex 02e0)
     • pharyngeal ([+dorsal, +low, +back]):   ˤ   (hex 02e4)
     and/or this suprasegmental:
     • [+long] (long):  ː (hex 02d0)
   • a bracketed, comma-separated list of FEATURES with polarity in brackets. Available polarities are +, -, 0, ±, α, -α, γ, -γ, δ, and -δ. The available FEATURES are listed in the table, along with tone marks and suprasegmentals. Example: [-syllabic, -long, αtone_top]. The polarity ± in a component of TARGET means "must match exactly ±", which only applies to underspecified segments, which are only introduced as custom phonemes. The polarity α, γ, or δ introduces a variable, whose value is either + or - for the scope of the rule; the corresponding negative polarity, such as -α, is then either - or +.
   • the shorthands V for "vowel", C for "consonant" X for "any consonant or vowel", S for "white space", and U for "subscript" (inserted for autosegmental phonology by an Associate rule).
   • any defined custom phoneme.
   • null, which can be written as ∅ (hex 2205), Ø (hex 00d8), 0, or ␀ (hex 2400),
   • a Perl regex combining the items above. Use ^ to mark the start of the word and $ to mark the end of the word. Other Perl regex metacharacters, other than brackets, are also acceptable.
   • The symbol #, which marks the start of a line, the end of a line, the start or end of a word.
   • The symbol -, marking an affix; it is considered "letter-like" and does not constitute a word boundary.
   • The symbol =, marking a clitic, ⇒ (hex 21d2), marking a proclitic, and { and } marking prosodic boundaries; these symbols are also considered to mark word boundaries.
   • IPA marks for stress: ˈ (hex 02c8) and ˌ (hex 02cc).
3. ARROW may be written as ->, =>, or → (hex 2192). If it is followed by *, the rule should be applied repeatedly until it makes no further changes.
4. CHANGE may be
   • null, as above
   • multiple Unicode characters
   • a set of features to apply to the TARGET (which must be a single segment). The feature set may include both positive and negative components, as well as components with polarity ±, which means "any polarity of this feature is acceptable", and components with a variable polarity.
5. Within TARGET, a segment or a feature set may be followed by any of ¹ ² ³ ⁴ (these are superscript numerals: hex 00b9, 00b2, 00b3, and 2074, respectively) to label that segment or feature set. CHANGE may then use any of those labels to refer to the matched segment.

For example, the rule intervocalic lenition: [-continuant,-nasal] → [+continuant,±delayed_release,±distributed] / V_V modifies any non-nasal consonant that is surrounded by vowels into a continuant version of that consonant, ignoring the features delayed_release and distributed.

Underlying representations

Affix rules

If there are affix rules, the underlying representations are treated as "stems". The phonological rules also apply to the stems unless the line ExcludeStem is present in the affix rules.

If there are no affix rules, the underlying representations are used directly.

The affix rules follow the same syntax as phonological rules.

Autosegmental phonology

• Tiers: The tier names are «seg» and «tone» .
• Underlying representation: A line of the underlying representation may include multiple tiers; the tier names precede the contents. Sample: «seg» gaga da bala ma «tone» HL N LH HL
• If there are multiple tiers, each must contain the same number of words.
• The «tone» tier may include any of THMLBthmlbN, refering to top, high, medium, low, and bottom, then their floating versions, then "no assigned tone", as well as spaces separating the tones for each word.
• Phonological rules: A rule that applies to a specific tier is prefaced with the tier name. Sample: «tone» deduplicate: H → N / _ *H
• Special autosegmental rules
  • Associate: tier1-tier2, direction, applyTo, separator, maximum
    This rule indicates which tiers to associate (typically tone-seg), the direction of association within a chunk (either L-R or R-L), to which segments in tier2 to associate (typically given by features), how to separate the chunks (typically #), and how many elements of tier1 at most to associate with a segment in tier2. The special value N does not associate. For example: Associate: tone-seg, L-R, [+syllabic], #, max=3
  • Reassociate: tier1-tier2, direction, applyTo, separator, maximum This rule moves associations that no longer apply to later (if L-R) or earlier (if R-L) segments. An association no longer applies if a rule has changed its segment so it no longer satisfies the "applyTo" parameter.
  • Spread: tier, direction, separator
    This rule spreads associations in the given tier (typically segin the given direction (L-R or R-L), with a separator betwen chunks as above. For example: Spread: seg, L-R, #
  • Realize: tier1-tier2, default value
    This rule uses tier1 to realize the associated values in tier2; unassociated segments acquire the default value. For example: Realize: tone-seg, tone_top
• Affix rules: These rules can also apply to specific tiers.