Subj : Re: Determining Syllables
To   : comp.programming,comp.lang.c
From : roberson
Date : Thu Aug 04 2005 06:58 pm

In article <dcth2q$seq$1@news.ox.ac.uk>,
pemo <peet.morris@comlab.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
>Does anyone know of an algorithm that can accurately determine the number of 
>syllables in a given English word - esp. if that word isn't already 'known' 
>by such an algorithm?

It cannot be done on a stand-alone basis. The same character string
might be multiple words with different pronunciations and
different syllable boundaries, so one would have to be able to
deduce which of the words was meant by examining surrounding context.

I played around informally with syllabification a few decades ago,
and eventually realized that in English (or Canadian English anyhow)
the proper syllabification depended upon the atress points ("accents"),
and was also tied in with whether particular vowels were long or short.
You have to "look ahead": syllables can change depending upon the
suffixes one adds... and if one then adds further suffixes,
they can change again.
-- 
   "[...] it's all part of one's right to be publicly stupid." -- Dave Smey

.