Subj : Re: Determining Syllables To : comp.programming,comp.lang.c From : Chris Croughton Date : Fri Aug 05 2005 01:19 pm On Thu, 4 Aug 2005 17:51:38 +0100, pemo 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? > > FYI, there are two approaches I'm currently considering. > > One is to reduce/convert (somehow) the word into its IPA equivalent, e.g., > 'parliament' becomes 'plm()nt' (apologies if that doesn't come out too > right!) - parsing that is, I believe, straight forward. Well, you've got a problem right there -- some people say par'-luh-munt and others say par'-li-a-ment. Lots of proper names (places as well as people) have that effect -- is Worcester three syllables or two? Aylesbury (ails'-bri or ails'-buh-ri)? Chol-mon-de-ly or Chum-ley? Tall-i-a-fe-ro or Tol-i-ver? Michael pronounced mikh'-ah-el or mI'-kel? Is Catherine kath-uh-rin or kath-rin? Con-sid-er-ing or con-sid-ring? Equiv-a-lent or equ-v-lent? Al-go-rithm or Al-go-rith-um? Dic-shun-ar-y or dik-shun-ry? > However, I can't find a program to convert English words into their > IPA equivalents, and, so I'm currently stuck with using a dictionary - > not so bad, until a word isn't in the dictionary I'm using! Since there is no fixed rendering of English words into phonetic form, in a lot of cases (even the OED often describes several different pronunciations) it's not surprising that you can't find one which works well. And if you want words which aren't 'known' all bets are off, since that includes technical and foreign words 'imported' into the language... (Followups to comp.programming) Chris C .