Phonological Selector System:

A powerful system for defining and applying phonological rules using feature-based selectors.

Overview

This system allows you to define phonological transformations using a simple selector syntax. Selectors can target phonemes based on their features (like [vowel], [consonant], [voiced], etc.) and their position in words.

Basic Selectors

• Literal IPA symbols: a _ c (matches exact phonemes)
• Wildcard: * _ c (matches any phoneme in that position)

Category Selectors

• [vowel] - Selects all vowel phonemes
• [consonant] - Selects all consonant phonemes

Vowel Feature Selectors

Height

• [open] - Open vowels
• [openMid] - Open-mid vowels
• [mid] - Mid vowels
• [closeMid] - Close-mid vowels
• [close] - Close vowels

Position

• [front] - Front vowels
• [central] - Central vowels
• [back] - Back vowels

Lip Position

• [rounded] - Rounded vowels
• [unrounded] - Unrounded vowels

Special

• [diphthong] - Diphthongs

Consonant Feature Selectors

Manner of Articulation

• [plosive] - Plosive consonants
• [nasal] - Nasal consonants
• [trill] - Trill consonants
• [tap] - Tap consonants
• [fricative] - Fricative consonants
• [lateral] - Lateral consonants
• [approximant] - Approximant consonants

Place of Articulation

• [bilabial] - Bilabial consonants
• [labiodental] - Labiodental consonants
• [dental] - Dental consonants
• [alveolar] - Alveolar consonants
• [postalveolar] - Postalveolar consonants
• [retroflex] - Retroflex consonants
• [palatal] - Palatal consonants
• [velar] - Velar consonants
• [uvular] - Uvular consonants
• [pharyngeal] - Pharyngeal consonants
• [glottal] - Glottal consonants

Voicing

• [voiced] - Voiced consonants
• [voiceless] - Voiceless consonants

Usage

Selectors can be used to define phonological rules. Each rule has the format:

new PhoneMap(environment, targetPhoneme, mapToPhoneme)

For example:

// Rule: Convert 'b' to 'c' when it appears between 'a' and 'c'
new PhoneMap('a _ c', 'b', 'c')

// Rule: Convert any voiced consonant to 'c' when it appears before 'e'
new PhoneMap('[voiced] _ e', 'd', 'c')

Examples

// Convert all vowels to 'a' when they appear before 'd'
new PhoneMap('[vowel] _ d', '*', 'a')

// Convert all voiced consonants to their voiceless counterparts
new PhoneMap('[voiced]', '*', '[voiceless]')

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

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