Re: telepaths, sound changes, age changes, v changes, and lexicon

On Wed, 4 Apr 2001, jesse stephen bangs wrote:

> > > Forgot to mention this--Rosenfelder's sound change program (it can be
> > > found at http://www.zompist.com) is useful for brute-force application of
> > > sound changes, though I find the fact that it can't handle digraphs
> > > unless you write up special rules yourself annoying.  If my programming
> > > were any less rusty I would try to write a version that *could* handle
> > > strings instead of just single letters.
> >
> > Heh, you and me both ;)   I had to use practically all the punctuation on my
> > keyboard to convert all the digraphs and higher Unicode characters to
> > monogr... (er, neither 'monogram' nor 'monograph' is the right word!!)...
> > but it came out okay in the end, even if I have to end up with rules like
> > K/>/_y  (er, that is Proto-Hadwan <sy> <s,y> and <s'y> all become <s'>...
> > the rule to delete the <y> is later).
>
> How do you use this soundchange program?  I downloaded it and ran it, and
> all it did was ask me for a .lex file (which I don't have), and a .sc file
> (which I also don't have).  Is there some way to create these files, and
> if so, how do I find out?  It is worth the trouble, or should I stick with
> Langmaker?
Those are both text files but with funny endings so the program knows
what to look for.  Rosenfelder's page *ought* to have directions on how
to use it, and I found it pretty easy; I've never been able to get
Langmaker to run on my machine, so if it does the trick it may not be
worth the trouble.  But in and of itself the soundchange program doesn't
take a whole lot of effort to use (except for figuring out how to deal
with digraphs, or else "Converting" digraphs to other symbols and hoping
you don't run out of keyboard).  The .lex file is something you create
with the ancestor-words to be changed; the .sc file is something you
create to tell the program what sound chanes to run.

Ah, found the directions:

http://www.zompist.com/sounds.htm

Hope that's helpful.  If you have a large .lex file I do recommend using
the command-line switch -f so you don't have to sit there watching words
scroll by (somewhat slow).

YHL

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