Re: IPAZounds (was: Reversible sound change applier)

Roger Mills writes:

[IPA Zounds]
 > WOW! but boo-hoo, I don't think I'm computer-savvy enough to use
 > that, so will end up doing Gwr by hand.

I'd be very interested to hear what pitfalls in using it that you see
- I'd like to make the program as user-friendly as possible.

 > But a related question for anyone who has done rule-writing by hand
 > (on the computer)-- how does one get BIG
 > parentheses/brackets/braces that enclose large sets of features et
 > al., e.g.  [+xxx, +yyy, -zzz, -mno etc] but arranged vertically???

IPA Zounds uses the extended parenthesis Unicode characters, which
provide for a top, bottom, and extendible middle elements for left and
right parentheses.

 > The set of distinctive features is very useful; but I don't see any
 > way to indicate retroflexion _of vowels_. Nor is it clear whether
 > Greek-letter variables are supported, though he does give examples
 > of them.

You can add a retroflex diacritic to a vowel, if you want to - or
indeed to any IPA base character.

Greek-letter variables are supported; check the documentation under
Homorganic variables (in the Advanced topics section).

Jamie
--
Artefact Publishing: http://www.artefact.org.nz/
GnuPG Public Key: http://www.artefact.org.nz/people/jamie.html