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IPAZounds (was: Reversible sound change applier)

From:Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Date:Wednesday, May 10, 2006, 21:29
Aidan Grey wrote:
> Actually, check out IPAZounds, by Jamie Norrish. Not only does it do > reverse application, but it also uses IPA or XSAMPA, can group rules (you > write the rule for nasalization once, and then simply refer to > Nasalization whenever you need it again)....
WOW! but boo-hoo, I don't think I'm computer-savvy enough to use that, so will end up doing Gwr by hand. 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??? (I _have_ figured out that one must use a fixed-width font.) In olden (typewriter) days, of course, one drew them in by hand. Actually, re { }, as J.McCawley used to say, if you see them in a rule, something is wrong-- probably too generalized, or conflating things that shouldn't be.... "Curly brackets are bad." 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.