Welcome
to
Phono,
a Windows-based software tool
for creating and testing models of regular historical sound change
in natural languages.
Please send questions, suggestions, and news of your use to <lhartman[at]siu[dot]edu>.
Phono,
a Windows-based software tool
for creating and testing models of regular historical sound change
in natural languages.
Please send questions, suggestions, and news of your use to <lhartman[at]siu[dot]edu>.
•
Try
Phono online with models for Spanish and Pig Latin
(children's
"secret"
language)
• Download Phono with models for Spanish, Shawnee, and Pig Latin
(After downloading and unzipping "phono.zip", and before running the program,
read the "readMe.txt" file.)
• Phono User's Manual
• Download the source code (Visual Basic 5.0)
• Download Phono with models for Spanish, Shawnee, and Pig Latin
(After downloading and unzipping "phono.zip", and before running the program,
read the "readMe.txt" file.)
• Phono User's Manual
• Download the source code (Visual Basic 5.0)
A
Brief History of Phono
Phono was first written in 1980 in the PL/I programming language to
run on an IBM 360 mainframe computer. That first version was
named PHONO in all-caps, because the font for output was limited to the
uppercase letters of the Roman alphabet, plus the ten numerals and a
few punctuation marks. This limited font needed to be
supplemented by "feature-based diacritics" (see Hartman
1981).
Words of output—having been derived in terms of binary feature
values—were displayed using the nearest equivalent letters of the
uppercase alphabet, accompanied by signed feature names to indicate how
they differed from the default values of those uppercase
letters.
Each stage of output for a word was a two-dimensional display.
In the original PL/I version, the rules of the Spanish model were hard-coded in the program.
Versions 2 (ca. 1988) and 3 (1993) were written in DOS-based Pascal for microcomputers. In these versions the rules of the Spanish model were extracted from the program code and recast as data for the program to read and interpret, thus opening the possibility for Phono to operate models for other languages besides Spanish. The output font was expanded to include potentially any of the characters of ASCII code from #33 ("!") through #175 ("»"). With this arrangement, a sound such as the palatal sibilant [ʃ] could be assigned (arbitrarily) to an ASCII character such as "$". This arrangement was a great improvement over the all-caps alphabet, but it still depended heavily on feature-based diacritics, a problem cited by Becker (1996) in his review of Version 3.2.
Version 3.0 (1993) included an internal editor for the alphabet (still one alphabet for both input and output), making it possible to customize the alphabet’s feature values to the user’s taste. This version made possible the display of the whole derivation in a single screen, rather than a screen for each stage of the derivation.
Version 3.1 (1994) incorporated an internal rule editor, thus automatically enforcing the restrictions on rule notation. This version was made available on the Web for downloading (see Hartman 2003b).
In 1997, Towhid Bin Muzaffar used PHONO (still in all-caps) to write a 48-rule model that derived words of Shawnee from their Proto-Algonquian etymons (Muzaffar 1997).
The fourth (2002) and fifth (2018) versions were written in Visual Basic (Ver. 5.0), operating under Windows. Now Phono has access to a font of the IPA alphabet, produced by SIL International <www.sil.org>. Output forms can now be displayed linearly, while any deviations of feature values from the default values of the IPA characters can be revealed by a mouse rollover. The display of output has access to nearly the entire IPA alphabet, while the characters for input are limited to those of the keyboard; given this difference, Phono now uses different alphabets for these two phases.
As of 2017, a sixth version exists, written in JavaScript, which operates the Spanish and Pig Latin models online without the trouble of downloading the program and installing the phonetic font. The output font is yet again improved, as this version (unlike the Visual Basic versions) has access to the characters of Unicode, with their crisp appearance on screen. A major drawback of this version, however, is that it offers no way at present for the user to create and edit models. In fact, the Spanish model is hard-coded in JavaScript, an ironic throwback to the original mainframe version of the 1980s.
All these versions of Phono have used the same if/then structure of rule notation, with the same seven types of if- and then-lines, labeled A, B, C... and 1, 2, 3..., although there have been some changes in nomenclature. The line types now called "absolute" (e.g. "+cons (*)") and "relative" (e.g. "voice (*) = voice (*+1)") were called, at different times in the past, respectively, "constant" and "variable", "constant" and "alpha", or "signed-feature" and "alpha". And the rules that add feature-value precision to input forms before the beginning of the diachronic derivation have been called variously "orthographic" rules ("old" and "new" for etymon and reflex respectively), "adjustment" rules, or—at present—"interpretive" rules. From Version 2 up to the present, all versions of Phono have had the capability to simulate "persistent" rules, namely those rules that are applied throughout a word's history whenever their conditions come about, and all have offered the option of "masking" (temporarily disabling) any particular rule.
REFERENCES
Becker, Donald. A. (1996). "Historical Linguistics as a Hacker's Pradise: Review of PHONO 3.2". Glot International, 2:22.
Hartman, Lee (2003a). Modeling Phonological Change. In Language Evolution and Computation: Proceedings of the Workshop/Course at E[uropean] S[ummer] S[chool on] L[anguage,] L[ogic, and] I[nformation], Vienna.
Hartman, Lee (2003b). Phono (Version 4.0): Software for Modeling Regular Historical Sound Change". In Actas [del] VIII Simposio Internacional de Comunicación Social, Santiago de Cuba, 20-24 de enero del 2003, I.606-609).
Hartman, Steven Lee (1981). "A Universal Alphabet for Experiments in Comparative Phonology". Computers and the Humanities, 15:75-82.
Muzaffar, Towhid Bin (1997). "Computer Simulation of Shawnee Historical Phonology". M.A. thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
In the original PL/I version, the rules of the Spanish model were hard-coded in the program.
Versions 2 (ca. 1988) and 3 (1993) were written in DOS-based Pascal for microcomputers. In these versions the rules of the Spanish model were extracted from the program code and recast as data for the program to read and interpret, thus opening the possibility for Phono to operate models for other languages besides Spanish. The output font was expanded to include potentially any of the characters of ASCII code from #33 ("!") through #175 ("»"). With this arrangement, a sound such as the palatal sibilant [ʃ] could be assigned (arbitrarily) to an ASCII character such as "$". This arrangement was a great improvement over the all-caps alphabet, but it still depended heavily on feature-based diacritics, a problem cited by Becker (1996) in his review of Version 3.2.
Version 3.0 (1993) included an internal editor for the alphabet (still one alphabet for both input and output), making it possible to customize the alphabet’s feature values to the user’s taste. This version made possible the display of the whole derivation in a single screen, rather than a screen for each stage of the derivation.
Version 3.1 (1994) incorporated an internal rule editor, thus automatically enforcing the restrictions on rule notation. This version was made available on the Web for downloading (see Hartman 2003b).
In 1997, Towhid Bin Muzaffar used PHONO (still in all-caps) to write a 48-rule model that derived words of Shawnee from their Proto-Algonquian etymons (Muzaffar 1997).
The fourth (2002) and fifth (2018) versions were written in Visual Basic (Ver. 5.0), operating under Windows. Now Phono has access to a font of the IPA alphabet, produced by SIL International <www.sil.org>. Output forms can now be displayed linearly, while any deviations of feature values from the default values of the IPA characters can be revealed by a mouse rollover. The display of output has access to nearly the entire IPA alphabet, while the characters for input are limited to those of the keyboard; given this difference, Phono now uses different alphabets for these two phases.
As of 2017, a sixth version exists, written in JavaScript, which operates the Spanish and Pig Latin models online without the trouble of downloading the program and installing the phonetic font. The output font is yet again improved, as this version (unlike the Visual Basic versions) has access to the characters of Unicode, with their crisp appearance on screen. A major drawback of this version, however, is that it offers no way at present for the user to create and edit models. In fact, the Spanish model is hard-coded in JavaScript, an ironic throwback to the original mainframe version of the 1980s.
All these versions of Phono have used the same if/then structure of rule notation, with the same seven types of if- and then-lines, labeled A, B, C... and 1, 2, 3..., although there have been some changes in nomenclature. The line types now called "absolute" (e.g. "+cons (*)") and "relative" (e.g. "voice (*) = voice (*+1)") were called, at different times in the past, respectively, "constant" and "variable", "constant" and "alpha", or "signed-feature" and "alpha". And the rules that add feature-value precision to input forms before the beginning of the diachronic derivation have been called variously "orthographic" rules ("old" and "new" for etymon and reflex respectively), "adjustment" rules, or—at present—"interpretive" rules. From Version 2 up to the present, all versions of Phono have had the capability to simulate "persistent" rules, namely those rules that are applied throughout a word's history whenever their conditions come about, and all have offered the option of "masking" (temporarily disabling) any particular rule.
REFERENCES
Becker, Donald. A. (1996). "Historical Linguistics as a Hacker's Pradise: Review of PHONO 3.2". Glot International, 2:22.
Hartman, Lee (2003a). Modeling Phonological Change. In Language Evolution and Computation: Proceedings of the Workshop/Course at E[uropean] S[ummer] S[chool on] L[anguage,] L[ogic, and] I[nformation], Vienna.
Hartman, Lee (2003b). Phono (Version 4.0): Software for Modeling Regular Historical Sound Change". In Actas [del] VIII Simposio Internacional de Comunicación Social, Santiago de Cuba, 20-24 de enero del 2003, I.606-609).
Hartman, Steven Lee (1981). "A Universal Alphabet for Experiments in Comparative Phonology". Computers and the Humanities, 15:75-82.
Muzaffar, Towhid Bin (1997). "Computer Simulation of Shawnee Historical Phonology". M.A. thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
-o0o-