sinophone 0.0.1

Python package for manipulating Chinese phonology.

Sinophone (三耨風)

sinophone is a python package that helps to manipulate Chinese phonology. It is divided into two submodules, sinophone.phonetics and sinophone.phonology. The former is a general abstraction of IPA symbols and distinctive features which could well be applied to other languages, while the latter is designed specifically to suit the purpose of working with the phonologies of Chinese languages.

Install

pip install sinophone

Example of use

In the following example, I simulated a tiny portion of Shanghainese phonology. Observe how sinophone can collocate phonemes to create a list of hypothetical syllables, and then pick out the ones that contradict the phonotactic constraint pc. It also applied a phonological rule when printing the syllable in phonetic transcription as bʊ̃ŋ˥˥, instead of the phonemic one, boŋ˥˥.

from sinophone.phonetics import *
from sinophone.phonology import *

# Syllable 音節
kuaq = Syllable(
    Initial("k"),
    Final(
        medial=Medial("ʷ"),
        nucleus=Nucleus("ɐ"),
        coda=Coda("ʔ"),
    ),
    Tone("˥˥"),
)
kuaq  # <Syllable [<Initial 'k'> <Final [<Medial 'ʷ'> <Nucleus 'ɐ'> <Coda 'ʔ'>]> <Tone '˥˥'>]>

lon = Syllable(Initial("l"), Final(nucleus=Nucleus("o"), coda=Coda("ŋ")), Tone("˨˧"))

bo = Syllable(Initial("b"), Final(nucleus=Nucleus("o")), Tone("˨˧"))


# PhonologicalRule 音韻規則
pr = PhonologicalRule(
    Nucleus("o"),
    IPAString("ʊ̃"),
    SyllableFeatures({"Final": {IPAFeatureGroup("+nasal")}}),
)
pr  # <PhonologicalRule "o -> ʊ̃ / {'Final': '+nasal'}">


# PhonotacticConstraint 音位排列制約
pc = PhonotacticConstraint(
    SyllableFeatures(
        {
            "Initial": {IPAFeatureGroup("+stop +voiced")},
            "Tone": {IPAFeatureGroup("+extra-high-level")},
        }
    ),
    PhonotacticAcceptability(False, False),
)
pc  # <PhonotacticConstraint {'Initial': '+plosive +voiced', 'Tone': '+extra-high-level'}: {'existent': False, 'grammatical': False}>


# Phonology 音系
phonology = Phonology(
    syllables={kuaq, bo, lon},
    phonotactics={pc},
    phonological_rules=[pr],
)

phonology.initials  # {<Initial 'k'>, <Initial 'l'>, <Initial 'b'>}

# automatically collocate to create hypothetical syllables
phonology.collocations

# list of hypothetical syllables contradicting phonotactics
[
    syllable.phonetic_ipa_str
    for syllable in phonology.collocations
    if phonology.render_syllable(syllable).acceptability
    != PhonotacticAcceptability(True, True)
]  # [<IPAString 'bo˥˥'>, <IPAString 'bʷɐʔ˥˥'>, <IPAString 'bʊ̃ŋ˥˥'>]