wccm 0.5.0

Compact command-line conlang manager

Wer's Compact Conlang Manager, or WCCM, is a simple command-line tool designed to make conlanging ever so slightly faster and easier by converting a simple, customizeable syntax into clean and readable conlang dictionaries.

I built this because spreadsheets had too much visual clutter and other existing tools were really overkill. All you need to do is type your properties with shorthands you can customize, and you'll receive a nicely formatted text file.

For example, this:

Drink
$dɹINkH
%noun
%verb
+dirnks $ dɹINkHs
;gen :drink's
|3rd sg present /drinks
=beverage
=liquid
=sip
=gulp
=swallow
!food
!solid
!edible
!snack
!meal
?take (a liquid) into the mouth and swallow
?a liquid that can be swallowed as refreshment or nourishment

Turns into this:

Drink [dɹɪŋkʰ]
Meanings:
   - take (a liquid) into the mouth and swallow
   - a liquid that can be swallowed as refreshment or nourishment
plural: "drinks" [dɹɪŋkʰ]
Synonyms: 
    - beverage
    - liquid
    - sip
    - gulp
    - swallow
Antonyms: 
    - food
    - solid
    - edible
    - snack
    - meal
Parts Of Speech:  noun, verb
Conjugations:
    - 3rd sg present: drinks

Installation

1. install Python 3.6 or newer from python.org
2. download or clone this repository
3. no additional packages are needed, uses only python standard library!

Usage:

Install it:

pip install wccm

Then you can just use it like this:

wccm file.wccm 

Outputs to Lexicon.txt by default.

Syntax

WCCM uses symbols to represent different properties. Their order is irrelevant, as long as the plain word is always first.

Lexicon

(Lexicon-related syntax goes in .wccm files).

Symbol	Field	Example
(None)	Word	Kat
$	IPA	$kæt
#	Semantic field	#animal
~	Gender	~M
?	Translation	?Cat
+	Plural form(s)	+Cats
; and :	Case name / case form	;gen :cat's
=	Synonym(s)	=feline
!	Antonym(s)	!dog
%	Part of speech	%noun
*	Etymology	*from 'kaltnaen'
| and /	Conjugations	|3rd sg present /does
@ and :	Custom	@class :animte
//	Comment	// what do I even put here
^	Identifier	^Q
>	Example sentence

Example sentence syntax

>[sentence in conlang] $ [IPA] ? [meaning] >> [gloss]

Example:

>xle thronuth fa? $ xle TRonuT fa ? are you okay? >> good be.2sg Q

IMPORTANT NOTE: The symbols and their order is fixed. You cannot change the order in which the symbols appear, and said symbols are hardcoded to the defaults even if you've changed them in a .pref file. The spaces between symbols (? instead of ?) IS necessary, since the parser specifically looks for ? and does the same with the other symbols.

This is going to be improved in future updates.

Inventory

(Inventory-related information goes in .cmi files).

Symbol	Field	Example
.	consonant	.tH
,	vowel	,3
^	Tone	^rising
-	romanization	-ñ :ny

Allophony

(allophony-related info goes in .allo files).

No more freaky symbols this time, this is how allophone files work:

change <phoneme> - <allophone>
env <rules>

For example, this:

change b - B
env V_V

would output this:

b → β / V_V

Don't like that set of symbols? That's completely fine! You can edit them anytime by going into config.json.

IPA

I know that typing IPA symbols can be tedious if you don't have the tools, which is why I implemented a function to let you map a character to an IPA sound, to make writing transcriptions easier!

Configuration

WCCM lets you customize:

• what each symbol means (which property it represents)
• IPA character mapping (e.g., : -> ː)
• default output file

Default configurations:

{
    "ipa": {
        "S": "ʃ",
        "T": "θ",
        "R": "ɾ",
        "B": "β",
        "D": "ð",
        "N": "ŋ",
        "J": "ʲ",
        "Z": "ʒ",
        ":": "ː",
        "'": "ˈ",
        "ny": "ɲ",
        "W": "ʷ",
        "H": "ʰ",
        "A": "ɑ",
        "E": "ə",
        "I": "ɪ",
        "3": "ɛ",
        "O": "ɔ",
        "U": "ʊ",
        "^": "ʌ",
        "X": "χ"
    },
    "props": {
        "$": "ipa",
        "#": "field",
        "%": "pos",
        "//": "comment",
        "~": "gender",
        "=": "synonym",
        "!": "antonym",
        "+": "plural",
        "?": "meaning",
        "*": "etymology",
        ";": "case",
        "|": "conjugations",
        "@": "custom"
    },
    "inv":  {
        ".":  "consonant",
        ",": "vowel",
        "^": "tone",
        "-": "romanization"
    },
    "prefs": {
        "output": {
            "defaultFileName": "lexicon",
            "defaultFormat": "txt"
        }
    }
}

For the IPA replacement mapping, the character on the left is the character that the program will replace. So, essentially, if your IPA is "SaTaZ", with the default configurations (the ones showed above) it would turn into "ʃaθaʒ".

As you might've guessed, you can also choose the default name and format of the output file! The name can be anything you want, and the file extension can be either .txt or .md. A lexicon.json file is always automatically generated, which is why .json isn't an option in preferences.

All you have to do to change your configs is write your file, save it as .pref and just use it as an argument:

wccm configs.pref 

and that's it!

Here's how this works:

ipamap set <characters> to <IPA>
propmap set <symbol(s)> to <property name>
default output format set <file extension>
default file name set <name>
invnetorymap set <symbol(s)> to <property>

Limitations

If you ever want to remap a symbol, as said before, you're allowed (and encouraged) to do so! However, it is very important that you don't map \ to anything. Since i don't want to confuse you with tech talk, basically, \ is a special character and if you try to use it for mapping the configuration file is going to break.

And, for reasons that are truly beyond my knowledge, "field" (semantic field) and "comment" properties can't be modified? I'll try to fix it later; too tired to do it right now.

Other than that, you should be able to change pretty much anything!

About

WCCM started as just a little personal tool I developed because I'm stubborn and don't like any of the tools that already exist, and now I'm sharing it in case someone finds it useful as well.

Feedback is appreciated!

This is my first time actually finishing and sharing a project, so I'd genuinely love to hear suggestions or ideas for future versions, as well as bug reports and other stuff like that. Also, if you guys think that this is a bit "too technical" for the average conlanger, please let me know and I'll try my best to make it as intuitive and a little more non-coder friendly.

You can contact me pretty much any time in my twitter (I'm not calling it 'X') or my reddit!