Module: Linguistics::Latin::Phonographia

Defined in:
lib/linguistics_latin/phonographia.rb

Overview

The Phonographia module handles the phonography of written Latin: how the sound of Latin is written. In particular, the sounds that need special notation are the vowels which may bear a long (“ā”) or short (“a”) quantity.

When forming Latin words from heuristic (as LatinVerb does), certain phonographical structures arise that one does not see in the language as practiced by humans. For example, given “amāre,” the stem is “amā.” When the heuristic postpends “t” to get the present, indicative, third person singular, the result is “amāt,” which, by rules of Latin phonology, must be made to bear a short sound in the ultimate vowel. This state is phonographically notes as “amat.” This module implements the appropriate rules for proper phonetic compliance.

DESCRIPTION

Latin has several rules pertaining to how long sounds must behave based on their neighboring characters. The rules that fix_macrons tests are the following

RULES

Rule 1:

m/r/t at end of line shortens preceding vowel

Rule 2:

macron-bearing vowel before vowel, regardless of its quantity

Rule 3:

macron-bearing vowel before /n/ anywhere in the string

ARGUMENTS

s

a string which needs to be processed for Latin phonographic

compliance

RETURNS

String with consonants properly converted

EXAMPLE

fix_macrons(fabām) #=> fabam ( Rule 1 ) fix_macrons(cāīō) #=> caiō ( Rule 1, Rule 2 )

Constant Summary collapse

MACRON_TABLE = 
{
  "\xc4\x81" => 'a',
  "\xc4\x93" => 'e',
  "\xc4\xab" => 'i',
  "\xc5\x8d" => 'o',
  "\xc5\xab" => 'u',
  "\xc4\x80" => 'A',
  "\xc4\x92" => 'E',
  "\xc4\xaa" => 'I',
  "\xc5\x8c" => 'O',
  "\xc5\xaa" => 'U',
  "ā" => 'a',
  "ē" => 'e',
  "ī" => 'i',
  "ō" => 'o',
  "ū" => 'u',
  "Ā" => 'A',
  "Ē" => 'E',
  "Ī" => 'I',
  "Ō" => 'O',
  "Ū" => 'U'
}

Class Method Summary collapse

Instance Method Summary collapse

Class Method Details

.fix_macrons(s) ⇒ Object 



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# File 'lib/linguistics_latin/phonographia.rb', line 72

def fix_macrons(s)
  s = mrt_at_end_of_word(s)
  s = macron_before_vowel(s)
  s = macron_before_nd(s)
  s
end

.macron_before_nd(s) ⇒ Object 



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# File 'lib/linguistics_latin/phonographia.rb', line 93

def macron_before_nd(s)
  if s =~ /n[td]/
    mutaturum = s.split(//)
    mutatum = []
    mutaturum.each_with_index do |e, i|
      if ( e == "n" && mutaturum[i+1].match(/[td]/) && !MACRON_TABLE[mutaturum[i-1]].nil? )
        mutatum[i-1] = MACRON_TABLE[mutaturum[i-1]]
      end
      mutatum << e
    end
    return mutatum.join ''
  end
  s
end

.macron_before_vowel(s) ⇒ Object 



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# File 'lib/linguistics_latin/phonographia.rb', line 86

def macron_before_vowel(s)
   if s =~ /(.*)([āēīōūĀĒĪŌŪ])([āēīōūĀĒĪŌŪaeiouAEIOU])(.*)/i
     return self.fix_macrons $1 + MACRON_TABLE[$2] + $3 + $4
   end
  s
end

.mrt_at_end_of_word(s) ⇒ Object 



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# File 'lib/linguistics_latin/phonographia.rb', line 79

def mrt_at_end_of_word(s)
  if s =~ /^(.*)([āēīōūĀĒĪŌŪ])([mrt])$/i
    return $1 + MACRON_TABLE[$2] + $3
  end
  s
end

Instance Method Details

#fix_macrons(s) ⇒ Object 



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# File 'lib/linguistics_latin/phonographia.rb', line 109

def fix_macrons(s)
  Linguistics::Latin::Phonographia.fix_macrons(s)
end