NAME

Lingua::LO::NLP - Various Lao text processing functions

SYNOPSIS

use utf8;
use 5.10.1;
use open qw/ :std :encoding(UTF-8) /;
use Lingua::LO::NLP;
use Data::Dumper;

my $lao = Lingua::LO::NLP->new;

my @syllables = $lao->split_to_syllables("ສະບາຍດີ"); # qw( ສະ ບາຍ ດີ )
print Dumper(\@syllables);

for my $syl (@syllables) {
    my $analysis = $lao->analyze_syllable($syl);
    printf "%s: %s\n", $analysis->syllable, $analysis->tone;
    # ສະ: TONE_HIGH_STOP
    # ບາຍ: TONE_LOW
    # ດີ: TONE_LOW
}

say $lao->romanize("ສະບາຍດີ", variant => 'PCGN', hyphen => "\N{HYPHEN}");  # sa‐bay‐di
say $lao->romanize("ສະບາຍດີ", variant => 'IPA');                           # sa baːj diː

DESCRIPTION

This module provides various functions for processing Lao text. Currently it can

• split Lao text (usually written without blanks between words) into syllables
• analyze syllables with regards to core and end consonants, vowels, tone and other properties
• romanize Lao text according to the PCGN standard or to IPA (experimental)

These functions are basically just shortcuts to the functionality of some specialized modules: Lingua::LO::NLP::Syllabify, Lingua::LO::NLP::Analyze and Lingua::LO::NLP::Romanize. If you need only one of them, you can shave off a little overhead by using those directly.

METHODS

new

new(option =E<gt> value, ...)

The object constructor currently does nothing; there are no options. However, it is likely that there will be in future versions, therefore it is highly recommended to call methods as object methods so your code won't break when I introduce them.

split_to_syllables

my @syllables = $object-E<gt>split_to_syllables($text, %options );

Split Lao text into its syllables using a regexp modelled after PHISSAMAY, DALALOY and DURRANI: Syllabification of Lao Script for Line Breaking. Takes as its only mandatory parameter a character string to split and optionally a number of named options; see "new" in Lingua::LO::NLP::Syllabify for those. Returns a list of syllables.

analyze_syllable

my $classified = $object-E<gt>analyze_syllable($syllable, %options);

Returns a Lingua::LO::NLP::Analyze object that allows you to query various syllable properties such as core consonant, tone mark, vowel length and tone. See there for details.

romanize

$object-E<gt>romanize($lao, %options);

Returns a romanized version of the text passed in as $lao. See "new" in Lingua::LO::NLP::Romanize for options. If you don't pass in any options, the default is variant => 'PCGN'.

SEE ALSO

Lingua::LO::Romanize is the module that inspired this one. It has some issues with ambiguous syllable boundaries as in "ໃນວົງ" though.

AUTHOR

Matthias Bethke, matthias@towiski.de

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2016 by Matthias Bethke

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.14.2 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available. Significant portions of the code are (C) PostgreSQL Global Development Group and The Regents of the University of California. All modified versions must retain the file COPYRIGHT included in the distribution.