Wolfram Function Repository

Instant-use add-on functions for the Wolfram Language

Function Repository Resource:

 WordSyllables

Source Notebook

Give a list of the separate English syllables of the input word

Contributed by: Mark Greenberg

ResourceFunction["WordSyllables"][wd]

gives a list of the syllables of wd pronounced in English.

Details and Options

ResourceFunction["WordSyllables"][wd,"SplitDoubleConsonants"→True] separates pairs like "pp" and "ss", which is the usual practice in hyphenation.
ResourceFunction["WordSyllables"][wd] maintains most pairs like "pp" and "ss", which is more accurate phonetically.
ResourceFunction["WordSyllables"] returns strings in all lowercase, regardless of the input case.

Examples

Basic Examples (1) 

Find the syllables of an English word:

In[1]:=
ResourceFunction["WordSyllables"]["regulatory"]
Out[1]=

Scope (2) 

Find the syllables of a proper noun as it would be pronounced in English:

In[2]:=
ResourceFunction["WordSyllables"]["garibaldi"]
Out[2]=

Find the syllables of a nonsense or poetic word:

In[3]:=
ResourceFunction[ "WordSyllables"]["supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"]
Out[3]=

Options (1) 

Find the hyphenation of a word, splitting double consonant pairs:

In[4]:=
ResourceFunction["WordSyllables"]["happily", "SplitDoubleConsonants" -> True]
Out[4]=

Properties and Relations (1) 

WordData[wd,"Hyphenation"] provides hyphenation data on 90% of the words in its own dictionary and some proper nouns, but nothing for obscure poetic words, newly coined words, or nonsense words. Furthermore, hyphenation is not the same as syllabification. WordSyllables fills in that gap for applications like phonetic or linguistic analysis of English texts:

In[5]:=
words = {"a", "over", "eightpence", "recovered", "chasm", "disconcerting", "vorpal", "Evandrine"}; Dataset[<|"input word" -> #, "WordData" -> WordData[#, "Hyphenation"], "WordSyllables" -> ResourceFunction["WordSyllables"][#]|> & /@ words]
Out[6]=

Publisher

Mark Greenberg

Version History

  • 1.0.0 – 22 August 2019

Related Resources

Author Notes

Using RandomWord for testing data, WordSyllables is 99.4% effective at providing correct syllabification, which is 10.0% more effective than WordData. Be aware that WordSyllables does make errors occasionally, especially on words like "consomme" imported from foreign languages. Also, WordSyllables is limited to input containing only letters of the English alphabet. Words with accent marks, umlauts, etc. may produce unintended results.

License Information