/ 
Lingua-LO-NLP-v0.0.1_005
River stage zero No dependents
/ Lingua::LO::NLP

NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

use Lingua::LO::NLP;
use Data::Dumper;
use utf8;
my $laotr = Lingua::LO::NLP->new;
my @syllables = $laotr->split_to_syllables("ສະບາຍດີ"); # qw( ສະ ບາຍ ດີ )
print Dumper(\@syllables);
for my $syl (@syllables) {
    my $clas = $laotr->analyze_syllable($syl);
    printf "%s: %s\n", $clas->syllable, $clas->tone;
    # ສະ: TONE_HIGH_STOP
    # ບາຍ: TONE_LOW
    # ດີ: TONE_LOW
}

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

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 > 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 = $object->split_to_syllables($text);

Split Lao text into its syllables. Uses a regexp modelled after Phissamay, Dalaloy and Durrani: "Syllabification of Lao Script for Line Breaking". Takes as its only parameter a character string to split and returns a list of syllables.

analyze_syllable

my $classified = $object->analyze_syllable($syllable);

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.

SEE ALSO

Lingua::LO::Romanize is the module that inspired this one, and if you need only romanization you should give it a try. It is vastly simpler and faster by a factor of about 10 but does have problems with ambiguous syllable boundaries as in "ໃນວົງ" and certain semivowel combinations as in "ດ້ວຍ", the latter of which would probably be fixable but the former are very difficult without going for a full syllable parse like this module does.