Ichos-GSL Documentation

Documentation is always a work in progress as it is only useful when users are actually able to benefit from it.

We have compiled here the information that we believe will be of practical use. If you find that something merits being included or discussed in more detail, contact us at info@sequencepublishing.com and we will adjust this document as appropriate.

Table of Contents

1. What is Ichos-GSL? [^]

Ichos-GSL is a specialized version of Ichos (a phonetic transcription management system). It targets the General Service List exclusively, allowing educators and researchers to carry out relatively sophisticated classifications of GSL headwords according to phonetic and orthographic criteria.

The database is composed of the 2,300 transcribed forms of the 2,284 GSL headwords and includes syllable boundaries as well as primary/secondary stress information (the extra 16 transcriptions correspond to words that have different pronunciation due to part of speech and/or meaning). The dialect model employed for transcription is North American English and where alternative pronunciations for a word are available, the one deemed more frequently used has been selected. The choice of dialect is arbitrary and exclusively based on convenience (ours, in particular, as we manufactured the data for an earlier work).

2. System Requirements [^]

Ichos-GSL has been developed for the Windows 2000/XP/Vista operating systems.

2.1 Installing [^]

Run the setup executable program and follow the instructions. Once installed, run Ichos-GSL from the Start menu, Desktop, Quick Launch bar, or directly from the installation folder.

2.2 Installing as Portable [^]

The installer provides the option of installing Ichos-GSL as a portable application so that it can be used from flash drives or similar devices.

Note that this option has been made available for convenience only. Ichos-GSL itself does not use the registry nor is it dependent on specific system resources. A "Standard" install, followed by a copy of the entire installation folder to a flash drive, will make Ichos-GSL portable and it will function as expected. Naturally, uninstall information will remain in the original computer and, thus, it is recommended that the "Make Application Portable" option is used in the intallation procedure if that is what is intended.

2.2 Uninstalling [^]

Run the uninstall utility provided (via the Start menu) or through the 'Add/Remove Programs' applet.

If Ichos-GSL is installed as a portable application, simply remove the directory where Ichos-GSL was installed.

3. Graphical User Interface [^]

Ichos-GSL has been designed with simplicity of use in mind, striving to be as intuitive as possible, and the distribution of its functionality has been conceptually separated into three areas (discussed in depth in the following subsections):

• Phonetic Area where to manage and carry out phonetic pattern searches.
• Orthographic Area where to manage and carry out orthogrpahic pattern searches.
• Results Area where to manage the outcome of phonetic and orthographic pattern searches.

The listboxes in the Phonetic and Orthographic areas accumulate search patterns while the listbox in the Results area displays GSL headwords that satisfy a given pattern criterion.

The graphical user interface is complemented with information tooltips that provide quick information about nearly every aspect of Ichos-GSL. Their goal is to help familiarize users with the interface. Tooltips can be (de)activated at any time via the 'blue and green balloons' icon in the top-left corner.

3.1 Phonetic Area [^]

One of the most interesting aspects of Ichos-GSL is the ability to search the GSL headwords by means of phonetic criteria. This area provides such a functionality. Note that phonetic characters can be typed directly in accordance with the SAMPA encoding and that Ichos-GSL comes with its own phonetic font (no additional resources are necessary).

The following is a breakdown of the operations available:

	Searches the GSL headwords with a phonetic wildcard pattern and according to syllable boundaries and stress information settings.
	Brings up a phonetic character table where keyboard combinations are shown. Additionaly, phonetic characters can be selected from the table and inserted directly.
	Strips transcriptions of syllable boundary information before matching them against the search pattern.
	Strips transcriptions of stress information before matching them against the search pattern.
	Clears the Phonetic Patterns Listbox.
	Deletes those patterns currently selected in the Phonetic Patterns Listbox.
	Replaces the contents of the Phonetic Patterns Listbox with the contents of a file of patterns.
	Adds the contents of a file of patterns to the current contents of the Phonetic Patterns Listbox.
	Saves the contents of the Phonetic Patterns Listbox to a file.
	Carries out a cummulative search with all patterns currently selected in the Phonetic Patterns Listbox. Note that the search will use the settings for syllable boundary and stress.

3.1.1 SAMPA Encoding [^]

Ichos-GSL uses the SAMPA encoding to input phonetic characters. That is, typing 'E' will display 'ɛ', typing '@' will display 'ə', typing '{' will display 'æ', typing 'D' will display 'ð', typing 'N' will display 'ŋ', and so on.

The following table has been adapted from the the SAMPA page.

Keyboard	Symbol	Description
Vowels
A	ɑ	Open back unrounded, Cardinal 5, Eng. start
{	æ	Near-open front unrounded, Eng. trap
6	ɐ	Open schwa, Ger. besser
Q	ɒ	Open back rounded, Eng. lot
E	ɛ	Open-mid front unrounded, C3, Fr. même
@	ə	Schwa, Eng. banana
3	ɜ	Long mid central, Eng. nurse
I	ɪ	Lax close front unrounded, Eng. kit
O	ɔ	Open-mid back rounded, Eng. thought
2	ø	Close-mid front rounded, Fr. deux
9	œ	Open-mid front rounded, Fr. neuf
&	ɶ	Open front rounded
U	ʊ	Lax close back rounded, Eng. foot
}	ʉ	Close central rounded, Swedish sju
V	ʌ	Open-mid back unrounded, Eng. strut
Y	ʏ	Lax [y], Ger. hübsch
Consonants
B	β	Voiced bilabial fricative, Sp. cabo
C	ç	Voiceless palatal fricative, Ger. ich
D	ð	Voiced dental fricative, Eng. then
G	ɣ	Voiced velar fricative, Sp. fuego
L	ʎ	Palatal lateral, It. famiglia
J	ɲ	Palatal nasal, Sp. año
N	ŋ	Velar nasal, Eng. thing
R	ʁ	Vd. uvular fric. or trill, Fr. roi
S	ʃ	Voiceless palatoalveolar fricative, Eng. ship
T	θ	Voiceless dental fricative, Eng. thin
H	ɥ	Labial-palatal semivowel, Fr. huit
Z	ʒ	Vd. palatoalveolar fric., Eng. measure
Length and Stress
:	ː	Length mark
"	ˈ	Primary stress
%	ˌ	Secondary stress

Note that, naturally, not all these symbols are used by Ichos-GSL as its database only contains transcriptions of English words.

3.2 Orthographic Area [^]

It is also possible to conduct orthographic searches of the GSL headwords. The following is a breakdown of the operations available:

	Searches the GSL headwords with an orthographic wildcard pattern.
	Clears the Orthographic Patterns Listbox.
	Deletes those patterns currently selected in the Orthographic Patterns Listbox.
	Replaces the contents of the Orthographic Patterns Listbox with the contents of a file of patterns.
	Adds the contects of a file of patterns to the current contents of the Orthographic Patterns Listbox.
	Saves the contents of the Orthographic Patterns Listbox to a file.
	Carries out a cummulative search with all patterns currently selected in the Orthographic Patterns Listbox. Note that the search will use the settings for syllable boundary and stress.

3.2 Results Area [^]

Results from searches are displayed in the Results Listbox. The following is a breakdown of the operations available:

	Clears all previous results from the Results Listbox.
	Deletes those results currently selected in the Results Listbox.
	Adds the contents of a file of results to the current contents of the Results Listbox. Note that the results will accumulate according to the state of the Accumulate Results Checkbox.
	Saves the contents of the Results Listbox to a file.
	If checked, results from new searches are added to existing entries.

4. Wildcard Pattern Syntax [^]

Ichos-GSL checks for the validity of a pattern before conducting a search. Thus, understanding the syntax of patterns is important.

Wilcard patterns can contain the following elements (in addition to phonetic and orthographic characters):

Wildcard	Description
*	Matches any number of (including none) consonants and vowels.
?	Matches any one consonant or vowel.
$	Matches any one consonant.
#	Matches any one vowel.
(abc)	Matches any one of the characters inside the parenthesis ('a', 'b', or 'c', in this case).
(?-abc)	Matches any one consonant or vowel except those listed ('a', 'b', or 'c', in this case).
($-bcd)	Matches any one consonant except those listed ('b', 'c', or 'd', in this case).
(#-aei)	Matches any one vowel except those listed ('a', 'e', or 'i', in this case).
.	In phonetic searches, matches a syllable boundary marker.
ˈ	In phonetic searches, matches a primary stress marker.
ˌ	In phonetic searches, matches a secondary stress marker.

Note that, in phonetic searches, neither the * nor the ? wildcards will account for syllable or stress markers. That is, syllable and stress markers must be explicitly included when conducting a search that does not ignore such information.

4.1 Examples of Wildcard Patterns [^]

The following examples illustrate searches with phonetic patterns that ignore syllable and stress information.

Pattern	Description	Result
p#t	Words that start with /p/, end with /t/, and have any single vowel as nucleus.	pet, pot, put.
$?#?#	Words of exactly five phonemes in length that start with a consonant, followed by a vowel or consonant, followed by a vowel, followed by a vowel or consonant, and end in a vowel.	baby, beauty, daily, glory, holy, lady, lazy, maybe, pretty, steady, story, study, tidy.
*##$##*	Words that contain the sequence vowel-vowel-consonant-vowel-vowel in any position.	association, daylight, highway, homemade, idea, obey, radio.
(pb)(#-ʌæ)(td)	Words that start with either /p/ or /b/, end with either /t/ or /d/, and have any single vowel as nucleus except /ʌ/ and /æ/.	beat, bed, bit, pet, pot, put.
*ðo*	Words that contain the sequence /ðo/ in any position.	although, those, though, without.
ə*ə(rn)	Words that start with schwa and end with schwa plus either /r/ or /n/.	another, option.
str*(tθ)	Words that start with 'str' and end with either /t/ or /θ/.	straight, street, strenght, strict.
ɔ(lf)*(?-r)	Words of at least three phonemes in length that start with /ɔ/ followed by either /l/ or /f/ and end with any single consonant or vowel except /r/.	almost, already, also, although, always, office, often.
*dʒ##*	Words that contain, in any position, the sequence /dʒ/ followed by at least two vowels.	enjoy, gradual, join, joint, joke, joy, rejoice.
(?-pbtdkg)#(ɪʊ)*(nl)d	Words of at least five phonemes in length that start with any vowel or consonant except /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and /g/ followed by any vowel pairing with either /ɪ/ or /ʊ/, and end in either /n/ or /l/ pairing with a /d/.	find, fold, hold, mild, mind, round, sound, wild, wind[v].

The following examples illustrate searches with orthographic patterns.

Pattern	Description	Result
b#d	Words that start with 'b', end with 'd', and have any single vowel as nucleus.	bad, bed.
$?#?#$$$	Words of exactly eight characters in length that start with a consonant, followed by a vowel or consonant, followed by a vowel, followed by a vowel or consonant, followed by a vowel, and end with a three-consonant coda.	heavenly, properly. (Observe that the orthographic character 'y' is always considered a consonant)
##$##*	Words that start with the sequence vowel-vowel-consonant-vowel-vowel.	audience.
(pb)(#-a)(td)	Words that start with either 'p' or 'b', end with either 't' or 'd', and have any single vowel as nucleus except 'a'.	bed, bit, but, pet, pot, put.
*tho*	Words that contain the sequence 'tho' in any position.	although, thorn, thorough, those, though, without.
(eo)*a(rn)	Words that start with either 'e' or 'o' and end with 'a' followed by either 'r' or 'n'.	ear, electrician, oar, ocean, organ.
str*(np)	Words that start with the sequence 'str' and end with either 'n' or 'p'.	straighten, strap, strengthen, strip.
(ao)(lf)*(?-oednr)	Words of at least three characters in length that start with either 'a' or 'o', followed by either 'l' or 'f', and end with any character except 'o', 'e', 'd', 'n', and 'r'.	all, allow, almost, along, already, although, always, off, official.
un(ic)*#	Words of at least three characters in length that start with the sequence 'un', followed by either 'i' or 'c', and end with any vowel.	uncle, unite, universe.
(?-pbtdkg)#(eu)*(nl)d	Words of at least five characters in length that start with any character except 'p', 'b', 't', 'd', 'k', and 'g', followed by a vowel, followed by either 'e' or 'u', and end with either 'n' or 'l' followed by 'd'.	could, field, round, sound, weekend, would, wound, yield.

5. Syllable and Stress Information [^]

As mentioned, the transcriptions include syllable boundaries as well as primary/secondary stress information. In order to utilize this information, wildcard patterns must explictly include the appropriate markers. That is, neither the wildcard '*' nor '?' account for syllable boundaries ('.') or for primary ('ˈ') and secondary ('ˌ') stress markers. The advantages of this approach will become apparent from the examples below.

Note that, given the difficulties surrounding syllabification of English words (Kreidler, 1989; Kreidler, 1997; Ladefoged, 2001), the development and implementation of a coherent syllabification method has been a necessary priority. The Maximum Onset Principle (MOP) provides the fundamental rationale; namely, intervocalic consonants of adjoining syllables were affiliated with the onset of the subsequent syllable rather than with the coda of the preceding one in those instances where the result was a well-formed syllable (Pulgram, 1970; Anderson, 1982). Amendments to the MOP have been considered necessary in the case of consonant clusters corresponding to prefixes and word roots. Whenever possible, both the prefix and the word root have been kept intact (even at expense of the MOP as in disappear /ˈdɪs.ə.ˌpir/), and if a choice has had to be made as to which to retain between the two, the word root has taken precedence over the prefix. Observe that, no matter the situation, all syllables have been transcribed including a vowel nucleus and, thus, segments that might be transcribed as syllabic consonants in some systems (i.e. able /ˈeɪ.bļ/, bargain /ˈbɑr.gņ/) have been, for our purposes, transcribed as schwa + consonant (/ˈeɪ.bəl/ and /ˈbɑr.gən/).

Anderson, S. 1982. The analysis of French schwa; Or, how to get something from nothing. Language 58, 121-138.
Kreidler, C. 1989. The Pronunciation of English: A Course Book in Phonology, Blackwell, Oxford.
Kreidler, C. 1997. Describing spoken English: An introduction, Routledge, London.
Ladefoged, P. 2001. A course in phonetics, fourth ed., Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York.
Pulgram, E. 1970. Syllable, word, nexus, cursus. Mouton, The Hague.

5.1 Examples of Wildcard Patterns with Syllable and Stress Information [^]

The following examples illustrate searches with phonetic patterns that ignore stress information but don't ignore syllable boundaries.

Pattern	Description	Result
*ʌm	Monosyllabic words that end in /ʌ/ plus /m/.	come, drum, from, some, thumb.
*.k*	Disyllabic words whose second syllabe starts with /k/.	weekend.
*.???.*d	Trisyllabic words whose second syllable has exactly three phonemes and whose third syllable ends in /d/.	disregard, neighborhood, old-fashioned, understand.
*.*.*.(lr)*	Tetrasyllabic words whose last syllable starts with either /l/ or /r/.	congratulate, disappearance, interference, particular.
*.*.*.*.ʃɪn	Pentasyllabic words whose last syllable is /ʃɪn/.	association, classification, dissatisfaction, multiplication, pronunciation, qualification.
*.$(tl)#$.*	Trisyllabic words whose second syllable is exactly four phonemes in length, the first is any one consonant, the second either /t/ or /l/, the third any one vowel, and the fourth any one consonant.	complicate, extension, extensive.

The following examples illustrate searches with phonetic patterns that don't ignore either syllable or stress information.

Pattern	Description	Result
ˈ*.m*l	Disyllabic words stressed on the first syllable and whose second syllable starts with /m/ and ends in /l/.	female, formal.
əb.ˈ*	Disyllabic words stressed on the second syllable and whose first syllable starts with a schwa followed by a /b/.	about, above, abroad, object[v], observe.
ˈ#*.$#$.ˌ#*	Trisyllabic words whose first syllable receives primary stress and starts with a vowel, whose second syllable is a consonant-vowel-consonant sequence, and whose last syllable receives secondary stress and starts with a vowel.	operate, organize.
#*.ˈ#*.#*	Trisyllabic words with primary stress on the second syllable and whose three syllables with empty onsets.	allowance, annoyance, another, appearance, efficient, imagine, official.
ˌ$#.*.ˈ#$.*	Tetrasyllabic words whose first syllable receives secondary stress and is composed of a consonant followed by a vowel, and whose third syllable receives primary stress and is composed of a vowel followed by a consonant.	horizontal, politician, universal.
*.ˈ*.*.ˌ*.*	Pentasyllabic words whose second syllable receives primary stress and whose fourth syllable receives secondary stress.	congratulation, extraordinary, imaginary, imaginative.

6. Updates and Contact [^]

The development phase of the Ichos-GSL project has ended as all objectives have been accomplished and no additional functionality is planned for this project. Updates will be made available only if enhancements can be found for the algorithms employed or bugs are reported.

We value feedback. Please, contact us at info@sequencepublishing.com with any comments, bug reports, etc.

Visit www.SequencePublishing.com for up-to-date information regarding Ichos-GSL.

Feedback Form

We value feedback. Feel free to contact us via the form below (or send us an email if you prefer) with comments and questions.

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7. License Agreement [^]

READ CAREFULLY ALL TERMS OF THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT BEFORE USING THIS SOFTWARE

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT, YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO USE THIS SOFTWARE

Permission is hereby granted to anyone to freely use Ichos-GSL (hereafter referred to as 'this software') for any purpose with the exception of including it in a product, in which case both permission and acknowledgment are required.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the software and documentation are provided "as is". Franc Morales and Leah Gilner (hereafter referred to as 'the authors') disclaim all other warranties and conditions, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, conformance with description, title and non-infringement of third party rights. In no event shall the authors be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages or lost profits whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use or inability to use the software product, even if the authors have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

The authors allow you to distribute this software if all of the following conditions are met: you are not charging any money for it, the distribution files are kept together and unmodified, and the authors' permission is obtained before distribution. You may give this software package to friends or colleagues, burn it onto cd-rom's (or other media) and upload it to free/shareware sites as long as the original package remains unmodified.

All rights to this software (including any images or text incorporated into this software) are owned by the authors.

You may not disassemble or reverse engineer any part of this software.

You may not rent or lease this software.

The authors are not required to make available technical support for this software. The authors may, from time to time, revise or update this software. In so doing, the authors incur no obligation to furnish such revision or updates to you.

This license agreement will immediately and automatically terminate without notice if you fail to comply with any one of the terms and conditions cited. Upon termination of this license agreement, you agree to promptly remove the software from your system.

Ichos-GSL.
Copyright 2005-2008 by Franc Morales and Leah Gilner.
All rights reserved.

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