SCA questions (cult initiation)

[Kuchigakatai]

As part of my formal initiation into the cult of programmer-conlangers, I am now finding myself into every initiate's project: yet another sound change applier (as if there weren't enough already). I have several questions for you guys.

First, uh, is there something that doesn't exist already? I think somebody here once said they wished alice's SCA was available as a simple webpage instead of a Python2 program? I can't find that post again. If anyone cares, I could try translating that SCA into client JavaScript or something.

Dewrad once said some now-defunct Mac program called IPA Zounds was good because it handled stress-based sound changes elegantly, what did that even mean?

I know about zompist's, alice's, MUBA's and Morrígan's SCA, but KathTheDragon has mentioned she has been making an SCA for some time that has gotten some use among people in some other website, where can her SCA be found?

[akam chinjir]

Didn't chris_notts also have one?

The documentation I found for IPA Zounds (here) doesn't suggest a way to handle stress. I've managed it fairly neatly in Phonix (here), though it's still not directly supported. Something that parsed words into syllables the way Phonix does, but then allowed you to assign features to syllables, might be nice, but it would also end up pretty complicated.

I really like the filter mechanism in Phonix.

Someone here had one that made it fairly easy to do things like for every second X, counting from the right...

I think having proper control structures is nice. The usual sound change notation let's you do, foreach X, if it's in A_B then make it a Y; it would be nice to be able to put an elsif clause or two in there.

It's also nice to be able to do foreach syllable, if its onset is....

(Yeah, if I start thinking about SCAs I quickly end up wanting something kind of monstrous. My own SCA project is currently abandoned...)

[bradrn]

I made an SCA as well, although currently barely-maintained.

As for my personal wish-list for an SCA:

1. Can reverse sound change
2. Allows both batch and interactive running (and possibly a website as well)
3. Can handle features in some form
4. Allows digraphs

My SCA can do (1), and can fake (4) by using rewrite rules (like zompist’s). It can also sort of do (3), as it supports stuff like category1 AND category2 AND … AND not(category3 AND category4 AND…) (although not with the same syntax). I know of no SCA which can do (2). But my SCA has a pretty horrible implementation, and I’ve been meaning to rewrite it in a way which allows it to do (3) and (4) properly…

[alice]

alice's SCA is now a Ruby gem which is part of a larger program and is no longer stand-alone, although someone is welcome to write a simpler front-end.

[Raphael]

alice's SCA is now a Ruby gem which is part of a larger program and is no longer stand-alone, although someone is welcome to write a simpler front-end.

Now I'm curious: what kind of larger program can an SCA be fit into?

[KathTheDragon]

KathTheDragon has mentioned she has been making an SCA for some time that has gotten some use among people in some other website, where can her SCA be found?

You can find it here - relevant links are on that page too.

[alice]

alice's SCA is now a Ruby gem which is part of a larger program and is no longer stand-alone, although someone is welcome to write a simpler front-end.

Now I'm curious: what kind of larger program can an SCA be fit into?

For example: a program which manages vocabulary across several related languages and checks that cognates are consistently related, so that (say) Proto-Vasco-Caucasian /ɖuɣæŋɞʂ/ always corresponds to English /trɒl/.

[Zju]

As for what to do, do what'll be interesting or useful to you. Trying to one up all existing programs with a feature may take well over a month, and I can't say the ride won't have roadbumps along the way.

Make an SCA that can easily handle the changes from your protolang to your current conlang. Make an SCA in which you can also type the characters of your ortography. Make an SCA that can also generate your conlang's inflections via pseudo sound changes. Make an SCA with an interface that you think fits an SCA the best.

alice's SCA is now a Ruby gem which is part of a larger program and is no longer stand-alone, although someone is welcome to write a simpler front-end.

Now I'm curious: what kind of larger program can an SCA be fit into?

For example: a program which manages vocabulary across several related languages and checks that cognates are consistently related, so that (say) Proto-Vasco-Caucasian /ɖuɣæŋɞʂ/ always corresponds to English /trɒl/.

Dam, somebody else working on this? Can't really say I'm surprised.

[alice]

Now I'm curious: what kind of larger program can an SCA be fit into?

For example: a program which manages vocabulary across several related languages and checks that cognates are consistently related, so that (say) Proto-Vasco-Caucasian /ɖuɣæŋɞʂ/ always corresponds to English /trɒl/.

Dam, somebody else working on this? Can't really say I'm surprised.

The problem is that SCAs and related programs tend to be so idiosyncratic that One SCA To Rule Them All is like a phoneme with only one allophone in a language with very few phonemes.