Automatinis skiemenavimas: problemos ir jų sprendimas
Automatic Detection of Syllable Boundaries: Problems and Their Solutions

Summary/Abstract: It is difficult to perceive syllable boundaries in a naturally uttered word. The number of syllables and not their exact boundaries is the primary factor affecting speech perception. However the detection of exact syllable boundaries is important to carry out fundamental investigations about the syllable structure. An automatic syllabification tool has been developed for this purpose. Syllable boundaries were defined according to the functional theory of a syllable: the syllable should begin with the maximum cluster of consonants given that such cluster (its model) is found at the beginning of other words. The paper describes some problematic cases where phonological model of a syllable cannot be directly applied. The solutions are proposed for disambiguating the juncture of a pair of consonants (diphthong, hiatus, frontalised vowel), accurately detecting word prefixes, for syllabifying composite (two-root) words. The syllabification algorithm is quite accurate. A few errors occur because of homographs that are spelled identically but pronounced and syllabified differently. The algorithm described in this paper is being used as a component to other language processing tools created at VMU: within algorithms for automatic stress assignment and automatic phonetic transcription, and within computer tools for investigating word phonotactics and text rhythmics.

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