Using full scale Wordcorr to guide Sherlock Holmes's thinking.
Wordcorr is a computational tool that assists linguists in comparing natural languages systematically. It splits the work involved in applying the Comparative Method. Your responsibility is to identify patterns in the data that may show common origin. The computer's responsibility is to keep track of your judgments in a framework from which you can draw evidence about the development of later languages from earlier ones. Wordcorr does not perform the analysis for you; it organizes the evidence that you consider relevant to the analysis. The tool was developed under a grant from the National Science Foundation. With an introduction featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. [This partial version is being published to elicit reactions to the modules finished so far.]
Sherlock Holmes examines the word lists, notices patterns in them, and attempts analysis using a model of Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. Second of three Comparison modules.
Sherlock Holmes, having pressed the Babbage Analytical Engine into service to solve a problem in comparative linguistics, explains the key concepts and the results to Dr. Watson. Last of three Comparison modules.
Sherlock Holmes is presented with a comparative word list. First of three Comparison modules.
We all make mistakes. Wordcorr has unsophisticated but adequate machinery to help you fix them.
You can always type data into Wordcorr using the keyboard. Even if you import some of your data from another computer, you can add entries, and even complete word lists, from the keyboard.
The whole IPA alphabet, including diacritics and modifiers, is available to you through Easy IPA. If you touch type, you'll find yourself touch typing the IPA characters you use frequently in your collection.
Export XML puts out all the data in a collection, and all the analytical views you are working on. Sometimes you want to export only one view, or only the metadata that lets other linguists know your work exists.
Wordcorr is a computational tool that assists in comparing natural languages. The course is a quick tutorial on how to set up the tool on your own computer. Another course, Comparative Phonology Using Wordcorr, is in preparation on how to use the tool. Wordcorr was developed under a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Part of the identity of any speech variety is the geographical region where it is spoken, and in some cases the social groups that speak it.
Word lists in Wordcorr collections may come from published sources, but frequently come from unpublished sources such as live interviews.
All data in a Wordcorr collection are organized into entries. One entry contains those words in each of the speech varieties that correspond to a single meaning (like words for "house" or "beach") or closely connected meanings (like "mouse, rat"). Each entry has a gloss in the Primary glossing language, and possibly a Secondary gloss in another language.
