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.\" ========================================================================
.\"
.IX Title "Syllable 3pm"
.TH Syllable 3pm "1998-09-11" "perl v5.18.2" "User Contributed Perl Documentation"
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.SH "NAME"
Lingua::EN::Syllable \- Routine for estimating syllable count in words.
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
.Vb 1
\&  use Lingua::EN::Syllable;
\&
\&  $count = syllable(\*(Aqsupercalifragilisticexpialidocious\*(Aq); # 14
.Ve
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
\&\fILingua::EN::Syllable::syllable()\fR estimates the number of syllables in 
the word passed to it.
.PP
Note that it isn't entirely accurate...  it fails (by one syllable) for 
about 10\-15% of my /usr/dict/words.  The only way to get a 100% accurate
count is to do a dictionary lookup, so this is a small and fast alternative
where more-or-less accurate results will suffice, such as estimating the 
reading level of a document.
.PP
I welcome pointers to more accurate algorithms, since this one is 
pretty quick-and-dirty.  This was designed for English (well, American
at least) words, but sometimes guesses well for other languages.
.SH "KNOWN LIMITATIONS"
.IX Header "KNOWN LIMITATIONS"
Accuracy for words with non-alpha characters is somewhat undefined. 
In general, punctuation characters, et al, should be trimmed off before
handing the word to \fIsyllable()\fR, and hyphenated compounds should be broken 
into their separate parts.
.PP
Syllables for all-digit words (eg, \*(L"1998\*(R";  some call them \*(L"numbers\*(R") are 
often counted as the number of digits.  A cooler solution would be converting
\&\*(L"1998\*(R" to \*(L"nineteen eighty eight\*(R" (or \*(L"one thousand nine hundred eighty 
eight\*(R", or...), but that is left as an exercise for the reader.
.PP
Contractions are not well supported.
.PP
Compound words (like \*(L"lifeboat\*(R"), where the first word ends in a silent 'e'
are counted with an extra syllable.
.SH "COPYRIGHT"
.IX Header "COPYRIGHT"
Distributed under the same terms as Perl.
Contact the author with any questions.
.SH "AUTHOR"
.IX Header "AUTHOR"
Greg Fast (gdf@imsa.edu)