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<html> <head> <title>Dekereke</title> <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> </head> <body style="font-family: Calibri"> <h1 style="margin-bottom: -24px">Dekereke Phonology Software Tool</h1> <h2 style="margin-bottom: -24px">Rod Casali</h2> <h2>Canada Institute of Linguistics</h2> <font size="+2" family="Calibri"> <p>Dekereke is a software aid to phonological analysis. It provides a system for maintaining and processing phonetic / phonological data, and functions for searching and analyzing such data to answer questions about the phonological patterns in a language. </p> <h3>Some history</h3> <p> I began developing Dekereke in 2008. Until recently, it was a Windows-only program implemented in the C# programming language in a technology, known as Windows Forms, that has been around for a long time. That version underwent many changes and enhancements over the years, largely in response to feedback from colleagues and students. The original version is <a href="https://casali.canil.ca">still available</a> and is being minimally maintained (bugs that come to light are fixed), but it is no longer being actively enhanced. </p> <p>In early 2021 I began working on a major revamp of Dekereke in a different Windows technology, known as Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). The graphical interface in this new version has a different appearance that is more modern and should be more user friendly in some respects. The changes in the new version are not simply cosmetic, however. The user interface has been significantly reorganized and various new features have been added, while some lesser-used functions in the old version have been removed or redistributed. Initially, the program was made available to a small group of users for testing purposes, but as of May 2023 it is ready for general release.</p> <p>In conjunction with development of the new Windows version, a version for MacOS has been developed as well. This version is being made generally available as of January 2023.</p> <h3>Some limitations</h3> <p> Neither of the two new versions has been very thoroughly field tested as of December 2022. Documentation / help material for these versions is also very limited. (More help material, including a set of video tutorials, is available for the original Windows version.)</p> <h3>What's new</h3> <p>The new Dekereke versions contain (or will contain) a number of new features not found in the original version, including the following:</p> <ul> <li>Multiple analysis charts can be displayed simultaneously. It is now possible to view consonant and vowel charts together on the same page, or to display two different vowel or consonant charts together, or to simultaneously display charts of two different vowel types (e.g., short vs. long vowels) or two different consonants (e.g., plain vs. NC) together for comparison. (In the Mac version, a third chart containing either syllable types or a co-occurrence table can also be displayed on the same page.)</li> <li>As an aid to users who may not be completely confident in their ability to transcribe pitch contours using the kind of "bar notation" recommended by Keith Snider and others, the new Mac and Windows versions have a Play Abstract Pitch feature that allows users to hear what a proposed pitch contour (typed using bar notation) actually sounds like. This feature uses an artificial buzzer hum that corresponds to a pitch bar representation that has been selected in the data grid.</li> <li>Feature classes can be defined using either consonant or vowel features and then designated with upper class letters to allow them to be specified in filters (e.g., Word CV Shape text box) along with (or instead of) the built-in cover symbols C, V, N and S (for sonorant). For example, a user might decide to use the symbol "F" to refer to all front vowels, or a symbol "G" to refer to glides/semivowels, etc.</li> <li>Field content restrictions can now be grouped using either AND or OR relations, which can be combined in open-ended ways.</li> <li>The new Windows version has several built-in types of phonotactic reports that can be immediately generated (e.g., a listing of minimal pairs, a listing of words that violate ATR vowel harmony) by choosing a menu item (Reports menu). The set of built-in reports will be expanded and added to Mac version also.</li> <li>The Mac version has some additional sound playback features. Sound files can be played at a slower rate and/or looped continuously. (These features may eventually be added to the Windows version also.)</li> <li>The new Windows version allows sorted pitch patterns to be displayed with alternating colors in the data grid for ease of identification. (This feature will likely be added to the Mac version also.)</li> <li>Support has been added for breathy and creaky as vowel features.</li> </ul> <h3>What's ahead</h3> <p>Both new versions, Mac and Windows, will undergo further field testing and various new features (e.g., additional built-in reports) will be added as time permits.</p> <ul> <li>Tutorials and help materials will be developed for both versions.</li> <li>Translations of the interfaces into other languages (e.g., Mandarin, French, Spanish, Portuguese) are also planned.</li> </ul> <h3>Current version downloads</h3> <ul> <li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/10_0uxZL4D1YEQUZFudZUtA3L9w2Yxinc/view?usp=sharing">New Windows version</a> (last updated November 26, 2024)</li> <li><a href=".\MacDekereke20240205Z.zip">(New) Mac version</a> (last updated February 5, 2024)</li> </ul> <h3>Legacy version download</h3> <ul> <li><a href="https://casali.canil.ca">Web page for original Windows version download</a> (last updated March 13, 2023)</li> </ul> <p style="color: red"><b>A note on installing the Mac version:</b></p> <p>The .zip file contains the Dekereke.app program file / folder for the current Mac version. This can be copied directly to your Applications folder. However, you will probably need to adjust the Gatekeeper settings under System Preferences in order to allow the app to run on your computer. (See <a href="https://www.imore.com/how-open-apps-anywhere-macos-catalina-and-mojave">https://www.imore.com/how-open-apps-anywhere-macos-catalina-and-mojave</a>.)</p> <h3>Tutorials / help materials</h3> <p>A set of tutorials for the new Windows version is currently under development. It can be accessed <a href="./tutorials/index.html">here</a>.</p> <p>There is a partial set of tutorials for the original Windows version, available <a href="https://casali.canil.ca/DekerekeTutorials/tutorials.html">here</a>.</p> <p>Tutorials for the Mac version have yet to be developed.</p> <h3>Using Dekereke in conjunction with FLEx</h3> <p>Dekereke data can be imported from / exported to FLEx (<a href="https://software.sil.org/fieldworks/">Field Works Language Explorer</a>) using data in LIFT (<a href="https://code.google.com/archive/p/lift-standard/">Lexicon Interchange FormaT</a>) format as an intermediary. A web app at <a href="https://casali.canil.ca/DLC3">casali.canil.ca/DLC3</a> has been developed to facilitate the conversion process. The app can convert Dekereke data to LIFT format, and the resulting file can be imported into FLEx. To go in the other direction (exporting from FLEx to Dekereke), a LIFT file can be exported from FLEx, and the resulting file can then be converted to a Dekereke data file by the web app.</p> <h3>Tone/pitch font for displaying bar pitch contours in Dekereke</h3> <p>This font, created by Keith Snider and John Alsop, is recognized by Dekereke and can render, in pitch Transcription fields, certain numbers and letters as level pitch bars (in the case of numbers) or rising / falling (slanted) pitch bars (in the case of letters).</p> <p style="color: red">Beginning with the January 23, 2023 Windows version and January 26, 2023 Mac version of Dekereke, it is no longer necessary to install the Snider-Alsop pitch font on a computer in order for pitch contours to display properly. That font is now embedded in the program, so that contours will display even if the pitch font is not actually installed on a user's computer. (To use the pitch font in other programs, manual installation of the font is still required, however.)</p> <p>Click <a href=".\ToneFont.zip">here</a> to download the Snider-Alsop pitch font as a .zip file.</p> <p>A fuller set of Snider-Alsop pitch fonts and keyboards, which can be used in other programs (they are not intended for use in Dekereke), is available <a href=".\Pitch%20fonts%20&%20keyboards.zip">here</a>. (See the file <i>Pitch Contours keyboarding using PL.docx</i> found within the zip file for more information on using the tone fonts and keyboards.)</p> <h3>Contact info</h3> <p>Please send comments, questions, bug reports etc. to Rod Casali (Rod.Casali@CanIL.ca).</p> <h3>Related phonology software tools</h3> <h4>FPlot</h4> <p>FPlot is a software tool for constructing vowel formant plots. It is available as an online app at <a href="https://casali.canil.ca/FPlot/">https://casali.canil.ca/FPlot/</a>.</p> <h4>QuickVPlot</h4> <p>QuickVPlot is a tool for quickly constructing <i>interactive</i> vowel formant plots as an aid to answering questions about vowel qualities in the course of phonological fieldwork. More info about the program is available <a href="https://casali.canil.ca/QuickVPlot/"> here.</a></p> <h4>CardSorter</h4> <p>CardSorter is a software aid that is intended to facilitate categorization of sounds based on native speaker intuition, e.g., following an approach described in <a href="#CKL">Kutsch Lojenga (1995)</a>. Words can be sorted into defined categories based on same / different vowel, consonant, or pitch qualities and also played back for careful listening.</p> <p>Currently, CardSorter is available only for Windows. It can be accessed <a href="CardSorter20221124.zip">here</a> (last updated November 24, 2022).</p> <p>CardSorter is able to import / export data to/from Dekereke.</p> <h4>SoundSplitter wordlist recording and sound-file extraction tool</h4> <p>Sound Splitter is a Windows software program that facilitates the creation of wordlist sound recordings. It can quickly and easily produce separate recordings for different paradigmatic forms (singular / plural, different verb tenses etc.) of wordlist items.</p> <p>More info / resources</p> <ul> <li>A <a href="https://casali.canil.ca/SoundSplitter/SoundSplitterPoster.pdf">PDF poster</a> describing SoundSplitter (presented at the Annual Conference on African Linguistics, May 2019)</li> <li>Additional <a href="https://casali.canil.ca/SoundSplitter/SoundSplitterDemo.zip">video demo files</a></li> </ul> <p>Click <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZZv3fsjt5ZYEcrVW0t1mql4SFU5VeQSU/view?usp=sharing">here</a> to download SoundSplitter.</p> <p>SoundSplitter was last updated on September 9, 2024.</p> <h4>Name that Vowel Inventory</h4> <p>This is an online exercise that deals with phonetic challenges that commonly arise in the identification of vowels and vowel systems in African languages with seven-vowel /i e 蓻 a 蓴 o u/ and (especially) nine-vowel /i 瑟 e 蓻 a 蓴 o 蕣 u/ systems. It is intended to illustrate, in a thought-provoking and fun way, how clues based on differences in the typically expected patterns in nine- and seven-vowel systems can be used to very quickly make an educated guess on the system found in a language. It is also meant to raise awareness of significant differences that exist in the typical phonological patterning of the two system types. It can be accessed <a href="https://casali.canil.ca/NTVI/">here</a>.</p> <h4>RandomSoundInventory (teaching demo software)</h4> <p>RandomSoundInventory is a program that generates consonant and vowel sound inventories consisting, respectively, of random sets of IPA symbols. It also generates sets of hypothetical words that consist of random sequences of these symbols, with no constraints on their combinatory possibilities. It is intended as a teaching device to introduce the subject matter of phonology by illustrating how real language sound systems differ from simple collections of sounds with unrestricted patterning. For comparison purposes, the program can display phonemic inventories from four real languages: English, Korean, (modern) Hebrew, and Thai.</p> <p>Currently, this is a Windows-only program. It can be downloaded <a href="RandomSoundInventory.zip">here.</a></p> <h4>References</h4> <p id="CKL">Kutsch Lojenga, Constance. 1996. Participatory research in linguistics. Notes on Linguistics 73. 13-27.</p> </font> </body> </html>