Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!humu!uhccux!lee
From: lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Soundex algorithm
Message-ID: <2050@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Date: 15 Jul 88 05:01:47 GMT
References: <460001@hp-sde.SDE.HP.COM>
Organization: University of Hawaii
Lines: 22

From article <460001@hp-sde.SDE.HP.COM>, by wunder@hp-sde.SDE.HP.COM (Walter Underwood):
" > The table has L=4, R=6; I find this surprising, as both R and L are
" > semivowels and they are easily confused by those who did not grow up
" > with the distinction (e.g., some Orientals).
" >
" > In-Real-Life: Chris Torek
" 
" Things get even worse when you translate Chinese names into English
" and look them up with Soundex.  You get Every Lee, Li, etc., in the
" book, because English does not include phonitic distinctions that
" exist in Chinese.

It's a plausible idea that such differences in spellings of names might
be due to distinctions in the original language.  It's not so, however.

" So, Soundex is a quick hack, and we probably should live with the
" limitations.  A better solution is probably much more complex.

A better solution to what, I wonder.  If soundex is used to collect
names in a bibliography, say, which might represent alternate spellings
of the same pronunciation, we'd like to identify r/l when some of the
people who made up those spellings speak languages that merge r/l.
This is how I've used it.