Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ncar!gatech!hubcap!shorne
From: shorne@citron (Scott Horne)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Soundex algorithm
Message-ID: <2182@hubcap.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jul 88 03:54:57 GMT
References: <2050@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Sender: news@hubcap.UUCP
Reply-To: shorne@citron
Lines: 42

From article <2050@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>, by lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee):
> 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.
> 

First, sincere thanks to all who have helped so much with references and
comments.

It *is* so that there are distinctions in Chinese between words transcribed
as Lee or Li in English.  In Chinese, the tone is very important in the
meaning of words.  Chinese uses four tones--a high-pitched, level one; a
sharply rising one; a falling-then-rising one; and a sharply falling one.
Li pronounced with the second tone, for example, is readily distinguished from
Li in the other three tones.  This makes Soundex not so suitable for Chinese.

As a matter of fact, the main reason for my request for Soundex info is to
possibly implement it (or, more likely, a greatly modified version thereof)
in a Chinese word-processing program (The Duke Chinese Typist, developed by
Dr. Richard Kunst at Duke University, 2111 Campus Dr., Durham, NC   27706)!

Again, thanks, everyone--and keep the info coming.

				--Scott Horne

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