MLphone (Python, PHP)

MLphone is a phonetic algorithm for indexing Malayalam words by their pronunciation, like Metaphone for English. The algorithm generates three Romanized phonetic keys (hashes) of varying phonetic affinities for a given Malayalam word.

Full documentation: http://nadh.in/code/mlphone

Licensed under GNU GPL v2 license.

Intro

MLphone is a phonetic algorithm for indexing Malayalam words by their pronunciation, like Metaphone for English. The algorithm generates three Romanized phonetic keys (hashes) of varying phonetic affinities for a given Malayalam word.

The algorithm takes into account the context sensitivity of sounds, syntactic and phonetic gemination, compounding, modifiers, and other known exceptions to produce Romanized phonetic hashes of increasing phonetic affinity that are very faithful to the pronunciation of the original Malayalam word.

• key0 = a broad phonetic hash comparable to a Metaphone key that doesn't account for hard sounds (ഷ, ണ..) or phonetic modifiers

<li>key1 =	is a slightly more inclusive hash that accounts for hard sounds</li>

<li>key2 =	highly inclusive and narrow hash that accounts for hard sounds
		and phonetic modifiers</li>

MLphone was created to aid spelling tolerant Malayalam word search, but may be useful in tasks like spell checking, word suggestion etc.

Examples

Word	key0	key1	key2	Transliteration	Metaphone
നീലക്കുയില്‍	NLKYL	NLKYL	N4LK25Y4L	Neelakkuyil‍	NLKYL
മൃഗം	MRK3	MRK3	MRK3	Mrugam	MRKM
മ്രിഗം	MRK3	MRK3	MRK3	Mrigam	MRKM
ഉത്സവം	U0SV3	U0SV3	U0SV3	Uthsavam	U0SFM
ഉല്‍സവം	U0SV3	U0SV3	U0SV3	Ul‍savam	ULSFM
വാഹനം	VHN3	VHN3	VHN3	Vaahanam	FHNM
വിഹനനം	VHNN3	VHNN3	V4HNN3	Vihananam	FHNNM
രാഷ്ട്രീയം	RSTRY3	RS1TRY3	RS1TR4Y3	Raashtreeyam	RXTRYM
കണ്ണകി	KNK	KNK	KN2K4	Kannaki	KNK
കന്യക	KNYK	KNYK	KNYK	Kanyaka	KNYK
മനം	MN3	MN3	MN3	Manam	MNM
മണം	MN3	MN13	MN13	Manam	MNM
വിഭക്ത്യാഭാസം	VBK0YBS3	VBK0YBS3	V4BK0YBS3	Vibhakthyaabhaasam	FBHK0YBHSM
വലയം	VLY3	VLY3	VLY3	Valayam	FLYM
വളയം	VLY3	VL1Y3	VL1Y3	Valayam	FLYM
രഥം	R03	R03	R03	Ratham	R0M
രദം	R03	R03	R03	Radam	RTM
രത്തം	R03	R03	R03	Rattham	RTM
രധം	R03	R03	R03	Radham	RTHM

Usage

The algorithm's available in Python and PHP

Python

from mlphone import MLphone

converter = MLphone()
keys = converter.compute(ml_str)

PHP

<?php
	require 'mlphone.php';

	$keys = MLphone::compute($ml_str);
?>