Historical Spelling Research Articles

Self-contained Beta-with-Spikes Approximation for Inference Under a Wright-Fisher Model.

We construct a reliable estimation method for evolutionary parameters within the Wright-Fisher model, which describes changes in allele frequencies due to selection and genetic drift, from time-series data. Such data exist for biological populations, for example via artificial evolution experiments, and for the cultural evolution of behavior, such as linguistic corpora that document historical usage of different words with similar meanings. Our method of analysis builds on a Beta-with-Spikes approximation to the distribution of allele frequencies predicted by the Wright-Fisher model. We introduce a self-contained scheme for estimating parameters in the approximation, and demonstrate its robustness with synthetic data, especially in the strong-selection and near-extinction regimes where previous approaches fail. We further apply the method to allele frequency data for baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), finding a significant signal of selection in cases where independent evidence supports such a conclusion. We further demonstrate the possibility of detecting time-points at which evolutionary parameters change in the context of a historical spelling reform in the Spanish language.

Spellingonderzoek in ontwikkeling

Abstract Developments in orthography research This article, which serves as the editorial to the special T&T issue Spelling in ontwikkeling, consists of four parts. The first part is a brief introduction to spelling as a linguistic field. The second part provides a status quaestionis of this field within Dutch linguistics, especially from a diachronous point of view. The third part is an overview of the research articles in previous T&T issues which, to some extent, deal with spelling. Although the current issue is the first one in which historical spelling research is prominently exhibited, I thought it useful to provide an overview of research articles in the history of T&T that address the topic of spelling, as their titles do not always give this away. The publications listed in the second and third part may serve as a good vantage point for linguists with an interest in historical spelling research as part of language variation in the Low Countries. The fourth part introduces the articles that constitute this issue.

Phonological, Lexical, and Morphological Analysis of the Philippine East Miraya Bikol-Pilar Dialect

The paper describes the vowel phonemes of the Pilar variety of East Miraya Bikol spoken in the Philippines. It also reports on the level of mutual intelligibility of this variety with other East Miraya dialects, and identifies its more common derivational and inflectional morphemes. It employed five instruments: the Swadesh list, the Praat, the JPlot Formant, the Pear Film, and the Math 139 Frequency Counter. Many Bikol speakers do not distinguish between [ɛ] vs. [i], and [ɔ] vs. [u] in pronouncing native words, and therefore consider each pair of sounds as belonging to one phoneme. The Pilar dialect, therefore, has a threevowel system: a low central /a/, a front /i/ (with two allophones [i] and [ɛ]) and a back /u/ (with also two allophones [ɔ] and [u]). Historical spelling and practice, however, necessitate the use of five vowel symbols, namely “a,” “e,” “i,” “o,” and “u” to represent the Pilar phonemes in writing. The greatest mutual intelligibility using Pilar dialect as the point of reference occurs with Pilar and Daraga dialects while the lowest is with Pilar and Donsol dialects despite the fact that Pilar and Donsol are municipalities of Sorsogon Province while Daraga is a town in Albay Province. Words in the Pilar dialect may be formed by a root or stem plus one or more affixes, or they may consist of a particle, which is invulnerable to affixation but cannot stand alone without a host. On the whole, the study found derivational and inflectional morphemes, which signal a wide array of modal and aspectual expressions.

A preliminary study of geographical names research: Review of cartography education & research in Indonesia

Abstract. Geographical names research could be used to reveal the condition of the landscape. Many studies in the geographical names are arranged geographically, surveying geographical names in an area by compiling and analyzing historical spelling sequences to build the origin of etymological geographical names. The geographical names is inherent in human life from birth to death. The trend of geographical names research influenced by cartographic education. This paper aims to review cartographic education in Indonesia in order to reveal how geographical names research influenced by cartographic education. We reviewed many universities that held cartographic, geography, and geospatial education. A paper of geographical names research and cartographic research in Indonesia also examined. We concluded that cartographic education in Indonesia mixed in geography and geomatic study. The development of cartographic courses in universities influences the interest in geographical names study. Based on articles examined, the study of it in Indonesia is dominated by linguistics discipline. They used qualitative methods in their research. Though some of the articles based on the geographical perspective. On the other hand, the trend of geospatial research tends to the technological aspect rather than the concept of cartography. Thus geographical names research is rarely involved. However, with the implementation of geospatial information laws, One Map Policy, and government regulations regarding the geographical names would facilitate the rising of geographical names research. Several universities also opened a new study programme relate to the geospatial field.

Η αξιοποίηση της γλωσσικής διαχρονίας για αποτελεσματικότερη διδασκαλία του ορθογραφικού συστήματος της Ελληνικής ως δεύτερης ή ξένης γλώσσας

To have contact with the written language, besides the knowledge of spoken language, also requires the additional knowledge of writing, which is a series of visual symbols known as the spelling system. This system is not an inherent characteristic of the language but a product of some kind of contract, which is created and revised through institutional procedures, that is, through state decisions and laws. However, its direct connection with cultural and social data has the consequence, in contrast to the spoken language, of not evolving but remaining unchanged, which, with the passage of time, contributes to creating an increasing distance between spoken and written language. We note that the problem of the differences excisting between pronunciation and writing is more intense in languages that have a long written tradition, which includes Greek. More specifically, in modern Greek many of the words are written not as they are pronounced today but as they were pronounced in earlier historical periods. This particular writing system which contains elements from earlier phases of the language is known as historical spelling and is based on a set of principles that pose considerable difficulties in learning it and especially to non-native speakers of Greek. In order to achieve a more effective teaching of the relatively complex spelling system of modern Greek, it is proposed, through this research, as a complementary teaching technique, to creatively exploit a series of diachronic elements which not only continue to exist in the present form of the language, but also play a functional role in its entire composition and physiognomy.

Etymology of Squiligee and Squeegee

Squiligee is a historical spelling of the name for a scraping implement with a rubber-edged blade set on a handle. Variant forms include squilgee, squilagee, and squillage. The instrument is better...

Guidelines for normalising Early Modern English corpora: Decisions and justifications

Abstract Corpora of Early Modern English have been collected and released for research for a number of years. With large scale digitisation activities gathering pace in the last decade, much more historical textual data is now available for research on numerous topics including historical linguistics and conceptual history. We summarise previous research which has shown that it is necessary to map historical spelling variants to modern equivalents in order to successfully apply natural language processing and corpus linguistics methods. Manual and semiautomatic methods have been devised to support this normalisation and standardisation process. We argue that it is important to develop a linguistically meaningful rationale to achieve good results from this process. In order to do so, we propose a number of guidelines for normalising corpora and show how these guidelines have been applied in the Corpus of English Dialogues.

Unsupervised profiling of OCRed historical documents

In search engines and digital libraries, more and more OCRed historical documents become available. Still, access to these texts is often not satisfactory due to two problems: first, the quality of optical character recognition (OCR) on historical texts is often surprisingly low; second, historical spelling variation represents a barrier for search even if texts are properly reconstructed. As one step towards a solution we introduce a method that automatically computes a two-channel profile from an OCRed historical text. The profile includes (1) “global” information on typical recognition errors found in the OCR output, typical patterns for historical spelling variation, vocabulary and word frequencies in the underlying text, and (2) “local” hypotheses on OCR-errors and historical orthography of particular tokens of the OCR output. We argue that availability of this kind of knowledge represents a key step for improving OCR and Information Retrieval (IR) on historical texts: profiles can be used, e.g., to automatically finetune postcorrection systems or adapt OCR engines to the given input document, and to define refined models for approximate search that are aware of the kind of language variation found in a specific document. Our evaluation results show a strong correlation between the true distribution of spelling variation patterns and recognition errors in the OCRed text and estimated ranks and scores automatically computed in profiles. As a specific application we show how to improve the output of a commercial OCR engine using profiles in a postcorrection system.

Recent History of Vasovagal Syncope in a Young, Referral‐Based Population Is a Stronger Predictor of Recurrent Syncope Than Lifetime Syncope Burden

accurate selection of patients for vasovagal syncope studies requires strong risk stratification and knowledge of the natural history of syncope. We aimed to test the hypothesis that recent history of vasovagal syncope compared to distant history better predicts subsequent recurrence of syncope. in all, 208 subjects with a positive tilt test and ≥ 3 lifetime syncope spells were followed for 1 year. Syncope episodes in the preceding year and total historical spells were compared for their ability to predict a syncope recurrence using the criteria of optimal statistical significance, best linear separation of risk populations, and impact on power calculations. The number of vasovagal syncope spells in the preceding year better predicted syncope recurrence when compared to total number of historical spells (likelihood ratio statistic 28.4, P < 0.0001; versus 20.4, P = 0.001), and showed a substantial effect as the number of syncope events increased. For example, syncope recurred in 22% of those with <2 spells in the previous year compared to 69% in those with >6 spells. A history of no syncope compared to any syncope in the preceding year was associated with a 1-year probability of 7% versus 46% for syncope recurrence. A study designed to detect a 50% decrease in syncope recurrence at P = 0.05 with 80% power would require 159 patients with at least 3 lifetime spells, and only 108 patients with at least 3 spells in the previous year. the number of syncope events in the year preceding clinical evaluation is the best predictor of syncope recurrence.

On Some Non-Standard Spellings in the Aramaic Magic Bowls and their Linguistic Significance

In the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic magic bowls we occasionally find spellings that stray from the linguistic standard employed in these texts. It is argued that in many cases these can be explained as phonetic spellings that reflect aspects of the Aramaic spoken by the scribes. Support for this contention may be found in the better manuscripts of Babylonian Rabbinic literature, wherein such spellings are more frequently employed. It is argued that the corrections of these forms in the magic bowls towards the historical spelling indicates the existence of a literary language in which at least some scribes aspired to write, not always successfully. Since these non-standard spellings provide rare evidence for the nature of the Aramaic spoken by these native scribes, and occasionally provide ‘missing links’ of the history of Aramaic, the modern editors of the magic bowls must be wary of unnecessarily emending the texts they publish.

Scribal Errors or Phonetic Spellings? Samuel as an Aural Text

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to establish the "phonic" nature of some of the socalled "corrupt" passages in the MT of Samuel. We are particularly interested in Samuel's "aural" characteristics which might be represented in the phonetic spellings. This aural aspect of the narrative is clearly attested in cases where the Ketib and the Qere give two variant forms of the same word or phrase. In such cases, the K. usually represent "phonic" reality by a phonetic spelling. By contrast, the Q. points to the "correct" historical spelling. Such aural features can be demonstrated in other ways in the MT of Samuel, especially when 2 Sam. xxii is compared with its duplicate text, Ps. xviii. These variant forms are caused by phonological phenomena such as assimilation, metathesis, palatalization, vowel sandhi, consonantal sandhi, and glide. These examples are not exhaustive, but they are sufficient to show that many of the often-asserted "scribal errors" are actually rather phonetic spellings and do reflect the "economy" of pronunciation. Such phonic realization in writing is attested not simply in poetic texts but also in prose sections of 1-2 Samuel. Hence, our topic is not so much a problem of literary-linguistic composition as a matter of the method of writing, i.e. graphic and graphemic representation of an aural text.

A note on Bactrian phonology

A central Problem of Bactrian Phonology, to which Georg Morgenstierne devoted the greater part of one of his last articles, is the origin of Postvocalic t, which is found in a small number of words of disputed etymology. Since OIr. postvocalic t generally gives Bactrian d, as in G[raeeo-Bactrian] οδο, M[anichean Bactrian] 'wd, 'wṭ[ud] ‘and’ &lt;*uta or G κiρδo, M qyrd ‘made’ &lt;*kṛta-,it seems that some oter orgin must be sought for Bactrian t—unless, indeed, G δ and τ may be regarded merely as alternative notations of [d], as has been Proposed. Such a Possibility was first suggested by G oτo ‘and’, which accoriding to W. B. Henning is ‘not differne from οδο ’, and which I. Gershevitch has explained either as a historical spelling or as a generalized sandhivariant of οδο. However, a crucial objection to the identifieation of οδο and οτο lies in the fact, the implications of which have not yet been fully appreciated, that they differ not only in form but also in function.

A Morphological Study of the h-Prefix in Biblical Aramaic

Part of the argument which in the past has identified the linguistic genre of Biblical Aramaic with the later regional dialects of Aramaic revolves on the analysis of the h-prefix of the causative stem of the verb. A particular morphological study reveals that, far from exhibiting late affinities,Biblical Aramaic bears the marks of historical spelling in much the same manner as Official Aramaic of the fifth century B.C. The type of spelling employed in the Aramaic documents under examination must also be related to their content and literary nature.