Orthographic measures of language distances between the official South African languages.

Two methods for objectively measuring similarities and dissimilarities between the eleven official languages of South Africa are described. The first concerns the use of n-grams. The confusions between different languages in a text-based language identification system can be used to derive informati...

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Publicado en:Literator Vol. 29; no. 1; pp. 185 - 205
Autores principales: Zulu, P. N., Botha, G., Barnard, E.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: African Online Scientific Information System PTY LTD Apr2008
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Apr2008
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        atl: Orthographic measures of language distances between the official South African languages.
      aug:
        au:
          Zulu, P. N.
          Botha, G.
          Barnard, E.
        affil: Human Language Technologies Research Group, CSIR & Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Pretoria, PRETORIA.
      su:
        South African languages
        Prediction models
        Cluster analysis (Statistics)
        Orthography & spelling
        Text processing (Computer science)
        Text mining
        South Africa
      sug:
        subj:
          South Africa
          South African languages
          Prediction models
          Cluster analysis (Statistics)
          Orthography & spelling
          Text processing (Computer science)
          Text mining
      keyword:
        clustering
        language distances
        language identification
        Levenshtein distance
        n-gram
        groepering
        Levenshtein-afstand
        n-gram
        taalafstande
        taalherkenning
      ab:
        Two methods for objectively measuring similarities and dissimilarities between the eleven official languages of South Africa are described. The first concerns the use of n-grams. The confusions between different languages in a text-based language identification system can be used to derive information on the relationships between the languages. Our classifier calculates n-gram statistics from text documents and then uses these statistics as features in classification. We show that the classification results of a validation test can be used as a similarity measure of the relationship between languages. Using the similarity measures, we were able to represent the relationships graphically. We also apply the Levenshtein distance measure to the orthographic word transcriptions from the eleven South African languages under investigation. Hierarchical clustering of the distances between the different languages shows the relationships between the languages in terms of regional groupings and closeness. Both multidimensional scaling and dendrogram analysis reveal results similar to well-known language groupings, and also suggest a finer level of detail on these relationships.
        Twee metodes vir die bepaling van verwantskappe tussen die elf amptelike tale van Suid-Afrika word beskryf. Die eerste metode maak gebruik van n-gramme. Die verwarrings wat plaasvind in 'n taalherkenningstelsel verskaf inligting oor die verhouding tussen die tale. N-gram-statistieke word vanaf teksdokumente bepaal en word dan gebruik as kenmerke vir klassifikasie. Ons wys dat die uitsette van 'n bevestigingstoets gebruik kan word om te bepaal hoe naby tale aan mekaar lê. Vanuit hierdie metings het ons 'n sigbare voorstelling van die verhouding tussen tale afgelei. Verder het ons die Levenshtein-metode gebruik om die afstand tussen die ortografiese transkripsies van woorde te bepaal, toegespits op die elf amptelike tale van Suid-Afrika. 'n Grafiese groepering volgens die afstande tussen die verskillende tale toon weer die verhoudings aan tussen die tale en ook familiegroepe. Met sowel die dendrogramme as die multidimensionele skalering word bepaalde familiegroepe aangedui, en selfs ook die fynere verwantskappe binne hierdie familiegroepe.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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      custom: Copyright of Literator is the property of African Online Scientific Information System PTY LTD and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
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