Chiron
Chiron is my expert system for the Classical languages and metrics.
This system includes two main parts: metrical analysis
and morphological (historical) inflection.
Most of the components are shared between them, as for instance prosodical analysis
is required by both metrics and morphology, especially in this model where the morphological
output is a sequence of historical stages. Some components are even applicable to
other languages (e.g. Italian) as they are
based onto general linguistics principles.
Demo
The demo pages allow you to interactively try a few features of this system.
As for metrics, you can query the metrical database generated by the metrical analysis
of a Greek sample text (Aratus Phaenomena): read some
quick instructions (the details would be out of the scope of this tiny site)
and give it a try. Here you will just try
the query section of the system, which comprises much more stages before (metrical
analysis) and after (complex data reporting and export) this demo; refer to videos
for some of the stages not covered by the demo. You can also look at some exported
data here:
Note: to view metrical characters you will need my miscellaneous metrical and epigraphical
characters font, Enchiridion. Download it and install (the output
could anyway use any font, either standard or not, as it is generated using the text converters
used by Theuth and
Ibis).
As for morphology, you can look at some diagnostic
output (the inflection of the 'canonical' 1st declension substantive rosa)
and get an idea of the rich set of inflected forms generated for each lemma testing
the inflectional template generator.
It's not possible to explain this output here, but you can just have a look after
reading the following generic indications (the document contents are in Italian,
as required by the originating commercial product's market):
- the document starts with a quick recap of starting data: morphological classification
(S = substantive, 1 = first declension, f = feminine) and theme (radix + suffix,
here the typical feminine suffix derived from IE *-eH2-).
Such data, like the constraint immediately below, come from the lexicon (implemented
in a relational database). The constraint blocks rhotacism for the -s- of the theme
(otherwise we would get monstra like xrora
etc.).
- a list of inflected forms follow. Each is numbered with an ordinal arbitrary
number, and marked by its full morphological 'signature' (num=number, cas=case;
other abbreviations should be self-explanatory).
- for each inflected form, the whole transformational chain from the theme up to the final
outcome is listed, each with a subnumber. For each form there is a morphological analysis
(e.g. m1_R = first morpheme, radix; m2_S = second morpheme, suffix; etc.), the details
about the rule that generated it (e.g. FTR_02_rosa:_S.1.@num=s,cas=N; all the rules begin with
a prefix defining their family), with all its attributes (e.g. "archaic", "reconstructed",
"classical", etc.). Some rules also carry a synthetic descriptive annotation (here
displayed with a colored background). Where available, the absolute chronology is
added (blue color).
This is just the diagnostic output for a single word, but I hope it can offer an
idea of the potential of such approach: just imagine such an interactive historical
grammar applied to ALL the lemmata of a Greek or Latin vocabulary.
Videos
Here you can watch the software running.
Text Extraction
This is not strictly a Chiron-related video, but it shows you
how Chiron is fed with text from other sources.
Metrics
Morphology