Index Diachronica Database Project

The Index Diachronica as a database

family chib1249
Proto-Chibchan to Arhuaco:
from Wheeler, Alva (1972), “Proto-Chibchan”. In Matteson, Esther, ed., Comparative Studies in Amerindian Languages 93 – 108
  s > kh / _([+vowel])k
s d > z r

fa = "chib1249"

[[cs]]
fr = "Proto-Chibchan"
to = "Arhuaco"
or = "Pogostick Man"
os = " from Wheeler, Alva (1972), “Proto-Chibchan”. In Matteson, Esther, ed., Comparative Studies in Amerindian Languages 93 – 108"
so = ["chib1249_0"]
no = []

[[cs.ch]]
be = ["s"]
af = ["kh"]
en = "_([+vowel])k"
no = []
ta = [
    "generated",
    "unchecked",
]
ty = []

[[cs.ch]]
be = [
    "s",
    "d",
]
af = [
    "z",
    "r",
]
en = "_([+vowel])j"
no = []
ta = [
    "generated",
    "unchecked",
]
ty = []

What is it?

The Index Diachronica Database Project aims to convert the Index Diachronica, a collection of historical sound changes, into a text-based database and mantain and solidify the dataset.

The Index Diachronica is a giant catalog of sound changes. It has sections on many languages and language families, as well as a fairly well-structured presentation of historical sound changes in those languages. It is hosted here: Index

@amundo and @man-in-space had the idea to convert this document into a database of json files, because then the rules are data, and we can do all kinds of neat things with them.

However there has been no activity on the project since 8 years. So I sneakily decided to fork the project and actually do it for real.

Roadmap

• July: release v0.1.0
• till September: decide on format
• readd sources, make families Glottolog-compliant
• after that: start checking the rules, fix broken stuff and search new sound changes

Notes

• sound changes and references will be converted into a standard format
• The Index Diachronica (usually) includes references. This means that the database could be checkable by experts in various fields.
• There are phonological inventories mixed into the soundchanges. Inventories are awesome, but they are a separate project. It would make sense to have a separate project, (perhaps we could call it the Index Phonologica!) to handle that.

The format

the following briefly outlines the format of the natural classes ID uses. For the reasoning please refer to rants/features.md all the classes will remain close to the source but transcribed into [+bla -blub]. The list of available natural classes will be extended to also cover all IPA groupings.

Q => [+uvular ] and not [+consonantal +velar +back]
L = [+liquid] and not [+consonantal +approximant] Liquid

All compound classes SHOULD be valid, but that won't be enforced through some feature geometry

valid = [+vowel +front]
invalid = [+plosive +front]

all classes

consonant
vowel
front
back
fricative
approximant
palatovelar
velar
liquid
nasal
sonorant
labial *
bilabial *
uvular
click
plosive
retroflex
voice
syllable
semivowel
continuant
affricate
laryngeal

* in the original ID P = Labial/Bilabial. Therefore all instances of P are [+labial,bilabial].

Show me your bibliography ...

The bibliography will use Hayagriva once I converted all the sources to this format.

Example:

[[cs]]
fr = "Proto-Malayo-Polynesian"
to = "Proto-North Sarawak"
or = "Whimemsz"
os = " from Blust, Robert (2002), “Kiput Historical Phonology”. Oceanic Linguistics 41(2):384 – 438; and Blust, Robert (2007), “Òma Lóngh Historical Phonology”. Oceanic Linguistics 46(1):1 – 53"
so = [
    "s10_9",
    "s10_10",
]
no = []
...

refers to

s10_9:
  author: Blust, Robert
  date: 2002 
  title: "Kiput Historical Phonology"
  parent: 
    title: Oceanic Linguistics
    volume: 41
    serial-number: 2
    page-range: 384 – 438
  
s10_10:
  author: Blust, Robert
  date: 2007 
  title: "Òma Lóngh Historical Phonology"
  parent: 
    title: Oceanic Linguistics
    volume: 46
    serial-number: 1
    page-range: 1 – 53 

Contributing

Get involved! We're just getting started.

Say hello: #22

discuss the latest release: #23

Citing

idd:
    type: repository
    title: Index Diachronica Database Project
    author: IDDP contributors
    edition: 1d60698271bcaaca1eddf988cecae53cd5eaf7ec

Logo and Mascot

I like the logo, however it maybe isn't fully representative of the project (one could think it's only about egyptian stuff), so we might change it. I want to keep the owl though, so I decided to make it the mascot.