/phon_rule

Simple LaTeX environment for typesetting phonological rules

Primary LanguageTeX

phon_rule is a user-friendly LaTeX environment for typsetting phonological rules.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Using the phon_rule Environment
3. The center Option
4. Examples

1. Introduction

I couldn't find a good LaTeX environment for phonological rules, so I wrote my own. The phon_rule environment aims to be as simple to use as possible, while still being flexible in the types of rules it can draw.

To use this environment, place the phon_rule.sty file either in your LaTeX packages directory or in the same directory as the document you're going to use the environment in.

Most of the LaTeX in this readme was automatically rendered using markdown-pp by way of QuickLaTeX. Because QuickLaTeX does not yet support the tipa package, any IPA symbols in this readme are approximations using the closest available LaTeX symbol.

2. Using the phon_rule Environment

The basic format of a phonological rule is:

\begin{phon_rule}
	A \> B \/ C \_ D
\end{phon_rule}

which produces

{\Large \textrm{A}} {\ {\Large \to}\ } {\Large \textrm{B}} {\Huge \ /\ } {\Large \textrm{C}} {\ \rule{2em}{0.5pt}\ } {\Large \textrm{D}}

Each element of the rule can be composed of the following:

  • \cv{V}: a CV-tier or tonal-tier element

    • {\Large \textrm{V}}
  • \phoneme{S}: an IPA phoneme, using the tipa library

    • /\int/
  • \phone{S}: as above, but displayed with phonetic brackets

    • [\int]
  • \features{\f{+}{stop} \f{+}{alv.}}, a feature matrix, where each \f{+/-}{name} is a feature

  • \cvfeatures{C}{\f{\alpha}{place}}: as above, but with a CV-tier element above the feature matrix

  • \oneof{\# \\ \cv{C}}, a set of possible environments

    • \begin{cases} {\Large \textrm{#}} \ {\Large \textrm{C}} \end{cases}
  • \#: a word-boundary marker

    • {\Large \textrm{#}}
  • \null: a null symbol

    • {\Large \emptyset}

3. The center Option

Invoking the center option when using the package wraps the rules (the phon_rule environment) in a center environment, centering them.

4. Examples

Examples of phonological rules are found in the body of phon_rule.tex, and their output can be seen in phon_rule.pdf.