PIESCA
Proto-Indo-European Sound Change Applier, based on Mark Rosenfelder’s SCA². Explore words and inflection tables through your own sound changes.
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View applied rules
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Apply rules in order to every headword and recorded inflection. Only the resulting forms appear in the dictionary. Your applied rules are saved in this browser.
New to sound changes? Start here
- Start with one change. Type
o/a/_in the Sound changes box. This changes every o to a. - Try it on a word. Enter a form in “Try a few forms” below, then choose “Test draft rules”.
- Explore the dictionary. Choose “Apply sound changes” to update the headwords and inflection tables. Add more rules, one per line; they run from top to bottom.
Read a rule as change this / into this / in this position. The underscore _ marks where the change happens.
| Rule | What it does |
|---|---|
o/a/_ | Change o to a everywhere. |
s//_# | Remove s at the end of a word. The empty middle part means “delete”. |
p/b/V_V | Change p to b between vowels. First add V=aeiou in Categories. |
Accents matter: e and é are different. You can copy PIE characters directly from a word: h₁ h₂ h₃ ḱ ǵ ʰ ʷ r̥ l̥ m̥ n̥.
More options: categories, rewrites, and advanced rules
Categories name a group of sounds. For example, S=ptk and Z=bdg let S/Z/V_V change each voiceless stop to its voiced partner between vowels.
Rewrite rules let a group of characters behave as one sound. For example, kʷ|q represents kʷ as q while the rules run. “Reverse rewrite rules on output” changes it back afterwards.
| Notation | Meaning |
|---|---|
[ao] | Either a or o. |
(C) | An optional sound from category C, in an environment. |
… | Any intervening sounds. |
² | Repeat the preceding sound. |
\\ | Use as the replacement to reverse the matched sounds. |
k/s/_V/#s_ | Change k to s before a vowel, except after word-initial s. |
* | Start a comment line. |
-* | Mark a stage. The dictionary displays the final stage. |