Re^4: Vowel search

[Jim]

Very few of those 3,244 words have a y in them that is one of a pair of vowels. You've included all the consonant y's and silent y's in your count.

[roboticus]

Jim:

Yes, that's true, but I'm a bit too lazy to write the regular expression that separates the vowel, consonant and silent versions. However, I think it's a reasonable compromise, given that my quick and dirty scan missed:

• The various words with a vowel-form of w,
• The words in which the y is missing entirely, and
• The words where the dictionary uses the wrong letter in place of the y.

Pending evidence to the contrary, I expect that the false inclusions are roughly balanced by the missing entries.

</joke>

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.

[Jim]

This over-matches and isn't comprehensive, but it flushes a few out.

C:\>web get http://svn.code.sf.net/p/cmusphinx/code/trunk/cmudict/cmud
+ict.0.7a | perl -lne "print $1 if (m/ AY\d IH\d / || m/ W AY\d / || m
+/ OW\d IH\d /) && m/^(\w+(?:Y[AEIOU]|[AEIOU]Y)\w+)/" | uniq | nl
     1    ALLYING
     2    ALOYSIUS
     3    AMPLIFYING
     4    APPLYING
     5    BELYING
     6    BLOWDRYING
     7    BUYING
     8    BYINGTON
     9    CERTIFYING
    10    CLARIFYING
    11    CLASSIFYING
    12    CODIFYING
    13    COMPLYING
    14    CRYING
    15    DECRYING
    16    DEFYING
    17    DENYING
    18    DISQUALIFYING
    19    DIVERSIFYING
    20    DRYING
    21    DWYER
    22    DYEING
    23    DYING
    24    EDIFYING
    25    ELECTRIFYING
    26    EXEMPLIFYING
    27    EYEING
    28    FALSIFYING
    29    FLYING
    30    FORTIFYING
    31    FRYING
    32    GENTRIFYING
    33    GLORIFYING
    34    GRATIFYING
    35    GUAYABERA
    36    HAYWIRE
    37    HIGHFLYING
    38    HORRIFYING
    39    HUYETT
    40    IDENTIFYING
    41    IMPLYING
    42    INDEMNIFYING
    43    INTENSIFYING
    44    JUSTIFYING
    45    LYING
    46    MAGNIFYING
    47    MISAPPLYING
    48    MISIDENTIFYING
    49    MODIFYING
    50    MULTIPLYING
    51    MUMMIFYING
    52    MYELIN
    53    MYSTIFYING
    54    NOTIFYING
    55    NULLIFYING
    56    OCCUPYING
    57    ODWYER
    58    OUTLYING
    59    OVERFLYING
    60    OVERLYING
    61    OVERSIMPLIFYING
    62    PARAGUAYAN
    63    PERSONIFYING
    64    PLYING
    65    PRYING
    66    PURIFYING
    67    QUALIFYING
    68    QUANTIFYING
    69    RATIFYING
    70    RECERTIFYING
    71    RECLASSIFYING
    72    RECTIFYING
    73    RELYING
    74    REPLYING
    75    RETRYING
    76    SATISFYING
    77    SAYIID
    78    SAYYID
    79    SEMIDRYING
    80    SHYING
    81    SIGNIFYING
    82    SIMPLIFYING
    83    SOLIDIFYING
    84    SPECIFYING
    85    SPEECHIFYING
    86    SPYING
    87    SQUYRES
    88    STULTIFYING
    89    SUPPLYING
    90    SWYERS
    91    TERRIFYING
    92    TESTIFYING
    93    TRYIN
    94    TRYING
    95    TYING
    96    UNDERLYING
    97    UNDYING
    98    UNIFYING
    99    UNSATISFYING
   100    URUGUAYAN
   101    VERIFYING
   102    VYING
   103    WEIMEYER
   104    WEYENBERG
   105    WYAND
   106    WYANT
   107    WYATT
   108    WYER
   109    WYERS
   110    WYETH
   111    WYOMING

C:\>