...it's also OT a bit, but could you say more about "the new German spelling?" I haven't heard of that before (not being a student of German) and I'm curious if it simply means modern (ie. from sometime in the 20th century,) or if it's a very recent change (as in something from the last 25 years).

I have to agree with the conclusion that you might be best using a dictionary that provides phonetic spelling for the words that concern you. Those are typically hypenated anyway, and the accent marks may lend other useful information to your system.

In fact, the access to emphasis information may also be useful in other pursuits, but certainly if you're trying to create something that can generate reasonable lyrics or poetry, you may want to include meter in your calculations.

...All the world looks like -well- all the world, when your hammer is Perl.
---v