Editing Phonetic algorithm (section)

{{Short description|Algorithm for indexing of words by their pronunciation}}
A '''phonetic algorithm''' is an [[algorithm]] for [[index (publishing)|indexing]] of [[word]]s by their [[pronunciation]]. If the algorithm is based on orthography, it depends crucially on the spelling system of the language it is designed for: as most phonetic algorithms were developed for [[English language|English]] they are less useful for indexing words in other languages.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Li|first=Nan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZvDnVVmI98C&pg=PA232|title=Exploring the grand challenges for next generation E-Business : 8th Workshop on E-Business, WEB 2009, Phoenix, AZ, USA, December 15, 2009, Revised selected papers|last2=Hitchcock|first2=Peter|last3=Blustein|first3=James|last4=Bliemel|first4=Michael|date=2011|publisher=Springer|isbn=9783642174483 |editor=H. Raghav Rao |editor2=Raj Sharman |editor3=T. S. Raghu |location=Berlin|page=232|access-date=31 December 2020}}</ref> Because [[English orthography|English spelling]] varies significantly depending on multiple factors, such as the word's origin and usage over time and borrowings from other languages, phonetic algorithms necessarily take into account numerous rules and exceptions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Eli B. |title=Growing Information: Part 2 |date=2009 |publisher=Informing Science |location=Santa Rosa, Calif. |isbn=978-1-932886-17-7 |page=498 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7RDjagG1FAC&pg=PA498 |language=en}}</ref> More general phonetic matching algorithms take articulatory features into account <ref>Ladefoged, Peter. [https://aclanthology.org/C69-5701.pdf "The measurement of phonetic similarity."] In International Conference on Computational Linguistics COLING 1969: Preprint No. 57. 1969.</ref>

Phonetic search has many applications, and one of the early use cases has been that of trademark search to ensure that newly registered trade marks do not risk infringing on existing trademarks by virtue of their pronunciation. <ref>McAllister, Robert, and Benny Brodda. "Development of a new speech comprehension test with a phonological distance metric." In Proceedings of Fonetik, vol. 44, pp. 149-152. 2002.</ref><ref>Fall, Caspas J., and Christophe Giraud-Carrier. "Searching trademark databases for verbal similarities." World Patent Information 27, no. 2 (2005): 135-143.</ref>