Automatic syllabication for an on-line reading tutor

To assist limited-proficiency readers, an on-line reading tutor has been developed with a number of word-level aids. One of these, called syllabication, divides printed words into syllables that are then displayed and pronounced one at a time. The algorithm that divides words into syllables takes as input a printed word and its DECtalk-generated pronunciation. Divisions are made first in the pronunciation, using a consonant cluster tree to decide when more than one possible break can be made between two vowels. Rules that consider particular prefixes, suffixes, and stress and vowel patterns then select the most likely division. The resulting system performs above 99% correct for running text, but it fails on certain types of compound words, which can be handled correctly only through exception lists.