dlx2scription

A JavaScript library for converting linguistic data to a simple interlinear text.

Works in both Node and the browser.

• Overview
• Usage
• Options
• Report a problem / Request a feature

Overview

tl;dr: This library converts data from DaFoDiL format to Scription format.

The Digital Linguistics (DLx) project provides a recommended format for storing linguistic data called DaFoDiL (The Data Format for Digital Linguistics). This library provides a converter which transforms DaFoDiL-formatted data into a simple text format frequently used in linguistics called an interlinear gloss. In particular, the DLx project offers a specification for how to format interlinear glosses in a way that is computer-readable, called Scription.

Here is a small example of an utterance in DaFoDiL format:

{
  "metadata": "Swahili",
  "transcription": {
    "default": "ninakupenda"
  },
  "translation": "I love you",
  "words": [
    {
      "transcription": {
        "default": ""
      },
      "analysis": {
        "default": "ni-na-ku-pend-a"
      },
      "gloss": "1sg-PRES-2sg-love-IND",
      "morphemes": [
        {
          "transcription": {
            "default": "ni"
          },
          "gloss": "1sg"
        },
        {
          "transcription": {
            "default": "na"
          },
          "gloss": "PRES"
        },
        {
          "transcription": {
            "default": "ku"
          },
          "gloss": "2sg"
        },
        {
          "transcription": {
            "default": "pend"
          },
          "gloss": "love"
        },
        {
          "transcription": {
            "default": "a"
          },
          "gloss": "IND"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

And here is that same data in Scription format:

# Swahili
ninakupenda
ni-na-ku-pend-a
1sg-PRES-2sg-love-IND
I love you

Usage

1. Install

This library is distributed as an npm package and can be installed using npm or other Node package mangers:

npm install @digitallinguistics/dlx2scription

2. Import the library

Node.js

import dlx2scription from '@digitallinguistics/dlx2scription'

Browser

To use this library in a browser, you can either import the script directly from the node_modules/ folder, or use a JavaScript bundler (Webpack, Rollup, Browserify, ESBuild, etc.) to bundle the library into a single file while you can import into your HTML:

<script type=module>

  // Import a bundled copy of library.
  import dlx2scription from './dlx2scription.js'

  // OR

  // Import directly from the `node_modules/` folder.
  import dlx2scription from './node_modules/@digitallinguistics/dlx2scription/index.js'

</script>

3. Convert some data

The library exports a single method which accepts an Array of utterances in DaFoDiL format as the first argument, and an options hash as the second.

const utterances = [/* An array of utterances in DaFoDiL format. */]
const scription  = dlx2scription(utterances, { /* options */ })

console.log(scription)
// # Swahili
// ninakupenda
// ni-na-ku-pend-a
// 1sg-PRES-2sg-love-IND
// I love you

Options

The following options are available:

Option	Type	Default	Description
(forthcoming)

Bugs & Feature Requests

To report a problem or request a feature, please open an issue here.