Syllabify

Automatically convert plain text into phonemes (US English pronunciation) and syllabify.

Modified from the repository set up by Andrew Caines with some key changes, itemised below:

• Environment management using uv
• Python 3.10+ compatibility
• Easy to access class and function interfaces
• Use up-to-date cmudict versioned by python-cmudict

Credits: Many thanks for @cainesap's work on porting and fixes & the original author @anthonysgevans

Set up

Requires Python 3 (Anthony Evans used Python 2: if that's what you prefer, see his repo).

pip install syllabify

Usage

Package interface

from syllabify import syllabify
word = syllabify("linguistics")
print(word)

L IH0 NG {onset: L, nucleus: IH0, coda: NG}
G W IH1 {onset: GW, nucleus: IH1, coda: empty}
S T IH0 K S {onset: ST, nucleus: IH0, coda: KS}

You can get the onset, nucleus, and coda of each syllable:

from syllabify import syllabify

word = syllabify("linguistics")
for syllable in word.syllables:
    print(f"Onset: {syllable.onset}")
    print(f"Nucleus: {syllable.nucleus}")
    print(f"Coda: {syllable.coda}")

Onset: L
Nucleus: IH0
Coda: NG
Onset: GW
Nucleus: IH1
Coda: empty
Onset: ST
Nucleus: IH0
Coda: KS

Command line interface

One word at a time:

syllabify linguistics

📝 Input: linguistics
🔤 Syllabification:

LIH0NG [L.IH0.NG] | ˈGWIH1 [GW.IH1.∅] | STIH0KS [ST.IH0.KS]

📖 Legend:
  [onset.nucleus.coda] = syllable structure
  ∅ = empty position
  ˈ = primary stress
  ˌ = secondary stress
  | = syllable boundary

Or several (space-separated):

syllabify colorless green ideas

📝 Input: colorless green ideas
🔤 Syllabification:

  ˈKAH1L [K.AH1.L] | ER0 [∅.ER0.∅] | LAH0S [L.AH0.S]
  ˈGRIY1N [GR.IY1.N]
  AY0 [∅.AY0.∅] | ˈDIY1 [D.IY1.∅] | AH0Z [∅.AH0.Z]

📖 Legend:
  [onset.nucleus.coda] = syllable structure
  ∅ = empty position
  ˈ = primary stress
  ˌ = secondary stress
  | = syllable boundary