# Phonetics Program For Burns' "To A Louse"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetics-program-for-burns-to-a-louse/786411>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 12, 2017, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetics-program-for-burns-to-a-louse/786411 "2017-05-12T00:56:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetics-program-for-burns-to-a-louse/786411/1 "2017-05-12T00:56:33Z")

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Performed excellently here: [Robert Burns Live - To a Louse - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsC-Aumx4dk)

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So I was wondering: for those of us not so well-versed in the Scots accent, does a program exist whereby one could “feed in” the written poem, and on the other end, out comes the poem in phonetics?

Now, I _know_ such a program could not reproduce all the gutturals and other nuances of the language, so I fully expect to be told this might be a “pie in the sky” idea or worse yet, be accused of cheating, but I wanted just to post it here for your answers/opinions, etc.

Thanks

Quasi

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**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetics-program-for-burns-to-a-louse/786411/2 "2017-05-12T01:40:35Z")

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English being the monster it is, each word would have to be hand-fed to the system with its IPA representation, after which a few phonetic rules might need to be laid on top (for previous words affecting the words after). It’s totally doable–I wasted my time in grad school on exactly this sort of thing–but you’d need the manpower to input the initial lexicon, since English orthography doesn’t translate to pronunciation in the first place.

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**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetics-program-for-burns-to-a-louse/786411/3 "2017-05-12T01:51:20Z")

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Wow, **Sattua** , that _does_ sound daunting! Thanks for the reply!

Q