A Prolog interface to UPSID

(Version 3.1)

General

This is the most recent version of a tool designed to access information on the 317 phonological systems represented in UPSID. UPSID is the UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database developed by Ian Maddieson at the University of California, Los Angeles and presented in Maddieson, I. (1985). Patterns of sounds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Software and hardware requirements

The interface was written using LPA MacProlog32 and should run on any Macintosh computer. It is provided in two different forms:

Standalone form (UPSID Interface V3.1) for users who do not own a copy of the MacProlog application.
Application-dependent form (UPSID Interface V3.1.AD) for users who have MacProlog32

The two systems are the same in so far as the built-in tools are concerned, the MacProlog32 dependent form, however, provides users with the opportunity to construct their own queries directly in Prolog.

Both versions of the interface are downloadable from here.

The current system results from a series of updates and modifications to version 2 which were made between Autumn 1996 and Summer 1997. Users of previous incarnations of the interface will find it differs significantly in functionality from earlier versions which were made available on the net. Hopefully it also contains one or two less bugs!

Reference Manual

The Reference Manual Pages can be read on-line or directly copied from this site for local printing.

An Appendix to the manual provides prolog users with details of the data structures and the main prolog relations used into the system.

Ron Brasington
Department of Linguistic Science
The University of Reading
Reading
UK

E-mail: ron.brasington@rdg.ac.uk