Node package for validating and normalizing IPA


Installing

Go grab it on npmjs via npm i @theresnotime/ipa-validator

You'll then be all set to require it:
``js
const ipaValidator = require('@theresnotime/ipa-validator');
`
Simples!

IPA goes in..

We pass the the IPA as a string:

`js
let validatorResult = await ipaValidator.validate('həˈləʊ');
`

..and a bool comes out!


Unsurprisingly, true for valid IPA, false for invalid IPA..

$3

As the tests show, you need to use the correct unicode — for example, həˈləʊ is valid but hə'ləʊ is not.

Functions

$3

By default, the validate function strips delimiters (/.../, [...]) and checks that the string contains only valid IPA characters.
`js
/**
* Validate delimiter-stripped IPA, optionally normalising it first.
* @param {string} ipa - IPA to validate.
* @param {boolean} strip - Strip delimiters (default: true)
* @param {boolean} normalizeIPA - Normalize IPA (default: false)
* @param {boolean} google - Normalize IPA for Google TTS (default: false)
* @returns {boolean} - Whether the IPA is valid.
*/
function validate(ipa, strip = true, normalizeIPA = false, google = false)
`

$3

The normalize function ensures that the IPA is using the correct unicode for similar looking characters (e.g. that you're using ˈ instead of ').
By default, it does not strip delimiters.
`js
/**
* Normalize IPA
* @param {string} ipa - IPA to normalize.
* @param {boolean} strip - Strip delimiters (default: false)
* @param {boolean} google - Normalize IPA for Google TTS (default: false)
* @returns {string} - normalized IPA
*/
function normalize(ipa, strip = false, google = false)
`

$3

The stripIPA function strips delimiters (/.../, [...]) from the IPA.
`js
/**
* Strip IPA delimiters (currently /.../ and [...])
* @param {string} ipa - IPA to strip.
* @returns {string} - Stripped IPA
*/
function stripIPA(ipa)
`

$3

The removeDiacritics function removes diacritics from the IPA.
`js
/**
* Remove diacritics
* @param {string} ipa - IPA to modify.
* @param {boolean} strip - Strip delimiters (default: false)
* @returns {string} - modified IPA
*/
function removeDiacritics(ipa, strip = false)
`

"Google" option

As part of a work project, we're feeding IPA to Google's TTS engine — Google is a little opinionated about things like diacritics.
For example, the IPA ˈɔːfɫ̩ would not render correctly in Google TTS. A custom charmap is used to normalize certain characters:
`js
let charmap = [
['(', ''],
[')', ''],
["'", 'ˈ'],
[':', 'ː'],
[',', 'ˌ'],
['ⁿ', 'n'], // 207F
['ʰ', 'h'], // 02B0
['ɫ', 'l'], // 026B
['ˡ', 'l'], // 02E1
['ʲ', 'j'], // 02B2
];
`
Doing Google-y normalizing is just a call like:

`js
await ipaValidator.normalize('ˈɔːfɫ̩', true, true);
// Returns ˈɔːfl
`
Some further examples can be seen in google.test.js.

Developing


1. Fork n' clone this repo
2. Do a npm install
3. Run npm test because who knows, maybe its already broken
4. Hack!

The Regex

`
^[().a-z|æçðøħŋœǀ-ǃɐ-ɻɽɾʀ-ʄʈ-ʒʔʕʘʙʛ-ʝʟʡʢʰʲʷʼˀˈˌːˑ˞ˠˡˤ-˩̴̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̤̥̩̪̬̯̰̹̺̻̼̀́̂̃̄̆̈̊̋̌̏̽̚͜͡βθχ᷄᷅᷈‖‿ⁿⱱ]+$
``

I've also placed it at https://regex101.com/r/f2Qhuk if you think you can improve it... (please do!)