Arabic Soundex Class

Arabic Soundex:

Takes Arabic word as an input and produces a character string which identifies a set words of those are (roughly) phonetically alike.

Terms that are often misspelled can be a problem for database designers. Names, for example, are variable length, can have strange spellings, and they are not unique. Words can be misspelled or have multiple spellings, especially across different cultures or national sources.To solve this problem, we need phonetic algorithms which can find similar sounding terms and names. Just such a family of algorithms exists and is called SoundExes, after the first patented version.

A Soundex search algorithm takes a word, such as a person's name, as input and produces a character string which identifies a set of words that are (roughly) phonetically alike. It is very handy for searching large databases when the user has incomplete data. The original Soundex algorithm was patented by Margaret O'Dell and Robert C. Russell in 1918. The method is based on the six phonetic classifications of human speech sounds (bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, velar, and glottal), which in turn are based on where you put your lips and tongue to make the sounds.

Soundex function is available in PHP, but it has been limited to English and other Latin-based languages. This function described in PHP manual as the following: Soundex keys have the property that words pronounced similarly produce the same soundex key, and can thus be used to simplify searches in databases where you know the pronunciation but not the spelling. This soundex function returns string of 4 characters long, starting with a letter. We develop this method as an Arabic counterpart to English Soundex, it handles an Arabic input string to return Soundex key equivalent to normal soundex function in PHP even for English and other Latin-based languages because the original algorithm focus on phonetically characters alike not the meaning of the word itself.

Example Output 1:

Listed below are 6 different spelling for the name Clinton found in collection of news articles in addition to original English spelling.
Function	Input	Output
PHP soundex function	Clinton	K453
Arabic Soundex Method	كلينتون	K453
Arabic Soundex Method	كلينتن	K453
Arabic Soundex Method	كلينطون	K453
Arabic Soundex Method	كلنتن	K453
Arabic Soundex Method	كلنتون	K453
Arabic Soundex Method	كلاينتون	K453
Arabic Soundex Method	كلينزمان	K452

Listed below are 6 different spelling for the name Milosevic found in collection of news articles in addition to original English spelling.
Function	Input	Output
PHP soundex function	Milosevic	M421
Arabic Soundex Method	ميلوسيفيتش	M421
Arabic Soundex Method	ميلوسفيتش	M421
Arabic Soundex Method	ميلوزفيتش	M421
Arabic Soundex Method	ميلوزيفيتش	M421
Arabic Soundex Method	ميلسيفيتش	M421
Arabic Soundex Method	ميلوسيفتش	M421
Arabic Soundex Method	ميلينيوم	M455
Arabic Soundex Method (set Len=5 and Lang=ar) for "ميلوسيفيتش" word is: م4213

Example Code 1:


<?php
    $Arabic = new \ArPHP\I18N\Arabic();
    
    $Clinton = array('كلينتون', 'كلينتن', 'كلينطون', 'كلنتن', 'كلنتون', 'كلاينتون');

    echo <<<END
<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" align="center">
<tr>
    <td colspan="3">Listed below are 6 different spelling for the name
    <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton" target=_blank>Clinton</a></i>
      found in collection of news articles in addition to original English spelling.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td bgcolor=#000000 width=33%><b><font color=#ffffff>Function</font></b></td>
    <td bgcolor=#000000 width=33%><b><font color=#ffffff>Input</font></b></td>
    <td bgcolor=#000000 width=33%><b><font color=#ffffff>Output</font></b></td>
</tr>
END;
echo '<tr>
        <td bgcolor=#f5f5f5>PHP soundex function</td>
        <td bgcolor=#f5f5f5>Clinton</td>
        <td bgcolor=#f5f5f5>' . soundex(metaphone('Clinton')) . '</td>
      </tr>';

foreach ($Clinton as $name) {
    echo '<tr>
            <td bgcolor=#f5f5f5>Arabic Soundex Method</td>
            <td bgcolor=#f5f5f5>' . $name . '</td>
            <td bgcolor=#f5f5f5>' . $Arabic->soundex($name) . '</td>
          </tr>';
}

echo '<tr>
        <td bgcolor=#f5f5c5>Arabic Soundex Method</td>
        <td bgcolor=#f5f5c5>كلينزمان</td>
        <td bgcolor=#f5f5c5>' . $Arabic->soundex('كلينزمان') . '</td>
      </tr>';

echo <<<END
<tr>
    <td colspan=3>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td colspan=3>Listed below are 6 different spelling for the name
    <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milosevic" target=_blank>Milosevic</a></i>
     found in collection of news articles in addition to original English spelling.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td bgcolor=#000000><b><font color=#ffffff>Function</font></b></td>
    <td bgcolor=#000000><b><font color=#ffffff>Input</font></b></td>
    <td bgcolor=#000000><b><font color=#ffffff>Output</font></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
END;
    
    $Milosevic = array('ميلوسيفيتش', 'ميلوسفيتش', 'ميلوزفيتش', 'ميلوزيفيتش', 'ميلسيفيتش', 'ميلوسيفتش');

    echo '<tr>
            <td bgcolor=#f5f5f5>PHP soundex function</td>
            <td bgcolor=#f5f5f5>Milosevic</td>
            <td bgcolor=#f5f5f5>' . soundex(metaphone('Milosevic')) . '</td>
          </tr>';
                       
    foreach ($Milosevic as $name) {
        echo '<tr>
                <td bgcolor=#f5f5f5>Arabic Soundex Method</td>
                <td bgcolor=#f5f5f5>' . $name . '</td>
                <td bgcolor=#f5f5f5>' . $Arabic->soundex($name) . '</td>
              </tr>';
    }

    echo '<tr>
            <td bgcolor=#f5f5c5>Arabic Soundex Method</td>
            <td bgcolor=#f5f5c5>ميلينيوم</td>
            <td bgcolor=#f5f5c5>' . $Arabic->soundex('ميلينيوم') . '</td>
          </tr>';

    $Arabic->setSoundexLen(5);
    $Arabic->setSoundexLang('ar');

    echo '<tr><td colspan=3><i><small>
            Arabic Soundex Method (set Len=5 and Lang=ar) for "ميلوسيفيتش" word is: ' . 
            $Arabic->soundex('ميلوسيفيتش') . 
         '</small></i></td></tr></table>';

Related Documentation: soundex