6.376 Sum: Soundex Code

The Linguist List linguist at tam2000.tamu.edu
Thu Mar 16 06:06:51 UTC 1995


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LINGUIST List:  Vol-6-376. Thu 16 Mar 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 77
 
Subject: 6.376 Sum: Soundex Code
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Asst. Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
               Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
               Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
               Annemarie Valdez <avaldez at emunix.emich.edu>
 
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1)
Date: Tue, 07 Mar 1995 17:46:51 -0500
From: Charlie at ccgate.dragonsys.com
Subject:  Response to The Linguist List query...
 
-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
1)
Date: Tue, 07 Mar 1995 17:46:51 -0500
From: Charlie at ccgate.dragonsys.com
Subject:  Response to The Linguist List query...
 
 
Several weeks ago, I submitted the following query to the The Linguist
List:
 
)Do you know of any written description of soundex code and its rules
)I'm writing a software program to help my wife decode surnames in her
)genealogical research. The only description I've located to date is a
)summary leaving lots of unanswered questions.
 
I received 12 responses, including two from Australia and one from the
UK. In total, they included the code for two C language programs, access
to a third C function, a BASIC program and an offer of a Pascal program,
all which reputed to perform soundex translation.
 
The origin of soundex was attributed to the 1880 US Census as well as to
Odell and Russel in 1920.
 
Nearly all respondants referred to or paraphrased pages 391 through 392
of "The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 3 Sorting and Searching",
Donald Knuth, Addison Wesley, 1973 for a description of the soundex
algorithm. [Knuth attributed his description to 1918 and 1922 U.S.
Patents by Margaret K. Odell and Robert C. Russell.]
 
The respondants were:
 
burns at cyc.com
goodr at uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
bill at hivnet.ubc.ca
evan.antworth at sil.org
goertzen at rrnet.com
    (included the code for SOUNDEX.BAS, published in "PC Magazine
     29 Sep 92, offer of a Soundex routine in Pascal, and direction
     to a C function METAPHON() "which claims to correct flaws in the
     original SOUNDEX routine" in the C Gazette, June 1991)
mis at seiden.com
    (included the code for two C language programs, one employing a
     table lookup, the other a switch statement)
macrakis at osf.org
    (included Knuth's references: US Patents 1261167 (1918), 1435663
     (1922); J.ACM 8:538 (1961); Commun.ACM 5:169 (1962); Federal
     Population Censuses 1790-1890 (National Archives, 1971), p 90.
sds5 at ukc.ac.uk
lojbab at access.digex.net
    (included a source for C code on the Internet)
WASSERMAN at mary.fordham.edu
jhs at extro.ucc.su.oz.au
mfw at lexicon.oz.au
 
Thank you all for your interest and effort to respond.
 
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