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<Paper uid="W04-0103">
  <Title>A Diachronic Approach for Schwa Deletion in Indo Aryan Languages</Title>
  <Section position="8" start_page="3" end_page="3" type="concl">
    <SectionTitle>
7 Conclusion
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> In this paper, we have described the phenomenon of schwa deletion in the IAL and proposed a diachronic explanation for it. In order to model the diachronic evolution, we used the concepts of ease of articulation, ease of learning and acoustic distinctiveness. We developed a computational framework, where we reformulated some of the optimization criteria as constraints and one of them (the syllable minimization) as the basic optimization function. The outcome of this is an efficient and accurate algorithm for solving schwa deletion in IAL.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> The contribution of this paper is not just a better algorithm for schwa deletion, which is necessary for developing Text-to-speech synthesizers for IAL, but a new approach based on a constrained optimization framework, motivated by the diachronic evolution of languages. A closer look at the algorithm will reveal that it is not much different from the schwa deletion rule proposed by Ohala (1983). However, Ohala's rule was based on psycholinguistic and empirical observations, whereas we have derived the rule from a set of very basic assumptions (minimization of syllables and certain constraints). The algorithm itself can provide an explanation for the phenomenon.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> It must be mentioned that neither the aim nor the findings of this work are meant to propose a new model of language change. The models and concepts used here were all present previously and we have assumed and included some of them directly in our model. Our finding is not a proof of those models and can be considered only as a further validation. Our only claim here is that diachronic clues can help solve important problems in computational linguistics and for this we provide a computational framework and a specific example.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> Some of the questions that we would like to address in the future include modelling of optional schwa deletion in Bengali compound words, evolution of morpho-phonology for Bengali verb systems, and modelling of dialect diversity using diachronic clues. More realistic, yet manageable computational frameworks for holistic or detailed modelling of language evolution can also be an interesting area of future research.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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