Lecture
Mermru: Building a Dynamic and Integrated Linguistic Engine for Ethio-Semitic Languages
- Date
- Tuesday 9 December 2025
- Time
- Address
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Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- Digital Lab, Huizinga 0.09 and Online (Register for the link)
Mermru: Building a Dynamic and Integrated Linguistic Engine for Ethio-Semitic Languages
Traditional linguistic and computational resources, including existing dictionaries, struggle with the rich morphology and complex structure of Ethio-Semitic languages. This creates a significant bottleneck for research, technology integration, and language pedagogy.
Mermru addresses this challenge by implementing an innovative, dynamic, rule-based lexicographical and linguistic engine. This integrated approach systematically and naturally models the underlying structure of these languages, specifically by standardizing roots, explicitly handling features like gemination, and connecting all derived word and surface forms with each other and their roots. Functioning as more than a simple lookup tool, Mermru serves as an engine for morphological generation and analysis.
This advanced engine enables new computational research methods and powerful applications for researchers and practitioners—such as derivation and gemination patterns, contextual concordance searching and morphologically-aware text analysis and search. By facilitating deeper and more granular engagement with Tigrinya, Amharic, and Ge'ez texts, Mermru promises to accelerate and transform research and practice in this under-resourced linguistic area.
In the talk, I will explain the motivation and philosophy, how this linguistic engine works, and demonstrate the possible research and applications that it can enable and support.
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The Tree of Meaning with BGC (G. Gebremeskel) -
Screenshots from Mermru (G. Gebremeskel)