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Word segmentation for the Myanmar language

¹ Division of Information Studies, School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637718
² Myanmar NLP Research Center, Hlaing, Yangon, Myanmar

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

	Abstract

This study reports the development of a Myanmar word segmentation method using Unicode standard encoding. Word segmentation is an essential step prior to natural language processing in the Myanmar language, because a Myanmar text is a string of characters without explicit word boundary delimiters. The proposed method has two phases: syllable segmentation and syllable merging. A rule-based heuristic approach was adopted for syllable segmentation, and a dictionary-based statistical approach for syllable merging. Evaluation of test results showed that the method is very effective for the Myanmar language.

Key Words: Myanmar language; word segmentation; natural language processing; syllable segmentation; syllable merging; collocation strength; mutual information

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