| # Open-source translator methods → FSOT-safe orientation |
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| We study classical / historical OSS pipelines for **structure**, not to import free neural MT cores. PFLT stays **FSOT 2.1–aligned** (scalar teacher, zero free params on the scalar path). |
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| ## What successful classical tools do |
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| | System / tradition | Approach | Transferable idea | |
| |--------------------|----------|-------------------| |
| | **Whitaker’s WORDS** | Exhaustive Latin **prefix + stem + ending** tables → lemma → English gloss | Finite analyze-then-gloss; never invent from embedding alone | |
| | **Morpheus / Perseus** | Greek/Latin morphological analysis → dictionary headword | Surface form ≠ meaning unit; lemma is the unit | |
| | **CLTK** | Pipeline: tokenize → normalize → POS/morph → lexicon | Stage separation; dual metrics (lex vs open) | |
| | **LEMLAT / Collatinus** | Rule morphology + large lemma lexicon | Precision over recall on short stems | |
| | **Historical linguistics pipelines** | Cognate tables, sound laws, Swadesh/ASJP | Lineage neighborhood under gates (we already have ASJP hooks) | |
| | **Gazetteers (Pleiades)** | Entity table + multilingual aliases | Names off the morph path (we split dual-track) | |
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| ## What we deliberately do *not* do |
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| - LLM / NMT as the translation core |
| - Soft generative “guessing” that breaks FSOT teacher gates |
| - Mixing unique entities into morph open-set metrics |
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| ## Applied in PFLT (v0.1 → now) |
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| 1. **Dual track** — core lexicon vs name gazetteer (Pleiades contacts) |
| 2. **Analyze-then-gloss** — reverse morph + paradigm expand + **prefix strip** |
| 3. **Lemma-first donors** — inject prefers content glosses for transfer |
| 4. **Precision gates** — short-stem collisions blocked unless high form similarity |
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| ## Next increments |
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| - Richer Latin/Greek **prefix inventories** (Whitaker-style) |
| - Sense preference by FSOT domain context |
| - Cognate bridges only when multi-source support exists |
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