Beider-Morse Phonetic Matching (BMPM) is an algorithm developed by Alexander Beider and Stephen P. Morse to search a name list for names that are phonetically equivalent to the desired name. It is similar to a soundex search in that an exact spelling is not required. But unlike soundex, it does not generate a large quantity of false hits.
From the spelling of the name, an attempt is made to determine the language. Phonetic rules for that particular language are then applied to transliterate the name into a phonetic alphabet. If it is not possible to determine the language with a fair degree of certainty, generic phonetic rules are used instead. Finally, language-independent rules regarding such things as voiced and unvoiced consonants and vowels are applied to further insure the reliability of the matches.
Developers wishing to incorporate BMPM into their applications can do so by clicking on one of the links below to download the source files. The release notes can be found in the file bmphonetics.txt.
The following will run on all versions of PHP Download BMPM version 3.15 May 29, 2022 Download BMPM version 3.14 July 6, 2021 Download BMPM version 3.13 December 15, 2020 Download BMPM version 3.12 January 21, 2020 Download BMPM version 3.11 February 6, 2019 Download BMPM version 3.10 January 4, 2018 Download BMPM version 3.09 September 8, 2017 Download BMPM version 3.08 September 3, 2017 -- buggy, do not use Download BMPM version 3.07 February 1, 2017 -- buggy, do not use Download BMPM version 3.06 October 25, 2016 -- buggy, do not use The following will not run on versions of PHP beyond 5.02 Download BMPM version 3.05 Feb 22, 2016 Download BMPM version 3.04 Nov 3, 2014 Download BMPM version 3.03 Jun 29, 2014 Download BMPM version 3.02 Feb 01, 2014 Download BMPM version 3.01 Dec 19, 2011 Download BMPM version 3.00 Jun 22, 2011 Download BMPM version 2.11 Dec 10, 2010 Download BMPM version 2.10 Oct 05, 2010 Download BMPM version 2.09 Oct 05, 2010 Download BMPM version 2.08 Sep 29, 2010 Download BMPM version 2.07 Aug 29, 2010 Download BMPM version 2.06 Jul 11, 2010 Download BMPM version 2.05 Jun 02, 2010 Download BMPM version 2.04 May 25, 2010 Download BMPM version 2.03g Oct 27, 2009 Download BMPM version 2.03 Aug 19, 2009 Download BMPM version 2.02 Jul 06, 2009 Download BMPM version 2.01 Jun 20, 2009 Download BMPM version 2.00 Jun 18, 2009 Download BMPM version 1.01 May 28, 2009 Download BMPM version 1.00 May 06, 2009
The code is offered as Open Source under the GNU General Public License agreement. If you are incorporating BMPM into one of your applications, we would appreciate hearing from you.
More information on BMPM can be found in the following two papers:
Phonetic Matching: A Better Soundex Beider-Morse Phonetic Matching: An Alternate to Soundex with Fewer False Hits
List of Phonetic Tokens