Te Reo Māori Pseudowords: An Algorithm for Low Resource Languages
Authors: Jemma L König, Te Taka Keegan, Tirama Te Marino Bramley


Reviewer paper summaries: This paper introduces an algorithm designed to generate pseudowords for te reo Māori, the indigenous language of New Zealand. Pseudowords are sequences of characters that resemble real words but have no meaning, useful in lexical processing research and language teaching. The proposed algorithm, referred to as the ABC Algorithm, works with an input wordlist and does not require additional language-specific knowledge, making it applicable to various languages, including low-resource ones like te reo Māori. The study generated 500 Māori pseudowords, which were then evaluated both objectively against the language's rules and subjectively by fluent Māori speakers. The results showed that all pseudowords conformed to the language's rules, and 90% were deemed suitable for use.

This article describes a method to generate pseudo-words in Te Reo Maori language. This words are interesting for linguistic studies, especially to study the morphology of a given language. The method is based on an algorithm which relies on n-grams of existing words of the language to create words, which are automatically filtered to remove existing words or non-relevant ones. An evaluation conducted by speakers of Te Reo Maori shows that the method provides words that are evaluated as much natural for this language.
Summary of strengths: The paper addresses a significant gap by providing a tool for pseudoword generation in low-resource languages, particularly te reo Māori, which is crucial for linguistic research and language revitalization. The ABC Algorithm's design, requiring only an input wordlist and no additional language-specific knowledge, is a novel approach that enhances its applicability to various languages. The study's comprehensive evaluation, involving both objective criteria and subjective assessment by fluent speakers, ensures the generated pseudowords' quality and suitability. This dual evaluation method strengthens the paper's contributions by confirming the algorithm's effectiveness and the practical utility of the generated pseudowords. Additionally, the open-source nature of the algorithm encourages further research and application in other languages, supporting broader linguistic and educational efforts.

- Work on a under-resourced language
- Simple and efficient method to generate pseudo-words
Summary of weaknesses: Despite its contributions, the study has some limitations. The subjective evaluation was conducted by only two fluent Māori speakers, which may not fully represent the broader community's perspectives on the pseudowords' suitability. Including more evaluators would have strengthened the reliability of the findings. Additionally, the algorithm does not compare the generated pseudowords with real words outside the original input wordlist, potentially allowing some pseudowords to inadvertently match existing words in the language. This limitation could be addressed by incorporating an additional validation step using a comprehensive dictionary. Lastly, while the paper focuses on te reo Māori, it would benefit from demonstrating the algorithm's applicability to other low-resource languages to emphasize its generalizability and broader impact. Addressing these weaknesses would enhance the paper's robustness and overall contribution to the field.

- The paper contains redundancies
- Many parts of the paper doesn't require that much details (e.g. n-grams)
- Evaluations provide a biased view of the results
Comments, suggestions and typos: N/A

This paper, despites its merits presenting a work on an under-resourced language, what is very valuable and should be supported, is not written with the level of quality expected in such an international conference. It provides too much details on the method, many parts are expected to be known from readers, in particular detail about how n-grams are extracted.

I believe this study would have been well-suited, once synthetized and with some parts improved, for a short paper.

The evaluation method is biased, since it only focuses on pseudo-words, and do not provide comparison with existing words of the language. I'd suggest to ask speakers if a randome word, picked from the merging of generated and Te Reo Maori dictionaries, is an actual word of the language, to test how much speaker are reliable and how much generated pseudo words are as natural as existing word for this language.

The method only relies on deterministic methods, it would be nice to have some experiments with non-deterministic ones, for isntance character-level embeddings. Computing those embeddings for n-grams and sequences of n-grams would most probably provide relevant pseudo-words, maybe unexpected ones, this give interesting results in the creation process.
Overall assessment scores: 4

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