The Linguist's Shoebox

In Shoebox language encodings, you must list the characters that belong to the user-defined variables: sets of related characters (e.g., consonants, nasals, vowels). You can use variables to match characters in the following dialog boxes:

• Concordance Lookup
• Find
• Language Text Filter Element and Marker Text Filter Element

After you have set up and tested the sort order, you can use it to define most kinds of variables as follows:

1. From the Project menu, choose Language Encodings.
2. From the Language Encodings list, select the appropriate language encoding and click Modify.
3. From the Sort Orders list, select the sort order and click Modify.
4. In the Primary characters box, select all the characters and copy them to the Clipboard.
5. Click Cancel.
6. Click the Variables tab.
7. For each variable in the list,
   1. Select the variable and click Modify.
   2. In the Characters box, select all the characters and replace them by pasting the primary characters from the Clipboard.
   3. Delete any characters that do belong to the set.
      Note: Line breaks have no special meaning in the definitions of variables.
   4. Click OK.
8. If you need any new variables, add them. Define them by pasting the primary characters and deleting the characters that do not belong.
9. Click OK, then click Close.