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Supported Languages

Complete reference of languages supported by each name type mode.

Generic Mode

The Generic mode supports the widest range of languages, suitable for general-purpose name matching.

Language Bitmask Value Script Region
Any 1 - Fallback
Arabic 2 Arabic Middle East, North Africa
Cyrillic 4 Cyrillic Russia, Eastern Europe
Czech 8 Latin Czech Republic
Dutch 16 Latin Netherlands, Belgium
English 32 Latin UK, USA, Commonwealth
French 64 Latin France, Canada, Africa
German 128 Latin Germany, Austria, Switzerland
Greek 256 Greek Greece, Cyprus
Greek (Latin) 512 Latin Greek names in Latin script
Hebrew 1024 Hebrew Israel, Jewish communities
Hungarian 2048 Latin Hungary
Italian 4096 Latin Italy
Latvian 8192 Latin Latvia
Polish 16384 Latin Poland
Portuguese 32768 Latin Portugal, Brazil
Romanian 65536 Latin Romania, Moldova
Russian 131072 Cyrillic Russia
Spanish 262144 Latin Spain, Latin America
Turkish 524288 Latin Turkey

Total: 20 languages

Ashkenazic Mode

Optimized for Ashkenazic Jewish surnames from Central and Eastern Europe.

Language Bitmask Value Notes
Any 1 Fallback
Cyrillic 4 Russian/Ukrainian variants
English 32 Anglicized names
French 64 French variants
German 128 Most common origin
Hebrew 1024 Original Hebrew names
Hungarian 2048 Hungarian variants
Polish 16384 Polish-Jewish names
Romanian 65536 Romanian-Jewish names
Russian 131072 Russian-Jewish names
Spanish 262144 Sephardic influence

Total: 11 languages

Common Ashkenazic Name Patterns

  • German: -stein, -berg, -feld, -man(n)
  • Polish: -ski, -wicz, -czyk
  • Russian: -ovich, -evich, -sky
  • Hebrew: Cohen, Levi, variations

Sephardic Mode

Optimized for Sephardic Jewish surnames from Spain, Portugal, and Mediterranean regions.

Language Bitmask Value Notes
Any 1 Fallback
French 64 North African influence
Hebrew 1024 Original Hebrew names
Italian 4096 Italian-Jewish names
Portuguese 32768 Portuguese origin
Spanish 262144 Primary origin

Total: 6 languages

Common Sephardic Name Patterns

  • Spanish: -ez, -es, de + location
  • Portuguese: -es, da + location
  • Italian: -i, -o endings
  • Ladino variations

Language Detection

The library automatically detects likely languages based on spelling patterns:

use Zendevio\BMPM\BeiderMorse;

$encoder = new BeiderMorse();

// German pattern detected
$encoder->detectLanguages('Müller');
// → [Language::German]

// Polish pattern detected
$encoder->detectLanguages('Kowalski');
// → [Language::Polish]

// Multiple languages possible
$encoder->detectLanguages('Smith');
// → [Language::English, Language::German, ...]

Detection Patterns

Characteristic Patterns by Language

Language Patterns Examples
Arabic -allah, -al, abd-, ibn- Abdullah, Abdallah
Czech ř, č, ž, -ová Dvořák, Černý
Dutch -ij, -ijk, van- Dijkstra, van der Berg
English -tion, -son, Mc-, O'- Johnson, McDonald
French -eau, -eux, -ault Moreau, Dubois
German -sch, -stein, ü, ö Müller, Schmidt
Greek -os, -is, -opoulos Papadopoulos
Hebrew -ah, -el, -man Abraham, Cohen
Hungarian -gy, -sz, -cs Nagy, Kovács
Italian -i, -ini, -elli Rossi, Bianchi
Polish -ski, -cki, -wicz Kowalski, Nowak
Portuguese -ão, -es, -eira Silva, Pereira
Romanian -escu, -iu Ionescu, Popescu
Russian -ov, -ev, -sky Ivanov, Smirnov
Spanish -ez, -az, -oz Gonzalez, Rodriguez
Turkish -oğlu, -lı, -ci Yılmaz, Demir

Using Language Restriction

For better precision when you know the origin:

use Zendevio\BMPM\Enums\Language;

// Restrict to specific language
$encoder = BeiderMorse::create()
    ->withLanguages(Language::German);

// Restrict to multiple languages
$encoder = BeiderMorse::create()
    ->withLanguages(
        Language::German,
        Language::Polish,
        Language::Russian
    );

Bitmask Operations

Languages use power-of-2 values for efficient combining:

// Combine languages
$mask = Language::German->value | Language::Polish->value;
// 128 | 16384 = 16512

// Check if language in mask
$hasGerman = ($mask & Language::German->value) !== 0;
// true

// Get all languages from mask
$languages = Language::fromMask($mask);
// [Language::German, Language::Polish]

// Combine using helper
$mask = Language::combineMask([
    Language::English,
    Language::French,
    Language::German
]);

Script Considerations

Latin Script Languages

Most European languages use Latin script with various diacritical marks:

  • German: ä, ö, ü, ß
  • French: é, è, ê, ç
  • Polish: ą, ę, ł, ó, ś, ź, ż
  • Czech: á, č, ď, é, ě, í, ň, ó, ř, š, ť, ú, ů, ý, ž

The library normalizes these for matching.

Non-Latin Scripts

Names in non-Latin scripts are typically provided in transliterated form:

  • Hebrew: Transliterated to Latin (Cohen, Levi)
  • Cyrillic: Transliterated to Latin (Ivanov, Smirnov)
  • Greek: Transliterated to Latin (Papadopoulos)
  • Arabic: Transliterated to Latin (Abdullah, Mohammed)

The phonetic rules handle common transliteration variants.