In Phonology Assistant, an OR group is a list of pattern elements surrounded by braces { } in which each element is separated from other elements by a comma. A record matches the OR group if the Phonetic field matches one of the elements in the OR group.
For example, if an OR group contains a series of descriptive features, then qualifying phones will possess at least one (possibly more) of the descriptive features. If an OR group contains a series of distinctive features, a class, and two literal phones, then qualifying phones will possess at least one of the distinctive features, or be found in the class, or be one of the two literal phones.
There may be any number of OR groups in a search pattern, they may be nested, and they may exist in the search item, preceding environment, or following environment.
The operation of determining whether or not phones match an element of an OR group is referred to as a logical OR operation.
To find all word-initial bilabials, use the following pattern:
{p,b,m,ɸ,β,ɓ,ʘ}/#_*
To find all word-initial bilabials that are modified by one or more diacritics, use the following pattern:
[{p,b,m,ɸ,β,ɓ,ʘ}[◌+]]/#_*
Notice the OR group is nested in an AND group with the diacritic placeholder. This means that for a phone to match, it must be any one of those found inside the braces, and it must be modified by at least one diacritic.
To find all consonants having the distinctive features [+distr] or [+LAB], in any environment, use the following pattern:
[[C]{[+distr],[+LAB]}]/*_*
To find all consonants or vowels having the distinctive features [+distr] or [+LAB], in any environment, use the following pattern:
[{[C],[V]}{[+distr],[+LAB]}]/*_*
Notice that the two OR groups are nested in an AND group.
To find all bilabial plosives surrounded by back rounded vowels, use any of the following patterns:
{u,o,ɔ,ɒ}{p,b}{u,o,ɔ,ɒ}/*_*
There are often multiple ways to write a search pattern that will yield the same results. This pattern also could have been written using descriptive and distinctive features in AND groups as in the following two ways:
[[V][+back][+rnd]][Bilabial][Plosive]][[V][+back][+rnd]]/*_*
[[V][Back][Rounded]][Bilabial][Plosive]][[V][Back][Rounded]]/*_*
There is one significant difference between the search results returned by these last two patterns compared to those returned by the first. The first pattern will not find back rounded vowels and bilabial plosives that are modified by diacritics, whereas the second two patterns will. To rewrite the first pattern so it will return the identical results as the latter two, use the following pattern:
[{u,o,ɔ,ɒ}[◌*]][{p,b}[◌*]][{u,o,ɔ,ɒ}[◌*]]/*_*
Nesting each OR group in an AND group with a diacritic placeholder will tell Phonology Assistant that each element of the OR groups may be modified by zero or more diacritics in order to qualify as a match.
To find all word-medial occurrences of to or do, use the following pattern:
{(to),(do)}/+_+
Notice that to and do in the OR group are surrounded by parentheses, because they match more than one phone.
To find all words beginning with a vowel or a consonant followed by a vowel, use the following pattern:
{[V],([C][V])}/#_*