🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan20.163448.17017@daimi.aau.dk>, lhp@daimi.aau.dk (
Lasse Hiller|e Petersen) writes:

> Rather than reinventing the wheel, I'd like to know whether someone knows
> of a program for the automatic determination of the language of short
> sentences, titles or subject lines.

An effective solution to this problem was found by a chap called Trevor Coates
who ran a translation agency in London in about 1980. The trick is to look at 
the short words (up to three letters). Each language has a unique set of these
and the decision process is extremely fast - three or four words are enough to
specify the language uniquely.

Trevor's system was not even implemented on a computer, but on a single sheet 
of paper. That's how fast and simple it is.

I don't have a copy of the sheet of paper but I expect you could reinvent it
without too much trouble.

Hope this helps

Ross