CommonMorph: Participatory Morphological Documentation Platform

TL;DR

CommonMorph is an open-source platform designed to facilitate collaborative collection and annotation of morphological data, especially for low-resource languages, using active learning and community validation.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive, open-source platform that streamlines morphological data collection through expert input, community validation, and interoperability with NLP tools.

Findings

Supports diverse morphological systems including fusional, agglutinative, and root-and-pattern.

Minimizes manual work with active learning and annotation suggestions.

Accessible at https://common-morph.com for collaborative linguistic data preservation.

Abstract

Collecting and annotating morphological data present significant challenges, requiring linguistic expertise, methodological rigour, and substantial resources. These barriers are particularly acute for low-resource languages and varieties. To accelerate this process, we introduce \texttt{CommonMorph}, a comprehensive platform that streamlines morphological data collection development through a three-tiered approach: expert linguistic definition, contributor elicitation, and community validation. The platform minimises manual work by incorporating active learning, annotation suggestions, and tools to import and adapt materials from related languages. It accommodates diverse morphological systems, including fusional, agglutinative, and root-and-pattern morphologies. Its open-source design and UniMorph-compatible outputs ensure accessibility and interoperability with NLP tools. Our platform is accessible at https://common-morph.com, offering a replicable model for preserving linguistic diversity through collaborative technology.