Build log · Rhyme model
“The wheel is come full circle.”
Quotation: King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3.
A narrow string comparison of IPA endings was not enough to express every historically supported rhyme relationship, so the tool gained explicit broad-equivalence classes.
In brief
The change kept detailed IPA visible but allowed documented vowel-length and related broad classes to be compared at the rhyme-grouping stage. It corrected an avoidable false negative without claiming that all differences vanish.
The problem
Fine-grained transcription is valuable, but a browser key that treats every distinct IPA tail as a different rhyme can conceal a relationship the stated evidence supports. The issue mattered most for the site’s intended restored-rhyme demonstrations, where modern spelling and historical sound do not line up cleanly.
The implementation therefore separated transcription from grouping. The engine still renders its explicit values; the grouping layer applies a small, inspectable equivalence rule where the method supports one. Readers can see the outcome in the love/prove note and compare the wider evidence policy in the rhyme-evidence guide.
Consequence
The tool became more honest about its own level of abstraction. It no longer confused a convenient matching key with the underlying linguistic judgment. Further engine work could retain that distinction, and the Build log now records why it exists.