Parlancr

Parlancr was inspired by the desire to apply different written styles to one’s own verbiage to enable better communication to target audiences. We wanted to develop a tool for language style transfer that allows users to “translate” the verbatim style of one group into the parlance of another group. This tool has many possible applications to facilitate more meaningful dialogue, better reading comprehension, or more engaged user audiences. We explored several such use cases in an effort to discover the potential and limitations of text style transference in various modalities. Utility in US bipartisan politics (republican vs democrat) was a particularly obvious use case as translating one party’s style into that more familiar to one’s counterpart could encourage openness in reading and responses. Additionally, the possibility of translating between Shakespearean English and modern English emerged as a potential tool for the academic sector. Furthermore, an age-based style translation (into teenager parlance) could pave the path for applications in advertising to better engage specifically-targeted user audiences. The application of such a tool to further sectors is yet to be explored.