diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 041b904..1066312 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -91,221 +91,160 @@ The following describes the API of the main Syllable class. In most cases,
 you will not use any other functions. Browse the code under src/ for all 
 available functions.
 
-#### public __construct($language = 'en-us', $hyphen = null)
-
+#### public __construct($language = 'en-us', string|Hyphen $hyphen = null)
 
 Create a new Syllable class, with defaults.
 
-
-#### public static setCacheDir($dir)
-
+#### public static setCacheDir(string $dir)
 
 Set the directory where compiled language files may be stored.
 Default to the `cache` subdirectory of the current directory.
 
-
 #### public static setEncoding(string|null $encoding = null)
 
-
 Set the character encoding to use.
 Specify `null` encoding to not apply any encoding at all.
 
-
-#### public static setLanguageDir($dir)
-
+#### public static setLanguageDir(string $dir)
 
 Set the directory where language source files can be found.
 Default to the `languages` subdirectory of the current directory.
 
-
-#### public setLanguage($language)
-
+#### public setLanguage(string $language)
 
 Set the language whose rules will be used for hyphenation.
 
-
-#### public addHyphenations($hyphenations): void
-
+#### public addHyphenations(array $hyphenations)
 
 Add custom hyphenation patterns for words using a '-' to explicitly specify hyphenation (if any)
 
 #### public setHyphen(mixed $hyphen)
 
-
 Set the hyphen text or object to use as a hyphen marker.
 
-
 #### public getHyphen(): Hyphen
 
-
 Get the current hyphen object.
 
-
-#### public setCache($cache = null)
-
-
+#### public setCache(Cache $cache = null)
 
 #### public getCache(): Cache
 
-
-
 #### public setSource($source)
 
 #### public getSource(): Source
 
+#### public setMinWordLength(int $length = 0)
 
+Words need to contain at least this many character to be hyphenated.
 
-#### public setMinWordLength($length = 0)
+#### public getMinWordLength(): int
 
+#### public setMinHyphenLeft(int|null $length = null)
 
-Words need to contain at least this many character to be hyphenated.
+Override the minimum number of characters retained before a hyphenation point.
+Pass null to restore the active language's default.
 
+#### public getMinHyphenLeft(): int
 
-#### public getMinWordLength(): int
-
+Get the effective minimum number of characters before a hyphenation point.
 
+#### public setMinHyphenRight(int|null $length = null)
 
-#### public setLibxmlOptions($libxmlOptions)
+Override the minimum number of characters retained after a hyphenation point.
+Pass null to restore the active language's default.
 
+#### public getMinHyphenRight(): int
 
-Options to use for HTML parsing by libxml.
+Get the effective minimum number of characters after a hyphenation point.
 
+#### public setLibxmlOptions(int $libxmlOptions)
 
-**See:** https://www.php.net/manual/de/libxml.constants.php
-.
+Options to use for HTML parsing by libxml.
+**See:** https://www.php.net/manual/de/libxml.constants.php.
 
 #### public excludeAll()
 
-
 Exclude all elements.
 
-#### public excludeElement($elements)
-
+#### public excludeElement(string|string[] $elements)
 
 Add one or more elements to exclude from HTML.
 
-
-#### public excludeAttribute($attributes, $value = null)
-
+#### public excludeAttribute(string|string[] $attributes, $value = null)
 
 Add one or more elements with attributes to exclude from HTML.
 
-
-#### public excludeXpath($queries)
-
+#### public excludeXpath(string|string[] $queries)
 
 Add one or more xpath queries to exclude from HTML.
 
-
-#### public includeElement($elements)
-
+#### public includeElement(string|string[] $elements)
 
 Add one or more elements to include from HTML.
 
-
-#### public includeAttribute($attributes, $value = null)
-
+#### public includeAttribute(string|string[] $attributes, $value = null)
 
 Add one or more elements with attributes to include from HTML.
 
-
-#### public includeXpath($queries)
-
+#### public includeXpath(string|string[] $queries)
 
 Add one or more xpath queries to include from HTML.
 
-
-#### public splitWord($word): array
-
+#### public splitWord(string $word): array
 
 Split a single word on where the hyphenation would go.
-
 Punctuation is not supported, only simple words. For parsing whole sentences
 please use Syllable::splitWords() or Syllable::splitText().
 
-
-
-#### public splitWords($text): array
-
+#### public splitWords(string $text): array
 
 Split a text into an array of punctuation marks and words,
 splitting each word on where the hyphenation would go.
 
-
-
-#### public splitText($text): array
-
+#### public splitText(string $text): array
 
 Split a text on where the hyphenation would go.
 
-
-
-#### public hyphenateWord($word): string
-
+#### public hyphenateWord(string $word): string
 
 Hyphenate a single word.
 
-
-
-#### public hyphenateText($text): string
-
+#### public hyphenateText(string $text): string
 
 Hyphenate all words in the plain text.
 
-
-
-#### public hyphenateHtml($html): string
-
+#### public hyphenateHtml(string $html): string
 
 Hyphenate all readable text in the HTML, excluding HTML tags and
 attributes.
-
 **Deprecated:** Use the UTF-8 capable hyphenateHtmlText() instead. This method is kept only for backward compatibility and will be removed in the next major version 2.0.
-.
-
-
-
-#### public hyphenateHtmlText($html): string
 
+#### public hyphenateHtmlText(string $html): string
 
 Hyphenate all readable text in the HTML, excluding HTML tags and
 attributes.
-
 This method is UTF-8 capable and should be preferred over hyphenateHtml().
 
-
-
-#### public histogramText($text): array
-
+#### public histogramText(string $text): array
 
 Count the number of syllables in the text and return a map with
 syllable count as key and number of words for that syllable count as
 the value.
 
-
-
-#### public countWordsText($text): int
-
+#### public countWordsText(string $text): int
 
 Count the number of words in the text.
 
-
-
-#### public countSyllablesText($text): int
-
+#### public countSyllablesText(string $text): int
 
 Count the number of syllables in the text.
 
-
-
-#### public countPolysyllablesText($text): int
-
+#### public countPolysyllablesText(string $text): int
 
 Count the number of polysyllables in the text.
 
 
-
-
 ## Development
 
 ### Update language files
diff --git a/src/Syllable.php b/src/Syllable.php
index c0ae85a..5696d6d 100644
--- a/src/Syllable.php
+++ b/src/Syllable.php
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ class Syllable
     private $language;
     private $minHyphenLeft = 2;
     private $minHyphenRight = 2;
+    private $minHyphenLeftOverride = null;
+    private $minHyphenRightOverride = null;
     private $patterns = null;
     private $maxPattern = null;
     private $hyphenation = null;
@@ -220,6 +222,52 @@ public function getMinWordLength()
         return $this->minWordLength;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Override the minimum number of characters retained before a hyphenation point.
+     * Pass null to restore the active language's default.
+     *
+     * @param int|null $length
+     */
+    public function setMinHyphenLeft($length = null)
+    {
+        $this->minHyphenLeftOverride = $length === null ? null : max(0, (int) $length);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Get the effective minimum number of characters before a hyphenation point.
+     *
+     * @return int
+     */
+    public function getMinHyphenLeft()
+    {
+        $this->loadLanguage();
+
+        return $this->minHyphenLeft;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Override the minimum number of characters retained after a hyphenation point.
+     * Pass null to restore the active language's default.
+     *
+     * @param int|null $length
+     */
+    public function setMinHyphenRight($length = null)
+    {
+        $this->minHyphenRightOverride = $length === null ? null : max(0, (int) $length);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Get the effective minimum number of characters after a hyphenation point.
+     *
+     * @return int
+     */
+    public function getMinHyphenRight()
+    {
+        $this->loadLanguage();
+
+        return $this->minHyphenRight;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Options to use for HTML parsing by libxml.
      *
@@ -293,6 +341,13 @@ private function loadLanguage()
                 $cache->close();
             }
         }
+
+        if ($this->minHyphenLeftOverride !== null) {
+            $this->minHyphenLeft = $this->minHyphenLeftOverride;
+        }
+        if ($this->minHyphenRightOverride !== null) {
+            $this->minHyphenRight = $this->minHyphenRightOverride;
+        }
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/tests/src/SyllableTest.php b/tests/src/SyllableTest.php
index caf3acd..a349b38 100644
--- a/tests/src/SyllableTest.php
+++ b/tests/src/SyllableTest.php
@@ -242,6 +242,27 @@ public function testGetSource()
         );
     }
 
+    /**
+     * @return void
+     */
+    public function testConfigurableHyphenBoundaries()
+    {
+        $this->object->setMinHyphenLeft(5);
+        $this->object->setMinHyphenRight(5);
+
+        $parts = $this->object->splitWord('Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious');
+
+        $this->assertSame(5, $this->object->getMinHyphenLeft());
+        $this->assertSame(5, $this->object->getMinHyphenRight());
+        $this->assertGreaterThanOrEqual(5, mb_strlen(reset($parts)));
+        $this->assertGreaterThanOrEqual(5, mb_strlen(end($parts)));
+
+        $this->object->setMinHyphenLeft(null);
+        $this->object->setMinHyphenRight(null);
+        $this->assertSame(2, $this->object->getMinHyphenLeft());
+        $this->assertSame(2, $this->object->getMinHyphenRight());
+    }
+
     /**
      * @return array[]
      */