I've been running into some issues trying to use Aspell with the Irish language. I'm using Aspell 0.60.8.2 with what I think is the latest version of the Irish dictionary, aspell5-ga-4.5.0 on MacOS 15.7.4.
Irish features several "initial mutations," some of which involve adding one or two letters to the front of a word. For example, the word for "bank" is "banc". In some situations, the initial "b" sound changes to an "m" sound; this is shown in Irish by adding the m to the beginning of the word, but retaining the b, giving "mbanc."
When an Irish word with an initial mutation is capitalised, the letters added are never capitalised. So for example, the Irish national anthem is called "Amhrán na bhFiann" and capitalising it any other way would be incorrect. Even when a word is written in all caps, usually the added letter is still given in lowercase: "CUMANN NÁISIÚNTA NA mBORD OIDEACHAIS"
I've tested this with a file containing multiple variants of the word "gcail", a mutated version of the word "cail", meaning "loss":
gcaill -- Correctly passed as correct; this is the version that appears in the dictionary.
gCaill -- Wrongly flagged as misspelled; this is the correct Irish capitalisation of this word. ** This is the most significant issue.
Gcaill -- Wrongly passed as correct; this is not an acceptable way to write this in Irish
gCAILL -- Wrongly flagged as misspelled; even in all caps the initial "g" would almost always be written in lowercase
GCAILL -- Passed as correct; this is somewhere between uncommon and wrong in Irish.
I've also tested this with a word that appears in the dictionary only in the capital form: "bPolainn", a mutated version of "Polainn", meaning Poland:
bpolainn -- Correctly flagged; this word should always be capitalised
bPolainn -- Correctly passed as correct; this is the form that appears in the dictionary
BPolainn -- Wrongly passed as correct; this is an error in Irish.
The all-caps versions have the same issue as gcaill, above.
As far as I know Irish is the only language with this particular feature (although I checked and the English dictionary does pass "IPhone" and "IPod" which it probably shouldn't.) But for Irish it's a significant issue that for words like "gcaill" the correct capitalisation is flagged as wrong and the wrong capitalisation is passed as correct.
I've been running into some issues trying to use Aspell with the Irish language. I'm using Aspell 0.60.8.2 with what I think is the latest version of the Irish dictionary, aspell5-ga-4.5.0 on MacOS 15.7.4.
Irish features several "initial mutations," some of which involve adding one or two letters to the front of a word. For example, the word for "bank" is "banc". In some situations, the initial "b" sound changes to an "m" sound; this is shown in Irish by adding the m to the beginning of the word, but retaining the b, giving "mbanc."
When an Irish word with an initial mutation is capitalised, the letters added are never capitalised. So for example, the Irish national anthem is called "Amhrán na bhFiann" and capitalising it any other way would be incorrect. Even when a word is written in all caps, usually the added letter is still given in lowercase: "CUMANN NÁISIÚNTA NA mBORD OIDEACHAIS"
I've tested this with a file containing multiple variants of the word "gcail", a mutated version of the word "cail", meaning "loss":
gcaill -- Correctly passed as correct; this is the version that appears in the dictionary.
gCaill -- Wrongly flagged as misspelled; this is the correct Irish capitalisation of this word. ** This is the most significant issue.
Gcaill -- Wrongly passed as correct; this is not an acceptable way to write this in Irish
gCAILL -- Wrongly flagged as misspelled; even in all caps the initial "g" would almost always be written in lowercase
GCAILL -- Passed as correct; this is somewhere between uncommon and wrong in Irish.
I've also tested this with a word that appears in the dictionary only in the capital form: "bPolainn", a mutated version of "Polainn", meaning Poland:
bpolainn -- Correctly flagged; this word should always be capitalised
bPolainn -- Correctly passed as correct; this is the form that appears in the dictionary
BPolainn -- Wrongly passed as correct; this is an error in Irish.
The all-caps versions have the same issue as gcaill, above.
As far as I know Irish is the only language with this particular feature (although I checked and the English dictionary does pass "IPhone" and "IPod" which it probably shouldn't.) But for Irish it's a significant issue that for words like "gcaill" the correct capitalisation is flagged as wrong and the wrong capitalisation is passed as correct.