Towards Second-Generation Spellcheckers for the South African Languages
Daniel J. Prinsloo, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver · 2003
the nine official African languages and for Afrikaans (English already being catered for in the group of world-English spellcheckers). The first section is devoted to (i) describing certain basic aspects regarding the functionalities of spellcheckers, and to (ii) some specific African-language issues. This is followed by a brief evaluation of spellcheckers currently available for Afrikaans and some of the African languages. The final part deals with more advanced principles underlying spellcheckers with a view to create the next generation of spellcheckers for the South African languages. 1. Human Language Technology (HLT) and spellcheckers From the early 1960s onwards, researchers have designed various methods for the automatic detection of erroneous words in running text. Today, four decades later, there isn’t any self-respecting word processor that doesn’t include a spelling checker, as well as a spelling suggestor and/or corrector, a grammar checker and even a thesaurus as an integral part. This is true for all languages with significant worldwide commercial importance, less so for those languages with a limited commercial value. When we focus on the African languages 1, we must sadly note that commercially