Spell Checks in the next 1000 languages?

With just a couple of days until International Mother Language Day I thought it was a good time to explore the link between the use of languages online and the receptivity for online scriptures.

Scripture exists in over 2800 languages and text, audio or video is or soon will be available online in 1000 of those, but many languages still have little online presence.

Does the presence of online scripture, dictionaries and other resources increase the perceived status of a language and therefore increase the likelihood of scripture being used by a community?

I don't know the answer to that but offer the question for discussion and a brief intro to the idea of creating spell checks for languages that do not yet have them (even if it starts with just the words used in our translations)

(Following an original post at http://1000bibles.wordpress.com/2014/09/12/spell-checking-in-the-next-1000-languages/ someone suggested I share this idea with the MAP community)

Simple spell checks for use by Firefox and Thunderbird are easily available in about 100 languages (see https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/language-tools/ )

These are not highly intelligent spell checks they merely highlight whether a word is in a wordlist or not.

They would also be fairly easy to create in another 1000 languages or so for which there exist reasonable wordlists.

• Creating a spell check is fairly easy.
• Installing a spell check is fairly easy.
• Making a spell check available to others is fairly easy.
• This is of little value
  …unless you also tell people you have created a spell check,
  ensure they know where to access it and install it,
  and encourage them to tell others.

But let's start with…

Creating a spell check

A Firefox add-on is a ZIP file renamed to use a '.xpi' file extension. To create a dictionary add-on, simply create a ZIP file which contains the following files and folders:

my-dictionary.xpi

• install.rdf
• dictionaries/
  • locale-code.dic
  • locale-code.aff

So to create a spell check that can be used in the firefox browser you simply need.

• A list of words saved saved as a text file and renamed with a .dic extension.
• A bit of code (also editable in Notepad) and saved with an .aff file extenstion.
• A Zip program renamed with an .xpi file extension instead of the normal .zip

More details at :

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Creating_a_spell_check_dictionary_add-on

I didn't find it quite so simple as the zip file I created claimed to be corrupt when I tried to install my test dictionary. I used the free program from www.7-zip.org

Instead of creating the zip file I opened an existing one and copied updated files into it and this worked without any problems.

Installing a spell check

Opening the .xpi in Firefox will start a dialogue to install the spell check

In Thunderbird go to Add ons > Extensions and then select the drop down tools next to the search bar and select "Install Add-on from file"

Using the Spell Check

The Firefox spell checker is enabled on any text box that allows for more than one line of text.

• Words are underlined if not found in the word list.
• Right clicking on the word offers alternatives.
• Right clicking also opens a menu that allows you to switch to a different
  installed dictionaries.

Making a spell check available to others

Submit to Mozilla and/or make downloadable from any website or share by email etc

Tell people about it!

Making the spell check available to download is not the same as telling people it is available. Some will find and share it but for maximum effect tell people via facebook, press release, word of mouth etc. Eg encourage people to include a link to the spell check on documents they produce using it.

So far I've made one spell check using this method and passed it on to someone I know. When I build more I'll be sure to tell you.