diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'systems/win32/winedt/dict/english.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | systems/win32/winedt/dict/english.txt | 134 |
1 files changed, 134 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/systems/win32/winedt/dict/english.txt b/systems/win32/winedt/dict/english.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..181095ae4a --- /dev/null +++ b/systems/win32/winedt/dict/english.txt @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ + A SET OF DICTIONARIES FOR AMERICAN AND BRITISH ENGLISH + +In the WinEdt directory on CTAN, there are a number of contributed +dictionaries for spell checking in several languages. For English one +has the choice between UK.dic and US.dic. However, I have found these, +especially UK.dic, to be unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. + +1. The UK dictionary is missing many important words beginning with "m" + for some reason. There was an email at some time mentioning how the + file was corrupted at some point. + +2. It contains many more 2 and 3 letter combinations than US.dic, + combinations that do not seem like any words that I know. + +3. UK.dic accepts both -ize and -ise versions of words like "maximize"; + this is indeed correct for British English, but in any single work, + a consistent spelling must be used; hence one must decide for one or + the other and the spell checker should be switchable accordingly. + +4. The US.dic is rigidly American, and does not conform to my personal + (Canadian) style, which is a mixture of US and UK. In fact, the + distinction between American and British spelling is not so + straightforward as one might think. See below. + +5. The US.dic is prudish, missing some very fundamental four-letter + words, which are to be found in UK.dic. + +What is American and what is British spelling anyway? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +There are five categories of words in English with spelling variants; the +differences are often referred to as US or UK, but as the table below +illustrates, this is not so clear cut. + +I designate the five categories with a representative word from each: + color/colour + labeled/labelled + center/centre + maximize/maximise + analyze/analyse +In each case, I give what is normally considered American first, then +the form normally considered British. However, checking with the +Webster's and Oxford dictionaries, one finds that the following are +permitted (the preferred form is given first): + + Webster (US) Oxford (UK) + color colour + labeled/labelled labelled + center centre/center + maximize maximize/maximise + analyze analyse + +This shows that we could agree on labelled, center, maximize, and only +need to quarrel about color/colour and analyze/analyse. (This is my own personal style, +where I settle for "colour" and "analyse".) + +(Consider the origin of this word. The Latin is "color, coloris", so that +"color" is indeed the true original word. The English "colour" comes from the +French "couleur". The same applies to "honour/honor". More interesting is +"neighbour/neighbor" which is not a Latin root at all, but a Germanic one. It +is related to the German "Nachbar" (literally "the one beside" but which +translates exactly as "neighbour". So why is the "u" there at all? English is +weird!) + +More flexibility is needed in the spell checker than that provided by +only two dictionary files. + +My solution: 11 files +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +I have taken UK.dic and US.dic, merged them, extracted the words in the +four categories, placing them 8 additional dictionary files. + eng_com.dic (150843 words with no alternative spellings) + colour.dic and color.dic (366 words with -our/-or variant) + labelled.dic and labeled.dic (326 words with -ell-/-el- variant) + centre.dic and center.dic (85 words with -re/-er variant) + ize.dic and ise.dic (3387 words with -ize/-ise variant) + yze.dic and yse.dic (87 words with -yze/-yse variant) + +Six of these files must be loaded each time: eng_com.dic and one of +each pair. One uses the WinEdt dictionary manager to activate as one +pleases. Alternatively, one could use them to make up one big +dictionary of the combination that one desires. I do provide ready-to-run +installations, see below. + +There are 32 possible combinations, but I only see 4 realistic ones: + strict American: color, labeled, center, ize, yze + liberal American: color, labelled, center, ize, yze + liberal British: colour, labelled, center, ize, yse + strict British: colour, labelled, centre, ise, yse + +I set up WinEdt (32 bit version with modes and submodes) with submodes +UK and US, to append to main modes TeX and ANSI. My default is liberal +British, but strict British and strict American are optionally there. +The filters for the 11 dictionaries are thus: + +eng_com.dic * (always active) +color.dic US (only for US TeX files) +colour.dic *|US (for all but US TeX files) +labeled.dic US (only for US TeX files) +labelled.dic *|US (for all but US TeX files) +center.dic *|UK (for all but UK TeX files) +centre.dic UK (only for UK TeX files) +ize.dic *|UK (for all but UK TeX files) +ise.dic UK (only for UK TeX files) +yze.dic US (only for US TeX files) +yse.dic *|US (for all but US TeX files) + +In fact, my situation is more complex because I also have submodes DE and NEU +for German texts, old and new spelling rules. + +To simplify the installation for you, I provide WinEdt macros: + eng_dic.edt For the above setup, liberal British as default + eng_US.edt For US as default + eng_UK.edt For UK as default +Place the contents of english.zip into %B\dict\eng where %B is the directory +where winedt.exe is found. Then select Macros|Execute Macro... from the tool +bar, running one of the above .edt files. + +WARNING: these macros will load the standard set of modes with :US and :UK +added as submodes. If you have any customize modes of your own, do not do +this. Rather, add the submodes by hand and then load the appropriate +eng_*.dat file under Options|Dictionaries Right mouse button Load from... + +As always, you should backup your setup (Options|Configurations|Backup) +before making any of the above installations. + +Patrick W Daly +Max-Planck Institut fuer Aeronomie +37191 Katlenburg-Lindau +Germany +daly@linmpi.mpg.de + +2000 March 3 |