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ISPELL(4) ISPELL(4) NNAAMMEE ispell - format of ispell dictionaries and affix files DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN _I_s_p_e_l_l(1) requires two files to define the language that it is spell-checking. The first file is a dictionary con- taining words for the language, and the second is an "affix" file that defines the meaning of special flags in the dictionary. The two files are combined by _b_u_i_l_d_h_a_s_h (see _i_s_p_e_l_l(1)) and written to a hash file which is not described here. A raw _i_s_p_e_l_l dictionary (either the main dictionary or your own personal dictionary) contains a list of words, one per line. Each word may optionally be followed by a slash ("/") and one or more flags, which modify the root word as explained below. Depending on the options with which _i_s_p_e_l_l was built, case may or may not be significant in either the root word or the flags, independently. Specifically, if the compile-time option CAPITALIZATION is defined, case is significant in the root word; if not, case is ignored in the root word. If the compile-time option MASKBITS is set to a value of 32, case is ignored in the flags; otherwise case is significant in the flags. Contact your system administrator or _i_s_p_e_l_l maintainer for more information (or use the --vvvv flag to find out). The dictionary should be sorted with the --ff flag of _s_o_r_t(1) before the hash file is built; this is done automatically by _m_u_n_c_h_l_i_s_t(1), which is the normal way of building dic- tionaries. If the dictionary contains words that have string charac- ters (see the affix-file documentation below), they must be written in the format given by the ddeeffssttrriinnggttyyppee state- ment in the affix file. This will be the case for most non-English languages. Be careful to use this format, rather than that of your favorite formatter, when adding words to a dictionary. (If you add words to your personal dictionary during an _i_s_p_e_l_l session, they will automati- cally be converted to the correct format. This feature can be used to convert an entire dictionary if necessary:) echo qqqqq > dummy.dict buildhash dummy.dict _a_f_f_i_x_-_f_i_l_e dummy.hash awk '{print "*"}END{print "#"}' _o_l_d_-_d_i_c_t_-_f_i_l_e \ | ispell -a -T _o_l_d_-_d_i_c_t_-_s_t_r_i_n_g_-_t_y_p_e \ -d ./dummy.hash -p ./_n_e_w_-_d_i_c_t_-_f_i_l_e \ > /dev/null rm dummy.* The case of the root word controls the case of words accepted by _i_s_p_e_l_l, as follows: (1) If the root word appears only in lower case (e.g., local 1 ISPELL(4) ISPELL(4) _b_o_b), it will be accepted in lower case, capital- ized, or all capitals. (2) If the root word appears capitalized (e.g., _R_o_b_e_r_t), it will not be accepted in all-lower case, but will be accepted capitalized or all in capi- tals. (3) If the root word appears all in capitals (e.g., _U_N_I_X), it will only be accepted all in capitals. (4) If the root word appears with a "funny" capitaliza- tion (e.g., _I_T_C_o_r_p), a word will be accepted only if it follows that capitalization, or if it appears all in capitals. (5) More than one capitalization of a root word may appear in the dictionary. Flags from different capitalizations are combined by OR-ing them together. Redundant capitalizations (e.g., _b_o_b and _B_o_b) will be com- bined by _b_u_i_l_d_h_a_s_h and by _i_s_p_e_l_l (for personal dictionar- ies), and can be removed from a raw dictionary by _m_u_n_c_h_- _l_i_s_t. For example, the dictionary: bob Robert UNIX ITcorp ITCorp will accept _b_o_b, _B_o_b, _B_O_B, _R_o_b_e_r_t, _R_O_B_E_R_T, _U_N_I_X, _I_T_c_o_r_p, _I_T_C_o_r_p, and _I_T_C_O_R_P, and will reject all others. Some of the unacceptable forms are _b_O_b, _r_o_b_e_r_t, _U_n_i_x, and _I_t_C_o_r_p. As mentioned above, root words in any dictionary may be extended by flags. Each flag is a single alphabetic char- acter, which represents a prefix or suffix that may be added to the root to form a new word. For example, in an English dictionary the DD flag can be added to _b_a_t_h_e to make _b_a_t_h_e_d. Since flags are represented as a single bit in the hashed dictionary, this results in significant space savings. The _m_u_n_c_h_l_i_s_t script will reduce an exist- ing raw dictionary by adding flags when possible. When a word is extended with an affix, the affix will be accepted only if it appears in the same case as the ini- tial (prefix) or final (suffix) letter of the word. Thus, for example, the entry _U_N_I_X_/_M in the main dictionary (MM means add an apostrophe and an "s" to make a possessive) would accept _U_N_I_X_'_S but would reject _U_N_I_X_'_s. If _U_N_I_X_'_s is local 2 ISPELL(4) ISPELL(4) legal, it must appear as a separate dictionary entry, and it will not be combined by _m_u_n_c_h_l_i_s_t. (In general, you don't need to worry about these things; _m_u_n_c_h_l_i_s_t guaran- tees that its output dictionary will accept the same set of words as its input, so all you have to do is add words to the dictionary and occasionally run munchlist to reduce its size). As mentioned, the affix definition file describes the affixes associated with particular flags. It also describes the character set used by the language. Although the affix-definition grammar is designed for a line-oriented layout, it is actually a free-format yacc grammar and can be laid out weirdly if you want. Comments are started by a pound (sharp) sign (#), and continue to the end of the line. Backslashes are supported in the usual fashion (\\_n_n_n, plus specials \\nn, \\rr, \\tt, \\vv, \\ff, \\bb, and the new hex format \\xx_n_n). Any character with special meaning to the parser can be changed to an uninterpreted token by backslashing it; for example, you can declare a flag named _f_l_a_g _\_*_: or _f_l_a_g _\_:_:. The grammar will be presented in a top-down fashion, with discussion of each element. An affix-definition file must contain exactly one table: _t_a_b_l_e : [_h_e_a_d_e_r_s] [_p_r_e_f_i_x_e_s] [_s_u_f_f_i_x_e_s] At least one of _p_r_e_f_i_x_e_s and _s_u_f_f_i_x_e_s is required. They can appear in either order. _h_e_a_d_e_r_s : [ _o_p_t_i_o_n_s ] _c_h_a_r_-_s_e_t_s The headers describe options global to this dictionary and language. These include the character sets to be used and the formatter, and the defaults for certain _i_s_p_e_l_l flags. _o_p_t_i_o_n_s : { _f_m_t_r_-_s_t_m_t | _o_p_t_-_s_t_m_t | _f_l_a_g_-_s_t_m_t | _n_u_m_-_s_t_m_t } The options statements define the defaults for certain ispell flags and for the character sets used by the for- matters. _f_m_t_r_-_s_t_m_t : { _n_r_o_f_f_-_s_t_m_t | _t_e_x_-_s_t_m_t } A _f_m_t_r_-_s_t_m_t describes characters that have special meaning to a formatter. Normally, this statement is not neces- sary, but some languages may have preempted the usual defaults for use as language-specific characters. In this case, these statements may be used to redefine the special characters expected by the formatter. _n_r_o_f_f_-_s_t_m_t : { nnrrooffffcchhaarrss | ttrrooffffcchhaarrss } _s_t_r_i_n_g local 3 ISPELL(4) ISPELL(4) The nnrrooffffcchhaarrss statement allows redefinition of certain _n_r_o_f_f control characters. The string given must be exactly five characters long, and must list substitutions for the left and right parentheses ("()") , the period ("."), the backslash ("\"), and the asterisk ("*"). (The right parenthesis is not currently used, but is included for completeness.) For example, the statement: nnrrooffffcchhaarrss {}.\\* would replace the left and right parentheses with left and right curly braces for purposes of parsing _n_r_o_f_f/_t_r_o_f_f strings, with no effect on the others (admittedly a con- trived example). Note that the backslash is escaped with a backslash. _t_e_x_-_s_t_m_t : { TTeeXXcchhaarrss | tteexxcchhaarrss } _s_t_r_i_n_g The TTeeXXcchhaarrss statement allows redefinition of certain TeX/LaTeX control characters. The string given must be exactly thirteen characters long, and must list substitu- tions for the left and right parentheses ("()") , the left and right square brackets ("[]"), the left and right curly braces ("{}"), the left and right angle brackets ("<>"), the backslash ("\"), the dollar sign ("$"), the asterisk ("*"), the period or dot ("."), and the percent sign ("%"). For example, the statement: tteexxcchhaarrss ()\[]<\><\>\\$*.% would replace the functions of the left and right curly braces with the left and right angle brackets for purposes of parsing TeX/LaTeX constructs, while retaining their functions for the _t_i_b bibliographic preprocessor. Note that the backslash, the left square bracket, and the right angle bracket must be escaped with a backslash. _o_p_t_-_s_t_m_t : { _c_m_p_n_d_-_s_t_m_t | _a_f_f_-_s_t_m_t } _c_m_p_n_d_-_s_t_m_t : ccoommppoouunnddwwoorrddss _c_o_m_p_o_u_n_d_-_o_p_t _a_f_f_-_s_t_m_t : aallllaaffffiixxeess _o_n_-_o_r_-_o_f_f _o_n_-_o_r_-_o_f_f : { oonn | ooffff } _c_o_m_p_o_u_n_d_-_o_p_t : { _o_n_-_o_r_-_o_f_f | ccoonnttrroolllleedd _c_h_a_r_a_c_t_e_r } An _o_p_t_-_s_t_m_t controls certain ispell defaults that are best made language-specific. The aallllaaffffiixxeess statement controls the default for the --PP and --mm options to _i_s_p_e_l_l_. If aallllaaffffiixxeess is turned ooffff (the default), _i_s_p_e_l_l will default to the behavior of the _-_P flag: root/affix sugges- tions will only be made if there are no "near misses". If aallllaaffffiixxeess is turned oonn, _i_s_p_e_l_l will default to the local 4 ISPELL(4) ISPELL(4) behavior of the _-_m flag: root/affix suggestions will always be made. The ccoommppoouunnddwwoorrddss statement controls the default for the --BB and --CC options to _i_s_p_e_l_l_. If ccoommppoouunndd-- wwoorrddss is turned ooffff (the default), _i_s_p_e_l_l will default to the behavior of the _-_B flag: run-together words will be reported as errors. If ccoommppoouunnddwwoorrddss is turned oonn, _i_s_p_e_l_l will default to the behavior of the _-_C flag: run-together words will be considered as compounds if both are in the dictionary. This is useful for languages such as German and Norwegian, which form large numbers of compound words. Finally, if ccoommppoouunnddwwoorrddss is set to _c_o_n_t_r_o_l_l_e_d, only words marked with the flag indicated by _c_h_a_r_a_c_t_e_r (which should not be otherwise used) will be allowed to participate in compound formation. Because this option requires the flags to be specified in the dictionary, it is not avail- able from the command line. _f_l_a_g_-_s_t_m_t : ffllaaggmmaarrkkeerr _c_h_a_r_a_c_t_e_r The ffllaaggmmaarrkkeerr statement describes the character which is used to separate affix flags from the root word in a raw dictionary file. This must be a character which is not found in any word (including in string characters; see below). The default is "/" because this character is not normally used to represent special characters in any lan- guage. _n_u_m_-_s_t_m_t : ccoommppoouunnddmmiinn _d_i_g_i_t The ccoommppoouunnddmmiinn statement controls the length of the two components of a compound word. This only has an effect if ccoommppoouunnddwwoorrddss is turned oonn or if the --CC flag is given to _i_s_p_e_l_l. In that case, only words at least as long as the given minimum will be accepted as components of a com- pound. The default is 3 characters. _c_h_a_r_-_s_e_t_s : _n_o_r_m_-_s_e_t_s [ _a_l_t_-_s_e_t_s ] The character-set section describes the characters that can be part of a word, and defines their collating order. There must always be a definition of "normal" character sets; in addition, there may be one or more partial defi- nitions of "alternate" sets which are used with various text formatters. _n_o_r_m_-_s_e_t_s : [ _d_e_f_t_y_p_e ] charset-group A "normal" character set may optionally begin with a defi- nition of the file suffixes that make use of this set. Following this are one or more character-set declarations. _d_e_f_t_y_p_e : ddeeffssttrriinnggttyyppee _n_a_m_e _d_e_f_o_r_m_a_t_t_e_r _s_u_f_f_i_x* The ddeeffssttrriinnggttyyppee declaration gives a list of file local 5 ISPELL(4) ISPELL(4) suffixes which should make use of the default string char- acters defined as part of the base character set; it is only necessary if string characters are being defined. The _n_a_m_e parameter is a string giving the unique name associated with these suffixes; often it is a formatter name. If the formatter is a member of the troff family, "nroff" should be used for the name associated with the most popular macro package; members of the TeX family should use "tex". Other names may be chosen freely, but they should be kept simple, as they are used in _i_s_p_e_l_l _'_s --TT switch to specify a formatter type. The _d_e_f_o_r_m_a_t_t_e_r parameter specifies the deformatting style to use when processing files with the given suffixes. Currently, this must be either tteexx or nnrrooffff. The _s_u_f_f_i_x parameters are a whitespace-separated list of strings which, if present at the end of a filename, indicate that the associated set of string characters should be used by default for this file. For example, the suffix list for the troff family typi- cally includes suffixes such as ".ms", ".me", ".mm", etc. _c_h_a_r_s_e_t_-_g_r_o_u_p : { _c_h_a_r_-_s_t_m_t | _s_t_r_i_n_g_-_s_t_m_t | _d_u_p_-_s_t_m_t}* A _c_h_a_r_-_s_t_m_t describes single characters; a _s_t_r_i_n_g_-_s_t_m_t describes characters that must appear together as a string, and which usually represent a single character in the target language. Either may also describe conversion between upper and lower case. A _d_u_p_-_s_t_m_t is used to describe alternate forms of string characters, so that a single dictionary may be used with several formatting pro- grams that use different conventions for representing non- ASCII characters. _c_h_a_r_-_s_t_m_t : wwoorrddcchhaarrss _c_h_a_r_a_c_t_e_r_-_r_a_n_g_e | wwoorrddcchhaarrss _l_o_w_e_r_c_a_s_e_-_r_a_n_g_e _u_p_p_e_r_c_a_s_e_-_r_a_n_g_e | bboouunnddaarryycchhaarrss _c_h_a_r_a_c_t_e_r_-_r_a_n_g_e | bboouunnddaarryycchhaarrss _l_o_w_e_r_c_a_s_e_-_r_a_n_g_e _u_p_p_e_r_c_a_s_e_-_r_a_n_g_e _s_t_r_i_n_g_-_s_t_m_t : ssttrriinnggcchhaarr _s_t_r_i_n_g | ssttrriinnggcchhaarr _l_o_w_e_r_c_a_s_e_-_s_t_r_i_n_g _u_p_p_e_r_c_a_s_e_-_s_t_r_i_n_g Characters described with the bboouunnddaarryycchhaarrss statement are considered part of a word only if they appear singly, embedded between characters declared with the wwoorrddcchhaarrss or ssttrriinnggcchhaarr statements. For example, if the hyphen is a boundary character (useful in French), the string "foo- bar" would be a single word, but "-foo" would be the same as "foo", and "foo--bar" would be two words separated by non-word characters. If two ranges or strings are given in a _c_h_a_r_-_s_t_m_t or _s_t_r_i_n_g_-_s_t_m_t, the first describes characters that are interpreted as lowercase and the second describes upper- case. In the case of a ssttrriinnggcchhaarr statement, the two strings must be of the same length. Also, in a ssttrriinnggcchhaarr statement, the actual strings may contain both uppercase local 6 ISPELL(4) ISPELL(4) and characters themselves without difficulty; for instance, the statement stringchar "\\*(sS" "\\*(Ss" is legal and will not interfere with (or be interfered with by) other declarations of of "s" and "S" as lower and upper case, respectively. A final note on string characters: some languages collate certain special characters as if they were strings. For example, the German "a-umlaut" is traditionally sorted as if it were "ae". Ispell is not capable of this; each character must be treated as an individual entity. So in certain cases, ispell will sort a list of words into a different order than the standard "dictionary" order for the target language. _a_l_t_-_s_e_t_s : _a_l_t_t_y_p_e [ _a_l_t_-_s_t_m_t* ] Because different formatters use different notations to represent non-ASCII characters, _i_s_p_e_l_l must be aware of the representations used by these formatters. These are declared as alternate sets of string characters. _a_l_t_t_y_p_e : aallttssttrriinnggttyyppee _n_a_m_e _s_u_f_f_i_x* The aallttssttrriinnggttyyppee statement introduces each set by declar- ing the associated formatter name and filename suffix list. This name and list are interpreted exactly as in the ddeeffssttrriinnggttyyppee statement above. Following this header are one or more _a_l_t_-_s_t_m_ts which declare the alternate string characters used by this formatter. _a_l_t_-_s_t_m_t : aallttssttrriinnggcchhaarr _a_l_t_-_s_t_r_i_n_g _s_t_d_-_s_t_r_i_n_g The _a_l_t_s_t_r_i_n_g_c_h_a_r statement describes alternate represen- tations for string characters. For example, the -mm macro package of _t_r_o_f_f represents the German "a-umlaut" as _a_\_*_:, while _T_e_X uses the sequence _\_"_a. If the _t_r_o_f_f versions are declared as the standard versions using ssttrriinnggcchhaarr, the _T_e_X versions may be declared as alternates by using the statement altstringchar \\\"a a\\*: When the aallttssttrriinnggcchhaarr statement is used to specify alter- nate forms, all forms for a particular formatter must be declared together as a group. Also, each formatter or macro package must provide a complete set of characters, both upper- and lower-case, and the character sequences used for each formatter must be completely distinct. Character sequences which describe upper- and lower-case versions of the same printable character must also be the local 7 ISPELL(4) ISPELL(4) same length. It may be necessary to define some new macros for a given formatter to satisfy these restric- tions. (The current version of _b_u_i_l_d_h_a_s_h does not enforce these restrictions, but failure to obey them may result in errors being introduced into files that are processed with _i_s_p_e_l_l.) An important minor point is that _i_s_p_e_l_l assumes that all characters declared as wwoorrddcchhaarrss or bboouunnddaarryycchhaarrss will occupy exactly one position on the terminal screen. A single character-set statement can declare either a sin- gle character or a contiguous range of characters. A range is given as in egrep and the shell: [a-z] means low- ercase alphabetics; [^a-z] means all but lowercase, etc. All character-set statements are combined (unioned) to produce the final list of characters that may be part of a word. The collating order of the characters is defined by the order of their declaration; if a range is used, the characters are considered to have been declared in ASCII order. Characters that have case are collated next to each other, with the uppercase character first. The character-declaration statements have a rather strange behavior caused by its need to match each lowercase char- acter with its uppercase equivalent. In any given wwoorrdd-- cchhaarrss or bboouunnddaarryycchhaarrss statement, the characters in each range are first sorted into ASCII collating sequence, then matched one-for-one with the other range. (The two ranges must have the same number of characters). Thus, for exam- ple, the two statements: wwoorrddcchhaarrss [aeiou] [AEIOU] wwoorrddcchhaarrss [aeiou] [UOIEA] would produce exactly the same effect. To get the vowels to match up "wrong", you would have to use separate state- ments: wwoorrddcchhaarrss a U wwoorrddcchhaarrss e O wwoorrddcchhaarrss i I wwoorrddcchhaarrss o E wwoorrddcchhaarrss u A which would cause uppercase 'e' to be 'O', and lowercase 'O' to be 'e'. This should normally be a problem only with languages which have been forced to use a strange ASCII collating sequence. If your uppercase and lowercase letters both collate in the same order, you shouldn't have to worry about this "feature". The prefixes and suffixes sections have exactly the same syntax, except for the introductory keyword. local 8 ISPELL(4) ISPELL(4) _p_r_e_f_i_x_e_s : pprreeffiixxeess _f_l_a_g_d_e_f* _s_u_f_f_i_x_e_s : ssuuffffiixxeess _f_l_a_g_d_e_f* _f_l_a_g_d_e_f : ffllaagg [**|~~] _c_h_a_r :: _r_e_p_l* A prefix or suffix table consists of an introductory key- word and a list of flag definitions. Flags can be defined more than once, in which case the definitions are com- bined. Each flag controls one or more _r_e_p_ls (replace- ments) which are conditionally applied to the beginnings or endings of various words. Flags are named by a single character _c_h_a_r. Depending on a configuration option, this character can be either any uppercase letter (the default configuration) or any 7-bit ASCII character. Most languages should be able to get along with just 26 flags. A flag character may be prefixed with one or more option characters. (If you wish to use one of the option charac- ters as a flag character, simply enclose it in double quotes.) The asterisk (**) option means that this flag participates in _c_r_o_s_s_-_p_r_o_d_u_c_t formation. This only matters if the file contains both prefix and suffix tables. If so, all pre- fixes and suffixes marked with an asterisk will be applied in all cross-combinations to the root word. For example, consider the root _f_i_x with prefixes _p_r_e and _i_n, and suf- fixes _e_s and _e_d. If all flags controlling these prefixes and suffixes are marked with an asterisk, then the single root _f_i_x would also generate _p_r_e_f_i_x, _p_r_e_f_i_x_e_s, _p_r_e_f_i_x_e_d, _i_n_f_i_x, _i_n_f_i_x_e_s, _i_n_f_i_x_e_d, _f_i_x, _f_i_x_e_s, and _f_i_x_e_d. Cross- product formation can produce a large number of words quickly, some of which may be illegal, so watch out. If cross-products produce illegal words, _m_u_n_c_h_l_i_s_t will not produce those flag combinations, and the flag will not be useful. _r_e_p_l : _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n* >> [ -- _s_t_r_i_p_-_s_t_r_i_n_g ,, ] _a_p_p_e_n_d_-_s_t_r_i_n_g The ~~ option specifies that the associated flag is only active when a compound word is being formed. This is use- ful in a language like German, where the form of a word sometimes changes inside a compound. A _r_e_p_l is a conditional rule for modifying a root word. Up to 8 _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n_s may be specified. If the _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n_s are satisfied, the rules on the right-hand side of the _r_e_p_l are applied, as follows: (1) If a strip-string is given, it is first stripped from the beginning or ending (as appropriate) of the root word. local 9 ISPELL(4) ISPELL(4) (2) Then the append-string is added at that point. For example, the _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n .. means "any word", and the _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n YY means "any word ending in Y". The following (suffix) replacements: . > MENT Y > -Y,IES would change _i_n_d_u_c_e to _i_n_d_u_c_e_m_e_n_t and _f_l_y to _f_l_i_e_s. (If they were controlled by the same flag, they would also change _f_l_y to _f_l_y_m_e_n_t, which might not be what was wanted. _M_u_n_c_h_l_i_s_t can be used to protect against this sort of problem; see the command sequence given below.) No matter how much you might wish it, the strings on the right must be strings of specific characters, not ranges. The reasons are rooted deeply in the way _i_s_p_e_l_l works, and it would be difficult or impossible to provide for more flexibility. For example, you might wish to write: [EY] > -[EY],IES This will not work. Instead, you must use two separate rules: E > -E,IES Y > -Y,IES The application of _r_e_p_ls can be restricted to certain words with _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n_s: _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n : { .. | _c_h_a_r_a_c_t_e_r | _r_a_n_g_e } A _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n is a restriction on the characters that adjoin, and/or are replaced by, the right-hand side of the _r_e_p_l. Up to 8 _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n_s may be given, which should be enough context for anyone. The right-hand side will be applied only if the _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n_s in the _r_e_p_l are satisfied. The _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n_s also implicitly define a length; roots shorter than the number of _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n_s will not pass the test. (As a special case, a _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n of a single dot "." defines a length of zero, so that the rule applies to all words indiscriminately). This length is independent of the separate test that insists that all flags produce an output word length of at least four. _C_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n_s that are single characters should be separated by white space. For example, to specify words ending in "ED", write: E D > -ED,ING # As in covered > covering If you write: local 10 ISPELL(4) ISPELL(4) ED > -ED,ING the effect will be the same as: [ED] > -ED,ING As a final minor, but important point, it is sometimes useful to rebuild a dictionary file using an incompatible suffix file. For example, suppose you expanded the "R" flag to generate "er" and "ers" (thus making the Z flag somewhat obsolete). To build a new dictionary _n_e_w_d_i_c_t that, using _n_e_w_a_f_f_i_x_e_s, will accept exactly the same list of words as the old list _o_l_d_d_i_c_t did using _o_l_d_a_f_f_i_x_e_s, the --cc switch of _m_u_n_c_h_l_i_s_t is useful, as in the following example: $ munchlist -c oldaffixes -l newaffixes olddict > newdict If you use this procedure, your new dictionary will always accept the same list the original did, even if you badly screwed up the affix file. This is because _m_u_n_c_h_l_i_s_t com- pares the words generated by a flag with the original word list, and refuses to use any flags that generate illegal words. (But don't forget that the _m_u_n_c_h_l_i_s_t step takes a long time and eats up temporary file space). EEXXAAMMPPLLEESS As an example of conditional suffixes, here is the speci- fication of the SS flag from the English affix file: flag *S: [^AEIOU]Y > -Y,IES # As in imply > implies [AEIOU]Y > S # As in convey > conveys [SXZH] > ES # As in fix > fixes [^SXZHY] > S # As in bat > bats The first line applies to words ending in Y, but not in vowel-Y. The second takes care of the vowel-Y words. The third then handles those words that end in a sibilant or near-sibilant, and the last picks up everything else. Note that the _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n_s are written very carefully so that they apply to disjoint sets of words. In particular, note that the fourth line excludes words ending in Y as well as the obvious SXZH. Otherwise, it would convert "imply" into "implys". Although the English affix file does not do so, you can also have a flag generate more than one variation on a root word. For example, we could extend the English "R" flag as follows: flag *R: E > R # As in skate > skater local 11 ISPELL(4) ISPELL(4) E > RS # As in skate > skaters [^AEIOU]Y > -Y,IER # As in multiply > multiplier [^AEIOU]Y > -Y,IERS # As in multiply > multipliers [AEIOU]Y > ER # As in convey > conveyer [AEIOU]Y > ERS # As in convey > conveyers [^EY] > ER # As in build > builder [^EY] > ERS # As in build > builders This flag would generate both "skater" and "skaters" from "skate". This capability can be very useful in languages that make use of noun, verb, and adjective endings. For instance, one could define a single flag that generated all of the German "weak" verb endings. SSEEEE AALLSSOO ispell(1) local 12