OpenTaal

Last updated
OpenTaal
Formation1 November 2005;18 years ago (2005-11-01)
Type Non-profit organization
Legal status Foundation
PurposeProviding software assisting proper use of Dutch language
Location
Website http://opentaal.org/english

OpenTaal ("Open Language") is a Dutch foundation which provides free Dutch language files to be used in open-source software spell checking, hyphenation, thesaurus and grammar checking. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Background

In 1996 a working group of the Dutch TeX User's Group created a word list for spell checking and hyphenation to be used in TeX software. This list is also used in OpenOffice.org and has been developed since. At the end of 2005 the Dutch Language Union (Nederlandse Taalunie), the formal Dutch language institute, published a new version of the "Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal" (Dutch Language Word list, also known as "the Green Booklet"). The new spelling rules laid down in it are compulsory in government and education of participating countries since August 2006. To comply with the spelling changes, the existing free language files had to be adjusted. At the same time, the opportunity arose to have them certified by the Dutch Language Union. The OpenTaal project was founded to facilitate the collaboration of open source projects in this area.

Projects

Spell checking

OpenTaal provides files for spelling check which are being used in software such as OpenOffice.org, Firefox, [4] Thunderbird, [5] Safari, Opera, TinyMCE and more. Some of this software receives custom files from OpenTaal while other software uses the generic spelling checker Hunspell. This is using its own custom file from OpenTaal. Even the Dutch Wiktionary [6] uses this list of correctly spelled words.

Word list

The Dutch Language Union [7] has approved OpenTaal's word list and labelled it with Keurmerk Spelling. Also OpenTaal has been granted funding by the Dutch Language Union to implement missing functionality in Hunspell.

Thesaurus

A thesaurus has been set up in which many different relations between words and meaning of words can be browsed and edited. [8]

Grammar checking

OpenTaal also provides grammar rules which are used in the grammar checker LanguageTool. This is offering grammar checking via its own website [9] but is also used by OpenOffice.org and Thunderbird. [10] This grammar checker also identifies possible false friends. [11]

Partners

Since 2012, OpenTaal has an official program for partners. [12] These are third parties which have access to special partner products. From these collaborations the following has come forth. One partner has provided Dutch support for Wordfeud [13] and another partner has made an educational poster on diacritical marks in the Dutch language. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dutch Language Union</span> Dutch language regulator

The Dutch Language Union is an international regulatory institution that governs issues regarding the Dutch language. It is best known for its spelling reforms which are promulgated by member states, grammar books, the Green Booklet and its support of Dutch language courses and studies worldwide. It was founded on a treaty concluded between the Netherlands and Belgium on 9 September 1980. Suriname has been an associate member of the Taalunie since 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IJ (digraph)</span> Latin-script digraph

IJ is a digraph of the letters i and j. Occurring in the Dutch language, it is sometimes considered a ligature, or a letter in itself. In most fonts that have a separate character for ij, the two composing parts are not connected but are separate glyphs, which are sometimes slightly kerned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spell checker</span> Software to help correct spelling errors

In software, a spell checker is a software feature that checks for misspellings in a text. Spell-checking features are often embedded in software or services, such as a word processor, email client, electronic dictionary, or search engine.

GNU Aspell, usually called just Aspell, is a free software spell checker designed to replace Ispell. It is the standard spell checker for the GNU operating system. It also compiles for other Unix-like operating systems and Windows. The main program is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, the documentation under the GNU Free Documentation License. Dictionaries for it are available for about 70 languages. The primary maintainer is Kevin Atkinson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ispell</span> Spelling checker for Unix

Ispell is a spelling checker for Unix that supports most Western languages. It offers several interfaces, including a programmatic interface for use by editors such as Emacs. Unlike GNU Aspell, ispell will only suggest corrections that are based on a Damerau–Levenshtein distance of 1; it will not attempt to guess more distant corrections based on English pronunciation rules.

MySpell is a spell checker that was formerly included with OOo Writer of the free OpenOffice.org office suite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grammar checker</span> Computer program that verifies written text for grammatical correctness

A grammar checker, in computing terms, is a program, or part of a program, that attempts to verify written text for grammatical correctness. Grammar checkers are most often implemented as a feature of a larger program, such as a word processor, but are also available as a stand-alone application that can be activated from within programs that work with editable text.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Softcatalà</span>

Softcatalà is a non-profit association that promotes the use of the Catalan language on computing, Internet and new technologies. This association consists of computer specialists, philologists, translators, students and all kind of volunteers that work in the field of translating software into Catalan, in order to preserve this language in the English-controlled software environment. They also offer several linguistic tools to help users improve their language knowledge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CKEditor</span> WYSIWYG rich text editor

CKEditor is a WYSIWYG rich text editor which enables writing content directly inside of web pages or online applications. Its core code is written in JavaScript and it is developed by CKSource. CKEditor is available under open source and commercial licenses.

Hunspell is a spell checker and morphological analyser designed for languages with rich morphology and complex word compounding and character encoding, originally designed for the Hungarian language.

Enchant is a free software project developed as part of the AbiWord word processor with the aim of unifying access to the various existing spell-checker software. Enchant wraps a common set of functionality present in a variety of existing products/libraries, and exposes a stable API/ABI for doing so. Where a library doesn't implement some specific functionality, Enchant will emulate it.

SoftMaker Office is an office suite which aims for compatibility with Microsoft Office. It is available as a one-time purchase, as well as a subscription. A freeware version with a slightly reduced feature set is released under the name SoftMaker FreeOffice.

A foreign language writing aid is a computer program or any other instrument that assists a non-native language user in writing decently in their target language. Assistive operations can be classified into two categories: on-the-fly prompts and post-writing checks. Assisted aspects of writing include: lexical, syntactic, lexical semantic and idiomatic expression transfer, etc. Different types of foreign language writing aids include automated proofreading applications, text corpora, dictionaries, translation aids and orthography aids.

The history of Dutch orthography covers the changes in spelling of Dutch both in the Netherlands itself and in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in Belgium. Up until the 18th century there was no standardization of grammar or spelling. The Latin alphabet had been used from the beginning and it was not easy to make a distinction between long and short vowels (a / aa). The word jaar (year) for instance, could be spelt jar,jaer,jair, or even yaer and iaer. With the spirit of the French Revolution, attempts were made to unify Dutch spelling and grammar. Matthijs Siegenbeek, professor at Leiden was officially asked in 1801 to draw up a uniform spelling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LibreOffice Writer</span> Open-source word processor

LibreOffice Writer is the free and open-source word processor and desktop publishing component of the LibreOffice software package and is a fork of OpenOffice.org Writer. Writer is a word processor similar to Microsoft Word and Corel's WordPerfect with many similar features, and file format compatibility.

spell is the standard English language spell checker for Unix, Plan 9, and Unix-like operating systems.

Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, with only minor exceptions. The community is supported institutionally by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation and its tax-paying subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeannine Beeken</span> Flemish linguist

Jeannine Clementine Theodora Beeken is a Flemish linguist. Her work in Dutch linguistics includes amongst others the development of the first academic software teaching platform for Dutch, esp. Dutch syntax, in the late 1980s, the discovery of three additional objects in contemporary Dutch and the rules for the revised Dutch spelling system, Groene Boekje 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LanguageTool</span> Free and open-source spell and grammar checker

LanguageTool is a free and open-source grammar, style, and spell checker, and all its features are available for download. The LanguageTool website connects to a proprietary sister project called LanguageTool Premium, which provides improved error detection for English and German, as well as easier revision of longer texts, following the open-core model.

References

  1. "English". www.opentaal.org. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  2. "Nieuwsberichten | Taalunieversum". taalunieversum.org. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  3. "Nieuwsberichten | Taalunieversum". taalunieversum.org. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  4. Dutch Dictionary add-on for Firefox
  5. Dutch Dictionary add-on for Thunderbird
  6. "WikiWoordenboek:OpenTaal - WikiWoordenboek". nl.wiktionary.org. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  7. "Niet gevonden | Taalunieversum". taalunieversum.org. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  8. "OpenTaal".
  9. LanguageTool Community on-line Dutch grammar checker
  10. Grammar Checker add-on for Thunderbird
  11. Dutch False friends which are supported by LanguageTool
  12. "Vrienden van OpenTaal". www.opentaal.org. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  13. (in Dutch) Taaltik - Wordfeud-woorden
  14. (in Dutch) Sander van Geloven, Diakritische tekens in het Nederlands Archived 2013-10-29 at the Wayback Machine , educatieve poster, Hellebaard, Utrecht, 2012.