Multilingual Spelling Checker for Selected Ethiopian Languages

Abstract

Multilingual spelling checker is a tool that needs to be developed for all users. Spelling checker is a
prerequisite to be digitized. It is one of the applications of natural language processing that detects and
corrects errors in natural languages accordingly. Spelling checker applications that have been developed
will be integrated with other natural language processing applications. The research paper that I have
proposed as a model of multilingual spelling checker that is based on dictionary based technique and it is
applied in error detection and correction for five selected Ethiopian languages including Amharic, Afan
Oromo, Tigrinya, Hadiyyisa and Awngi. This model provides correction and suggestion by selecting the
most suitable from a list of corrective suggestions based on lexical resources and dictionary based statistics
and it depends on the lexicon of the selected five Ethiopian languages.
The evaluation of the model uses Amharic, Afan Oromo, Tigrinya, Hadiyyisa and Awngi words in dictionary
form for each of the languages. All language spelling errors have been detected (by using red zigzag line)
and it automatically detects the error from list of words that have been prepared in dictionary. This
approach detects the error with efficiently and effectively with minimum time interval. After effective
evaluation of the model that I have developed for the selected languages, Precision, recall and F-mesures
have been calculated.