View Single Post
  #2   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.docmanagement
Cindy M -WordMVP- Cindy M  -WordMVP- is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 370
Default MS Word: Auto-correct function on the word "bantu"

Hi ?B?U2lzYW5kYU4=?=,

Looking at it another way, the English word "bush" can be used as both a
noun that is used to refer to vegetation; the very same word is used as a
surname, and thus spelt with a capital letter "B" in the beginning. Since the
use of the word [bush], in it's written form, can be for multiple purposes,
the Auto-correct function ignores this word. Similarly, the word "bantu" can
be used to refer to "people" and can be used again in its derogatory formart.
It then follows that the Auto-correct function should ignore the word "bantu"
as well since it has multiple meanings.

I fully respect what you're saying, and how you feel. My following comment is
soley concerned with the grammatical question of capitalization:

In the paragraph I quote above, look at how you've typed the term "English":
it's capitalized. Not because you are referring to citizens of England, but
because a *language* is always capitalized in the English language (as opposed
to German, for example). Technically, the same is therefore true of "Bantu"
(which is a language, as you state in your message :-)). And I rather think that
it is for these reason that AutoCorrect makes this change - because it does so
for all terms that could be a language.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)