Question:

Here is the command I run:

> echo "civilization" | aspell -a @(#) International Ispell Version 3.1.20 (but really Aspell 0.60.6.1) & civilization 3 0: civilization, civilizations, civilization's

Why does aspell suggest the very word ("civilization") but fails to check its spelling? In contrast, hunspell seems to get this right

> echo "civilization" | hunspell Hunspell 1.3.2 *

but that is probably because the two spell checkers use different dictionaries.

<strong>EDIT:</strong> Running this on a different machine and different/older aspell version seems to work though:

> echo civilization | aspell -a @(#) International Ispell Version 3.1.20 (but really Aspell 0.60.3) *

Uppercase and lowercase<br /> What you get, if you try it with Civilization ?

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600] (C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp. T:\msys\1.0\src\aspell-0.60.6\.libs>echo "zivilisation" | aspell -a @(#) International Ispell Version 3.1.20 (but really Aspell 0.60.6) & zivilisation 3 1: Zivilisation, Zivilisationen, Sterilisation T:\msys\1.0\src\aspell-0.60.6\.libs>echo "Zivilisation" | aspell -a @(#) International Ispell Version 3.1.20 (but really Aspell 0.60.6) * T:\msys\1.0\src\aspell-0.60.6\.libs>

According to Kevin Atkinson (aspell maintainer, <a href="http://aspell.net/" rel="nofollow">link</a>) that's a <em>bug</em> and he wasn't sure if there's a report open for it. He wasn't sure if/when this will get fixed either.