Thank flip it’s Cuma!

For years I have been completely baffled by the manner in which Microsoft Word handles the Irish word “cuma”. I probably write it more often than I should in Irish. “Is cuma liom” means “I don’t mind” or “I don’t care”. We even say “Bhí sé ar nós is cuma liom.” which means something like “He had a real “so what” attitude.” Or “He didn’t give a toss.” It’s not the most positive of sentiments I feel. Nonetheless I have been using it regularly enough that the unusual manner in which Microsoft Word handles it has been driving me quietly insane over the years: whenever I wrote the word in Microsoft Word it would capitalise the initial C. Every single time. Even when I installed the Irish Language pack: still capitalised that C. That copail “is” would always ensure that the c would NEVER be capitalised unless the sentence is being written in conversational Irish (i.e. “Cuma liom,” ar sé”).  The word doesn’t exist in languages I am familiar with which is few to be fair.

Yes I did the Google searches. Of course, I did the Bing searches. I asked every Microsoft employee I came across (and I met a few in my previous jobs!) to investigate. (None of them did.) Okay yes I didn’t devote my every waking moment to the issue but I certainly wasted a few seconds of my life wondering “What in the heck…?” each time it happened. And then for the longest time I stopped using Microsoft Word. Certainly for my Irish writing. Until today when a lack of broadband (*shakes fist at UPC*) forced me to my offline tools.

Before long I wrote the phrase “Is cuma leo…” and lo! Word 2013 capitalised the C even though it was telling me in the status bar that it knew I was writing in Irish. I had few red squiggles sprinkled throughout the text so I could tell Word was feelin’ me. I have a relatively new machine with a new install of Word 2013 on it that I have yet to train. I rolled over the capitalised C to see what I could do with the Autocorrect tools and REVELATION! The tooltip included the sentence “Stop Auto-Capitalizing Names of Days.” At last A CLUE!

I did a Google Search for “What day of the week is Cuma?” Turns out it is in Turkey they say “Thank flip it’s joo-mah!”

It’s the little things. I know, I know: you are all ar nós is cuma libh.