[Localization] Fwd: The virtue of being fuzzy... or what should be translateted in border cases

[Alexander Todorov]

Yuan Chao wrote:
> Sorry forgot cc. to localization.
> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Yuan Chao <yuanchao at gmail.com>
> Date: Dec 10, 2007 1:25 AM
> Subject: Re: [Localization] The virtue of being fuzzy... or what
> should be translateted in border cases
> To: Alexander Todorov <atodorov at redhat.com>
> 
> 
> On Dec 9, 2007 5:43 PM, Alexander Todorov <atodorov at redhat.com> wrote:
>> Andi wrote:
>>> Do the majority of the translator and/or decision-maker think that using
>>> native terms as much as possible is the way the OLPC-XO translations
>>> should be ?
> Though I personally usually prefers to keep the original term when
> reading translated documents, I think it's better for have consistent
> native terms as much as possible, i.e., we may need to invent terms
> ourselves. This is mainly that the target users of OLPC-XO (8-10 years
> old?) have not necessarily learned English.
> 
For Bulgarian it goes like this:
Translate the sentence and use localized terms whenever possible. Names, 
abbreviations, other that is not translatable is transliterated in local 
language using the local alphabet(we don't use latin). Then if the 
translators decides they are free to put the original English word in 
brackets for reference.

>> I've asked this question on a local Bulgarian translations list.
>> We agreed to follow all rules/guides as with other software
>> translations. The reasons of that wrere:
>> 1) Kids are smart and they learn quickly
>> 2) Won't lead to confusion when kids start using "normal"/non XO computers
>> 3) Leads to consistency in translations and allows different translators
>> to work on the projects (e.g. no other special rules or exceptions).

> It's nice to have a written guideline and it's very helpful for
> translators of different languages. Maybe you can put it on wiki as a
> reference?
> 
Hmm. What guide are you referring to? A guide how to translate or what 
rules to follow? I'm not sure if there should be one single guide. That 
depends on local language teams.
I will advise any OLPC localization to take place having in mind 
translation best practices in your country/language and coordinate with 
other localization teams from that country.
In my country the team that started all the l10n work was the GNOME team 
and pretty much everyone is trying to align with their practices so we 
have consistent translations through out GNOME, KDE, etc.


> Another thought is on the way of description. As sometimes a direct or
> the best translation would too hard or abstruse to children. I would
> tend to use the simplest words and keep the widely-adopted terms.
> 
Also dependent on local practices/language I would say.