ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Christian Dywan wrote on 22/07/15 21:52:
> ...
> 
> Please stick to the translation team's guidelines. Taking 
> suggestions from other teams will not work, even if the language is
> the same. This is what got Ubuntu a bad reputation for poor 
> localisations - and I'm not making a statement here, that's just a 
> common perception I'm pointing out.

That's assuming the question. We're talking about general approach to
localization, whether that is codified in team guidelines or not.
Consistency within a language, and consistency of approach between
languages, are not mutually exclusive.

> ...
> 
> Am Mi, 22. Jul, 2015 um 1:33 schrieb Davide Alberelli
> 
> ...
>> "Launcher" is capitalized, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be 
>> translated. It is already localized in Ubuntu for PC: for example
>> in Polish it's "Panel"/"Panelu", while in German it's "Starter". 
>> <https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/vivid/+source/unity-control-center/+pots/unity-control-center/pl/+translate?batch=10&show=all&search=launcher>
>>
>>
>> 
"Unity" is quite different: it's a project name, which shouldn't
>> appear in the phone UI at all. (On the PC, I think it appears 
>> only to distinguish Unity sessions from Gnome Shell, KDE, etc.)
>> 
>> Ok, "Unity" was not a good example, what about "Dash"?

Here's a sample of how translators have localized these terms in
Ubuntu for PC. From ten randomly-chosen almost-completely-localized
languages, Norwegian Bokmal, Bulgarian, Catalan, Galician,
Interlingua, Malay, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, and Uyghur:

"Launcher": oppstarteren, Старт-лентата, iniciador, lanceator,
Pelancar, lançador, lansator, запуска, ىجراچى

"Unity": Unity, Unity, l'Unity, Unity, Unity, Unity, Unity, Unity,
Unity, Unity

"Dash": dashbord, Глобално меню, tauler, Panel, Dash, Pemuka, Painel,
Panou, Главное меню, سىزىقچە

So, like "Launcher", "Dash" is usually localized. (Interlingua perhaps
could have localized it as "Pannello", but stuck with "Dash".)

>> In Italian "Launcher" and "Dash" are not translated, and as I 
>> said it was a personal opinion not to translate it

Then maybe this gives you evidence to reconsider.

> ...
>> Don't misunderstand me, it is great that the interface is 
>> completely translated into a local language, but I still believe 
>> that leaving the proper names of the desktop parts untraslated 
>> will make it easier for people to interface with the community, 
>> especially while receiving unlocalized (international) support.

That's true, but you could say the same about error messages (since
they're often fed into search engines). Or menu items. Or anything
else in the UI! Ease of tech support is important, but immediate
understandability is more important. (Plus the comfort of using
something that doesn't seem like it's "just a translation".)

>> If the Polish (and German) translator teams decided to translate 
>> somthing on the Desktop, I believe that this decision has to go 
>> above everything that it is done for the phone interface. Adhere
>> to the decision of the local community is the best thing to do
>> when in doubt.
>> 
> ...

Yes, but if some translation teams have chosen to localize a term,
while others have chosen not to, possibly some of those teams should
change their decision.

A possible valid reason to leave a term untranslated, in a particular
language but not in others, would be if that language simply doesn't
have an equivalent word -- and the equivalent phrase would be so long
that it's more practical just to expect users to learn the English
word. That's unlikely, but most likely for a language that currently
has very limited technical vocabulary and that uses Latin script.

- -- 
mpt
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