[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-i18n-doc
Subject:    Re: usage of &kappname; in documentation
From:       Chusslove Illich <caslav.ilic () gmx ! net>
Date:       2009-02-25 0:18:45
Message-ID: 200902250118.48062.caslav.ilic () gmx ! net
[Download RAW message or body]


> [: Frederik Schwarzer :]
> Yesterday I changed some application entiries to &kappname; in kdegames
> and received feedback from Marek Laane, the Estonian translator. He said
> that using &kappname; makes translation for some languages more difficult.
> So I reverted the change for that moment. Since I have some difficulties
> following his argument, I want to ask a more broader audience (yes, you)
> about possible pitfalls.

(I'm afraid I'm just going to reiterate what Marek might have said,
nevertheless...)

The problem for declination-heavy languages is the following. When I see
"...of Okular..." I will translate it in my language as "...Okulara...",
where the "of" preposition is replaced with masculine genitive ending -a.
Or, "...with Okular..." becomes "...Okularom...", etc. Furthermore, when the
name is feminine-like, the root and endings change, so e.g. "...of
Okteta..." becomes "...Oktete..." (-a stripped, -e added).

For this reason in my language we completely do away with entities when
translating documentation; when I see "...of &okteta;..." I replace it with
"...Oktete...", no entity there. If, however, the the proper name is masked
as "...&kappname;..." then I have to check what it actually is, in order to
know what to replace it with. This check should waste little time overall,
but there's a much more serious issue: if the name changes, I don't get a
fuzzy in PO file, and thus don't get signalled that I should modify the
translation.

This is basically the same problem as "word puzzles" in UI messages.

-- 
Chusslove Illich (Часлав Илић)
Serbian KDE translation team

["signature.asc" (application/pgp-signature)]

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]