Ideas about missing vocabulary in language #104151

New Issue

Amirreza Amouie · 2023-01-26T10:58:44+01:00

Amirreza Amouie commented

2023-01-26 10:58:44 +01:00

Hello,

I have spent a couple of hours localizing Blender for farsi/persian. I have noticed that farsi misses a lot of widely used technical vocabulary.

There are 3 ideas I can think of right now:

There are ways to translate the words into really less common words and phrases in farsi, but they wouldn't be intuitive to the user who reads them as they're using the program. And from what I've seen, it annoys the users in many cases.
To use the english word but write it with farsi letters, so it's pronounced like the english word, but it's written in farsi.
To use the english letters and not localize them.

I wanted to ask others opinions too. I think english is the richest language regarding the technical vocabulary, I'm sure other languages have faced this problem too.

Hello, I have spent a couple of hours localizing Blender for farsi/persian. I have noticed that farsi misses a lot of widely used technical vocabulary. There are 3 ideas I can think of right now: - There are ways to translate the words into really less common words and phrases in farsi, but they wouldn't be intuitive to the user who reads them as they're using the program. And from what I've seen, it annoys the users in many cases. - To use the english word but write it with farsi letters, so it's pronounced like the english word, but it's written in farsi. - To use the english letters and not localize them. I wanted to ask others opinions too. I think english is the richest language regarding the technical vocabulary, I'm sure other languages have faced this problem too.

Amirreza Amouie commented

2023-01-26 10:58:44 +01:00

Changed status from 'Needs Triage' to: 'Needs User Info'

Amirreza Amouie commented

2023-01-26 10:58:44 +01:00

Added subscriber: @amuuu

Amirreza Amouie commented

2023-01-26 10:59:25 +01:00

Changed status from 'Needs User Info' to: 'Needs Triage'

Damien Picard commented

2023-01-26 19:49:20 +01:00

Added subscriber: @pioverfour

Damien Picard commented

2023-01-26 19:49:20 +01:00

Hello @amuuu, it’s an interesting problem. I’d say it’s difficult to give a generic answer because it depends on the linguistic culture of each language.

For French, the approach for Blender is to find a translation whenever possible, often by borrowing from other fields (maths, computer science, art, cinema, etc.), and in some rare cases, coming up with a new term. Some French-speaking places have a strong culture of translating everything, so most terms already have an adequate translation in technical dictionaries. But we do use the English word sometimes, if it’s very widespread.

My personal take is that if someone wants to know the English terms, they can always switch the interface to English temporarily, so an effort should be made to translate if possible. I’d thus go for approach 1 whenever possible, and approach 2 or 3 otherwise (is transliteration or transcription the custom in Farsi? French uses the same writing system as English so it’s not an issue for us).

But as far as I know there are no official guidelines and it’s up to each language team to choose their own.

Hello @amuuu, it’s an interesting problem. I’d say it’s difficult to give a generic answer because it depends on the linguistic culture of each language. For French, the approach for Blender is to find a translation whenever possible, often by borrowing from other fields (maths, computer science, art, cinema, etc.), and in some rare cases, coming up with a new term. Some French-speaking places have a strong culture of translating everything, so most terms already have an adequate translation in technical dictionaries. But we do use the English word sometimes, if it’s very widespread. My personal take is that if someone wants to know the English terms, they can always switch the interface to English temporarily, so an effort should be made to translate if possible. I’d thus go for approach 1 whenever possible, and approach 2 or 3 otherwise (is transliteration or transcription the custom in Farsi? French uses the same writing system as English so it’s not an issue for us). But as far as I know there are no official guidelines and it’s up to each language team to choose their own.

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Gabriel Gazzán commented

2023-01-27 00:11:48 +01:00

Added subscriber: @GabrielGazzan

Gabriel Gazzán commented

2023-01-27 00:11:48 +01:00

Same as @pioverfour here for Spanish...
I think maybe the point of views and approaches of other non-latin script language translators would help in this regard?

Same as @pioverfour here for Spanish... I think maybe the point of views and approaches of other non-latin script language translators would help in this regard?

Amirreza Amouie commented

2023-01-27 18:50:14 +01:00

@pioverfour @GabrielGazzan thank you!

Yes there are a lot of cases in which transliteration happens, especially in the technical terms within different fields related to science and art. Coming up with an original translation/interpretation that is inspired by/borrowed from the words of other fields is much better, in many cases it may even help the language extend its vocabulary regarding those technical terms. The only down-side is that it takes a longer time.

I will talk to my Farsi-speaking artist friends and ask their opinions too.

As @pioverfour said, if translators for non-latin languages also gave their thoughts I think it would help a lot too. For example, I saw the Arabic translation for blender but I don't know how complete it is.

@pioverfour @GabrielGazzan thank you! Yes there are a lot of cases in which transliteration happens, especially in the technical terms within different fields related to science and art. Coming up with an original translation/interpretation that is inspired by/borrowed from the words of other fields is much better, in many cases it may even help the language extend its vocabulary regarding those technical terms. The only down-side is that it takes a longer time. I will talk to my Farsi-speaking artist friends and ask their opinions too. As @pioverfour said, if translators for non-latin languages also gave their thoughts I think it would help a lot too. For example, I saw the Arabic translation for blender but I don't know how complete it is.

Bastien Montagne added this to the User Interface project 2023-02-09 15:34:10 +01:00

Pratik Borhade commented

2023-02-13 12:36:20 +01:00

Noticed this in Hindi words too. Since this ticket proposes some ideas, can we consider it as a Design topic?

Noticed this in Hindi words too. Since this ticket proposes some ideas, can we consider it as a `Design` topic?

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Pratik Borhade added

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