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Translation
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From Free/Open Source Software "
Guide to
Localization",
International
Open Source Network.
Translation is the process of accurately rendering a document in
another language so that it is suitable for its intended purpose.
Translation should be complete, grammatically correct and should be
terminology consistent.
Translation is the most important aspect in localization and is not as
trivial as it may sound. Metalanguage works or works that discuss
language could be very difficult to translate. Comic texts could also
be very difficult to translate. Translating the messages and menus in
an application is a heavy budget process and inaccurate translation
would result in making the application not usable in that particular
language.
Below are some guidelines which we suggest should be followed for a
simpler life during the translation process:
- First of all try to find out if someone is already working on
your language. If so, try to contact them to get assistance for
translating the commonly used terms.
- The translator should be very well acquainted with both the
source and target languages.
- The translator should also be aware of the context of
translation. For example, in the sentence ' Sita made him a duck ' ,
the word 'duck' can be translated only if context is understood. Such
issues will come up when you are translating multiple paragraphs of
texts.
- Join a mailing list. You can use this to discuss translation of
difficult words.
- It would be a good idea to create a website to tell people about
your work, keep glossaries etc.
- You should make sure that your translation consistently uses the
same terms. Maintaining a glossary of terms would ensure that you don't
use multiple terms to refer to the same thing. As far as possible avoid
creating new terms. Try to find out a standard body for your language
to get terms.
- The gettext is a good package with tools for
internationalization, managing different versions of the application
etc. If you do not know about gettext you can get more information
here.
- Avoid word-to-word translation and try to perform sense-to-sense
translation. This means that the translator should always bear in mind
the intended meaning in the source language.
- The translator should take care to produce the intended overall
effect with the appropriate tone by making the right choice of
words.
- Be sure that you do not use terms that are jargons or
slang.
- Do not use terms that have several meanings.
- Do not use the same words for different meanings.
- Person and number should be retained wherever possible in
translation so that singular does not change to plural and third person
statements do not change to first or second person
statements.
- In some cases a sentence would be highly compressed in English
but would run into 2 or 3 sentences when translated. Such sentences
need special attention. In such cases also word-to-word translation
would cause problems.
- Be sure that the reference to menus and buttons (like "EDIT" )
matches the term used in the localized operating system.
- Try to get the translation work reviewed by at least two
translators independently - if possible.
- It would also be beneficial to conduct some usability workshops
so that you are aware of whether the translations actually make sense
to ordinary users.
In the context of localization, a glossary is a list of English terms
that are used to define software terms and their translations in a
foreign language . A typical glossary entry includes the English term
and its corresponding translation in the target language. The entry may
also include a cross reference to similar or related terms.
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Contact
the Open Translation team.
