Re: List of thoughts for quality translation

[Ossama Khayat <okhayat at yahoo dot com>]

--- Abdulaziz Al-Arfaj <alarfaj0 at yahoo dot com> wrote:
[...]
> 1. I think its wrong to say بروتوكول HTTP. It should just be HTTP
> because the word protocol is included in there.

Well, I'd include بروتوكول if it's mentioned within the setence like
"HTTP Protocol".

> 2. We should pay attention to the quirks of English and know what things
> _really_ mean and make decisions accordingly. For example, partition table
> means "The table of partitions", not "The table of the partition". Therefore
> it
> should be translated as جدول التّجزيئات and not جدول
> التّجزئة
> 

Agree. The work تجزيء is the best I could think of. That time I was
thinking of a word that has the مفعول meaning. I know it's bad but it's
the best I could think of, as I believe جزء isn't accurate.

> 3. The word فحص means inspect, not check. I think check should be
> translated
> as تفقّد

Not sure. http://onelook.com/?w=inspect&ls=a

> 4. One of the toughest things about mastering the Arabic language is using
> 7uroof el-jar properly and knowing which one to use. When trying to translate
> "boot record of the first drive" you might see "سجل الإقلاع
> لأوّل قرص" and that might seem alright but its not. You will notice
> that "سجل الإقلاع من أوّل قرص " sounds more natural.

I would use the first translation. Maybe you can explain? :)

> 5. "Unable to do so and so". This sentence could be translated as "لم
> يمكن فعل كذا و كذا" but doesn't "تعذّر فعل كذا و
> كذا" sound more natural/less stilted and awkward to you?

Agreed.

> 6. Fatal error means an error that makes it impossible to continue. خطأ
> فادح does not convey this fully, and خطأ قاتل is too heavy for my
> tastes :), any other suggestions?

فشل ذريع ;-) just kidding!

> 7. Just because the English string has lots of commas doesn't mean we should
> use the exact same number of them too. Commas are actually alien to the
> Arabic
> language, but sometimes we have to use them. I say lets keep it to a minimum.
[...]

Agreed.

> 8. Because of a bug in Kbabel we've been forced to insert hard wraps in our
> strings so we can see all of them without having to scroll horizontally.
> Well,
> the bug has been fixed so lets not do that anymore. If you see a hard wrap in
> the English string don't put it in the translation unless you actually see a
> \n
> in there.

Good news. Affirmative.

> 9. Avoid harakat (except shaddas) unless absolutely necessary. They should
> only
> be used to differentiate between two different words spelled the same way
> (example: مراسِل and مراسِل).

Nice.

> 10. I'm not sure how to pluralize تجزيء :) any ideas?

I used تجزيءات though I'm not 100% sure it's correct. We need a better
word anyway.

> 11. Configure is sometimes translated as تهيئة and sometimes as
> إعداد
> with disturbing inconsistency. I'm not sure which to settle on, but prefer
> إعداد.

I prefer إعداد for setup and تهيئة for configure.

> All thoughts and comments on these ideas whether positive or negative are all
> equally welcome :)

Great. Since you're the WikiGuru, it would be nice if you can collect these and
add them to the discussions page :)

=====
regards,
Ossama Khayat


	
		
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