Re: Issues to deal with

["Chahine M. Hamila" <mch at chaham dot com>]

Isam Bayazidi wrote:

> first :
>         - what abbreviations should I use for the months names ? something to
> represent ( JAN,FEB,MAR, ... ) .. should I create an abbreviation ? or
> there is a known one ? and the same for days names ..
> (Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri,Sat,Sun) .. with the abbreviations ?

The best way to do abbreviations in Arabic is to revert to roots (usually three
letters), because it keeps nearly all the meaning with a minimum of letters since the
roots have a heavy semantic load in semitic languages.

>         - and again error messages .. they usually contain technical terms such as
> : Socket, Proxy, port, USB, netmask, IP , etc.. ) should we use the same
> words in English alphabet ? or represent how it is read in arabic with
> arabic alphabet?

English alphabet should be shunned, since the goal is to make the thing accessible to
someone who doesn't read a single Latin letter (e.g. kids).

>         - names of futures that is known such as : plug and play, look and feel,
> command and conquer ( ops, where did this come from :) , ignore the last
> one  ) should be used as it is, or be traslated ?

translated. Arabic contains a lot of this kind of rythmic expressions btw, so you
could try to be inspired from the way these are structured to make the translations
catchy:)

>         - the translation of "email" I used is "bareed electroni" which is very
> much longer that the original word .. is that a probelm ? should I use the
> world "bareed" instead .. or create a new arabic word such as "bareed-elec"
> or "ebareed" ? :) ( the last suggestion of creating new words is a joke :) )

no no, don't invent if there's an existing alternative in use in speech or if the
meaning is not going to be obvious without any learning. In addition, email is a very
usual word so it should be practical, which means, a two words expression is out. My
experience is that Arabs simply say "mayl" or "2emayl" for it *in Arabic*. I guess
that either one should do, unless you have something else that's already *practiced*
(not just by some software translators that is:)) so the translation you'd do
wouldn't be dismissed by practice (remember, we need a newbie to require as little
learning as possible, coz people will always tend toward the easiest way).

By the way, I saw the word QarS going on this list. My two cents is this one should
be replaced by "disk", coz that's the one people use *in Arabic* without any learning
(keep that golden rule in mind, people tend to learn as little as possible, and give
up if there's too much of it).

Best luck