Re: first file to work on!

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

--- Abdulaziz Al-Arfaj <alarfaj0 at yahoo dot com> wrote:
> Progress report:

Wow, someone who actually does those - how wonderful.  See
people... and you thought I was mad for asking for 'em :-)

> 1. There are words which have either completely
> stumped me, or I wasn't satisfied that suggestions
> made by kbabel were appropriate to the conext of an
> instant messenger like Gossip. Among these words:
> Smiley, Graphics, home (does it mean house? or home
> directory?), User ID etc... Any ideas?

Use QaMoose to get another set of ideas on translating
english words/terms to Arabic (and/or to suggest your
own translations if what you find isn't satisfactory),

  http://qamoose.arabeyes.org

or just to look-up (minimal interface),

  http://qamoose.arabeyes.org/miniQ.cgi

> 2. Some English sentences just don't make any sense or
> are grammatically incomplete. Sentences such as:"could
> not connect" & "contact not online". Should the
> translations to these sentences also be three-legged
> or do I have the right to write better sentences?
> 
> 3. This isn't a question, but there are English words
> that -when said- have no relation in meaning to the
> individual parts that form them. Words such as
> "startup", "online", "offline" etc... The words we
> currently use for them are rather stilted, unnatural,
> or uncreative (and this is my opinion as a user, not a
> translator). Are we allowed to try and coin new Arabic
> words for such English words?
> 
> 4. Should I try to stick as much as I can to
> word-for-word translation and to keeping the structure
> of the sentence intact? I noticed that some sentences
> which appear weak in English can become more natural
> and even more expressive in Arabic if their structure
> is changed a little. One example is:
> "Contact information for %s"
> I could translate this, keeping structure intact as:
> "ma3loomat al-murasil Li %s"
> or I could shorten it, making it more natural:
> "ma3loomat al-murasil %s"
> What is the project standard on this one?

Outstanding questions which our QAC (where is it ??) people
should address and answer and specify (hint hint).

> For your benifit I have attached the file. If the work
> is satisfactory please commit it to CVS for me. If
> not, I'll be sure to remedy all the mistakes before
> continuing with the translation. Sorry for making this
> too long :)
 
Abdulaziz, have you applied for (and gotten) you CVS commit
account ?  If not, please do so ASAP (the instructions are 
noted in the CVS HOWTO).

  http://www.arabeyes.org/download/documents/howto/cvs-howto-en

Salam & keep up the great work and progress.

 - Nadim


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