Some Translation issues we discussed.

["Djihed Afifi" <djihedlists at googlemail dot com>]

Salam


I posted a while ago about a meeting I was going to do with a lecturer
in Arabic/English Translation. Here are some of issues we discussed.

Please let me know what you think, or if you have a different opinion.


***Plural forms:

Our current plural form, as described by Chahibi here [1], is correct
and fits very well with right to left reading of numbers.

***Abbreviations:

He recommanded translating the non abbbreviated name to arabic, and
then abbreviating the translation using arabic rules.
e.g. IP
Internet Protocol = بروتوكول الإنترنت
IP = ب.إ
بروتوكول  is a proper arabic word
However, he said we do have a responsabiltiy to explain the new terms
we are generating. AFAIK Qamoose is not easily accessed from the main
website, and is not using our technical dictionary. We need to revive
it, and we need an accessible dict server, with easy clients for
windows and linux etc.

***أمر/مصدر:

Translate it just how it is done in English. It is not appropiate to
use مصدر when there is an action to be invoked. However, we use مصدر
when it is for explanation, not initiating an action. e.g.:
Let's say we have a dialog for deleting everything from the trash, and
the dialog looks like this:
-----------------------------------
Delete all contents from the trash

-------
delete
-------
-----------------------------------

Where "delete" is in a button. In the first we use مصدر, in the second
we use the verb.
Now the issue is when to know the word is used for explanation or for
initiating an action. In which case, it is best to just use the verb,
because it is less ambiguous than using the noun for the user.


*** Some words we discusses:

These are some of the words we discussed that I can remember off the
top of my head. Other words will make it to essential.po, we agreed
that he is going to make some changes to it and deliver it to me
sometime soon. He is very good at understanding the terminology we use
in computers and clever at finding equivalents.
* mute = صه
In places where it is appropriate, like a button in media player. I
think it is neat and short. It is used in "warsh" riwaya of Quran, the
one that was written by Said Sherifi (In Algeria).
* Accessibility = إتاحة
* Accessible = مُتَاح
* Accessories = ملحقات
* verbose = تفصيلي ( as in verbose mode ).
* critera = this word is a plural of criterion. so criteria = معايير,
so search criteria = معايير البحث
* trace = تتبّع
* web = شبكة, there is no need to transliterate.
* virus = فيروس
* wallpaper = خلفية
* theme = نسق


He also strongly suggested translating the words in lexicons, as I
described in the wiki here [2], I think we should make use of this
extensively. It may be more work, but it usually guarantees
non-redundant translations.


Djihed

[1] http://wiki.arabeyes.org/Plural_Forms