Re: The Arabic Abbreviation Dictionary

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

Where are you uys bringing the notion that abbreviations don't work in
Arabic? are you just talking out of personal opinion or well done
research?

Those who had proper arabic education for maths, physics and other
science know full well tthat arabic abbreviations do work very well.
As is the case with other terms, they just need some time getting used
to, after that they will sound just natural.


On 18/05/07, Laith Juwaidah <juwaidah1990 at gmail dot com> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Why don't we just use the English Abbreviations? It's more common and
> all people know them, we don't have to reinvent the wheel...

Why don't we use English UI's for everything after all? they are more
common and we don't have to reinvent the wheel, right?

As for the "people know them" part, who knows them? do we have some
arabic UI usability research? I am curious how you are asserting that
all people "know" the english abbreviations.

What about the arabic speakers whose second language is not English at all?

Unfortunatly, It is often the case that some Arabic speakers, after
having attained some acceptable level of English, they let themselves
fall under the illusion that all Arabic speakers in the deep Arabic
world have the same grasp of the English language.

> Plus, I don't see anything wrong in using the English abbreviations...

They are English, and we want an Arabic Desktop, that is what's wrong with them.

> Oh, about your example, I'm one of the people who don't know what that
> abbreviation means.

So if you won't know the Arabic word and thus the abbreviation derived
from it, you want to force all arabic speakers to use english
abbreviations? Sorry, it sounds like it's you who should learn the
arabic abbreviations.

> I know you want the applications to be 100% Arabic but you just can't
> do it,

Why? while 100% is perfectionism, you can easily get very close to it
with some discipline.
> people are used to the English terms,

*you*, not "people". Again, I'd like to see some hard facts about the
level of English amongst the *general crowd*.

> we can't just change all Arabs,

Indeed, we can't make them all magically become masters of the English
language and understand words they never saw, let alone their
abbreviations.

> if I could change anything in them I would choose something
> else rather than change their view about this :P

Sorry, you are under the same illusion and assume the same fallacy,
I'd still like to see some hard facts about this, no anecdotes, some
good research

> Cheers,
> Laith Juwaidah

Thanks Laith. I'm sure I may have sounded harsh, it was not my
intention, I'd like to see a good debate about this.  I'm geniunly
interested in the topic and I would like us to research it very well,
rather than throw anecdotes around.



> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux)
> Comment: http://firegpg.tuxfamily.org
>
> iD8DBQFGTgzcPX5ykxCT45ARAn1mAJwKJCWnbc3wIcak2QFgcVgJKA0JdgCgm2bb
> OriCUjlVtvbiT2/GLsmN3s4=

> =yhXx
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
>
> On 5/18/07, Youssef Chahibi <chahibi at gmail dot com> wrote:
> > The simple answer: We don't agree on long terms (
> > http://wiki.arabeyes.org/Technical_Dictionary ).
> >
> > The other simple answer: As long as Arabs don't make a 1-meter wire,
> > it is good to keep using the English abbreviations. BTW, you can have
> > a look at: http://cvs.arabeyes.org/viewcvs/translate/technicaldictionary/abbreviations.po?rev=1.1&view=log
> > . .
> > _______________________________________________
> > Doc mailing list
> > Doc at arabeyes dot org
> > http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/doc
> _______________________________________________
> Doc mailing list
> Doc at arabeyes dot org
> http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/doc