Discuss all NON translation or NON technical issues here
Belay
I have a few comments:
Item I: ቀዳማዊ ፡ ተናግሮት ፥
I think this group will be more organized if only one person has
permission to create a thread. I just created this and another one can
create another, in a short time we will have unmanaged thread and that
will kill the group, because we can not follow the discussion.
Instead, permission to create a root thread should be restricted to
the owner or a co-owner. I have seen a lot of discussion boards become
unreadable due to lack of thread management. Can we retain two or
three threads and add the rest when needed.
I suggest the following threads:
1- The technical discussion concerning translation in one or two
threads. This is the main thread and no change is needed there.
2- All others - chitchats, masc. font and typography discussions,
greetings...
3- New challenges thread when we are finished with the translation.
Item II ዳግማዊ ፡ ተናግሮት ፥
I believe the translation work is allocated ten lines per person, but
I do not see a kind of central dictionary after each batch. By a batch
I mean the number of lines finished in one round. When the first batch
is submitted we need to build a dictionary out of it, which we can
reuse on the second batch. Say we are 10 then the first batch will be
100 lines. There are a lot of common words which are translated
differently by different people; we need to consolidate them to a
single definition. Thus since the second round job is easier, the
allocation could be raised twice. Therefore by the next batch we have
done 300 lines and by the third batch 700 and by the fourth we will
be finished. We will review the whole thing on the fifth round.
Is there an Amharic technical dictionary that can assist us? We need
to create some of the words ourselves and introduce it to the language
and that will be challenged by those scholars who will have the final
word and our work will be revisited? Do we have a language expert
among us?
On the same subject, the translation is only on the original string.
Don't we need to translate some of the type (comments)? Or is this
something that is secondary, that we plan to revisit later?
Item III: ሳልሳዊ ፡ ተናግሮት ፥
What is the relation between this group and the Ubuntu Amharic group
at https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-l10n-am ? Are there a lot of similar
branches and if so is that good? I am thinking of standards. Are they
also doing the same thing we are doing ?
I quote >>
Relationship to other teams
None of the members of “Ubuntu Amharic Translation” are teams, and nor
is it a member of any other team.
End of quote<<
Item IV : አርባዊ ፡ ተናግሮት ፥
Installation of operating system is usually done by people who know a
little bit about computers. And those people in most cases can read
English. Frankly speaking the majority of the people are familiar with
the technical words like kernel, boot, and disk in English than in
their native language.
In earlier conversation some one raised why we work on this project
while other more important items are on the shelf. The answer to that
is provided lucidly, but I am far from being convinced. However, it is
too late to switch gear now and let us go ahead and finish the
remaining 974 lines. I think 10 lines are too few, can we raise the
number and can we also make a work schedule. Can we also solicit
people, especially linguist to help us.
If you know a teacher you may send a list of words via email. I don't
think they will go through the hassle of all the installation process.
For instance how should we can ask a translation for these words :
Kernel, disk, network device, port, protocol, RAID, boot disk, ...
All the above is for discussion purpose with the intention of
enhancing our productivity.
የጀመርነውን ፡ ከግቡ ፡ እናደርሳለን ።
በላይ
tegegne tefera
Item II ዳግማዊ ፡ ተናግሮት ፥
I believe the translation work is allocated ten lines per person, but
I do not see a kind of central dictionary after each batch. By a batch
I mean the number of lines finished in one round.
It is not 10 lines. It is string that have the 10 numbers on their last two digits. That means they can be 100 or 8. So when ou finish just pick the next available number.
When the first batch
is submitted we need to build a dictionary out of it, which we can
reuse on the second batch. Say we are 10 then the first batch will be
100 lines. There are a lot of common words which are translated
differently by different people; we need to consolidate them to a
single definition. Thus since the second round job is easier, the
allocation could be raised twice. Therefore by the next batch we have
done 300 lines and by the third batch 700 and by the fourth we will
be finished. We will review the whole thing on the fifth round.
alex has collected some of the resources and dictionaries we are using and put them here.http://groups.google.com/group/GoogleAmharic/web/translation-tools?hl=en
I have been trying also to create a resource page at sf.net. That would allow us to upload large files for distribution if require it. The page is experimental at the moment and looks like this. http://ethiofoss.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
<if any one of you have nack for mediawiki (php and mysql) I would appreciate the help.
By the way poedit builds a translation memory (TM). That means it reuses the translated terms. After automatically translating it gives you for review as fuzzy. The yellow translations are machine translated. As you see the computer is stupid:-)
Item III: ሳልሳዊ ፡ ተናግሮት ፥
What is the relation between this group and the Ubuntu Amharic group
at https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-l10n-am ? Are there a lot of similar
branches and if so is that good? I am thinking of standards. Are they
also doing the same thing we are doing ?
I am the coordinator for the ubuntu Amharic. And some of the participants at google Amharic also participate at ubuntu amharic. since google Amharic is the first complete translation to Amharic I proposed to discuss all translation issues to here as a tribute and that also would allow us to have more resources at one place. People can choose which ever project to work on. I work every where. when i get tired of one i pick the other. There is a lot to do. once finished there is maintenance...etc.
None of the members of "Ubuntu Amharic Translation" are teams, and nor
is it a member of any other team.
That is only for rosetta(ubuntu)
Item IV : አርባዊ ፡ ተናግሮት ፥
Installation of operating system is usually done by people who know a
little bit about computers. And those people in most cases can read
English. Frankly speaking the majority of the people are familiar with
the technical words like kernel, boot, and disk in English than in
their native language.
That is true for windows. But if you are going to use linux you have to do it yourself. And linux is the only viable option for any one who can afford an old 486 in ethiopia whether buisness school or individual. Installing once own OS for avarage Ethiopian probably looks some thing out there. But that is exactly what we have to achieve. stick a cd on a cd rom and install your amharic system with few ckliks. To do that the distributions have to support the language. For the distributions to support the language the installer have to be translated. Untill then the only way to make amharic work is to collect tools from here and there and put them together as you have done. That would not be practical.
If you know a teacher you may send a list of words via email. I don't
think they will go through the hassle of all the installation process.
For instance how should we can ask a translation for these words :
Kernel, disk, network device, port, protocol, RAID, boot disk, ...
Plase see the different dictionaries and if you have suggestions just add them on am.wiktionary.org or at aau.
your ideas are all good and i can not comment on all them because of time constraint. I hope others ill take a shot at them.
cheers
tegegne