Selecting and Creating new words
Your language does not ahve a word for a certain computer term - what d you do?
Many people decide to leave it in English however please take a moment to
think about why you are translating the program. Will people who use your
language be able to identify with the word? Will they be able to read it,
understand it? If the answer is no then you need to look at creating
or adapting the word.
Choosing a new word
1) Find the correct translated word. This is the simplest, oftem however this
comes with time. You may go back and revise word choices to eliminate
confusion. For instance the same word for Cancel and Delete was used in
our Xhosa translation until the translators grasped the potential confusion
and corrected the mistake
2) No word exists. Think about what the word means. make use of dict.orgi, dictionary.com
to check on the words definition. Be careful with some words eg. Port that
have very different meanings in the computer world. Once you understand the
meaning and what needs to be conveyed - try to identify a phrase or word
that conveys the same meaning in yoru language.
3) Nope nothing. OK your stuck with an English word which you can't or don't
want to translate. Try transliteration. That is take the word and change
its spelling and pronounciation to better match your languages. This way
at least people familiar with the language will be able to read and
pronoucne the word.
4) Still nothing. Leave it in English. But remember who your translating for
and the problems this may cause them.
Acronyms
Acronyms are words formed from the intial letters of phrases. Eg HTTP, HyperText
Transfer Protocol. WE often choose to leave these as they are as the meaning of teh
word is disasociated with the actual word. Some languages do choose to define
the expanded acronym in their language but keep the acronym. Finaly some
languages do have translations of these acronyms, use them if you feel that
they are widely used and understood by your audience.
You need to weigh up whether a translated acronuym will help or hinder. Not being
aware of http may cause some people to battle with accessing the internet.