Transliterate or not to transliterate (was Re: [Fedora-trans-ar] arabic-fedora.org logo)

[Mohamed Eldesoky]

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I agree it is hard, and I fully agree it shouldn't be based on our own 
preferences and minds !!
May be I am biased more towards the Arabic language :-) But I like that
However, you are right, sometimes those companies translate their products, 
and sometimes not.
I found some examples in MS Arabic site, in MS-Egypt
http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/egypt/default.mspx

On Friday 19 November 2004 12:44 am, Munzir Taha wrote:
> On Yaum al-Khamees 05 Shawwal 1425 17:28, Mohamed Eldesoky wrote:
> > Well, Linux itself is a trademark !!
> > We do write Linux in Arabic as  لينكس !!
>
> I know we would reach this critical point ;) Well, ahem! Cough!
> Mohamed, I prefer to leave this as it's. Linux as it's. I am not saying
> it's wrong to transliterate it. I am not saying my suggestion is better.
> What I want to say is first we need to be consistent. It's not correct to
> transliterate some products and leave the others just because it sounds to
> you/me acceptable. Second, this is not something new. Actually, MS and
> apple (who precede us in the field of translation of programs and operating
> systems) always leave their OS name and software as it is. If any one here
> has a Windows or Mac installed, he can go and check that they never
> translate words such as Windows, Office, Word, Excel, Access, Clarix
> Works(?), ...
>
> Let alone other famous companies like adobe, macromedia, ... and their
> products: Photoshop, Flash, ...
>
> Most people don't even feel it. Arab users who don't know a single English
> word would be able to identify their MS Word program from the menu and work
> with it. If you ask them whether it's in English or Arabic after they shut
> down their computers they won't remember ;)
>
> > > I agree. The problem is common to all non-latin languages. However, I
> > > think the question may be relevant to application names, package names,
> > > but not so much with regard to the distribution name,
>
> This distinction based on what?
>
> > > which imho
> > > can/should also be rendered in the target language with or without the
> > > English version. It would probably contribute to making fedora in
> > > particular, or linux in general, familiar to common people.
>
> Windows is so popular now without doing this ;)
>
> Please don't tell me about translations you saw in newspapers, books,
> magazines, your friend notes, ... I am speaking about official products
> translation.
>
> Again, I am still putting the track and won't drag the thread until I have
> clear arabization. What do you suggest for these:
>
> KCalc
> KFAX
> KMines
> OpenOffice.org Writer
>
>
> I am not trying to challenge you, I just want to help you reach quickly
> what I feel you would reach after many weeks of translation.

- -- 
Mohamed Eldesoky
Systems Engineer
RedHat Certified Engineer
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