Re: word lists

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

Gregory Merchan wrote:
> > I'm cc'ing the docs list with this so folks there can jump into the
> > fun.
> 
> I hope that the documentation and translation projects will exhibit due
> diligence in making sure that developer jargon does not leak into
> end-user space. Having both lists available will surely ease the process
> of correcting such errors if they occur.

I cannot speak for all translators but I know that many agree with the
opinion that fixing jargon is not really the task of a translation.
Translations in general should not be a rewrite of the original text,
but rather follow its style as closely as possible and really just be a
translation of it. Relying on terminology fixes being made at the
translation step is IMHO a step too late in the process - it will not
benefit the original text, nor other translations.

Of course every translation team often has their own word lists with
commonly used words and translations for those words, but when in doubt
of which term to use, I'd usually choose the term that is the most close
to the original.
On the same time, I try to report the terminology problems I find
upstream so that a fix will benefit both the original and every
translation. This is why I think the user interface wordlist is so very
important - it can point out problematic words and give a help on what
can be reported, and in the end allows for uniformity in terminology,
which will benefit both translators, documentators, and, of course, end
users.


Christian