Re: Translation of program names

[Pablo Saratxaga <pablo mandrakesoft com>]

Kaixo!

On Fri, Oct 31, 2003 at 06:44:08PM +0000, Ramanan Selvaratnam wrote:

> I was pointing out how nuts it will be to translate acronyms. 

But acronyms are translated (NATO/OTAN, ONU/UNO, КГБ/KGB, OMC/WTO? to name a few) 
it depends on how much it is used; if it is very often used, a translation
or transliteration will spring.

>> It doesn't matter at all where "gnome" comes from; 
> 
> I think it matters to know though.

I mean it isn't the most important.
What is more important is current usage.
Current usage shows that "Gnome" is more often seen as a name than as
an acronym (the fact that the *acronym* isn't translated is a proof of that;
nobody talks about the "EMORG" (Environnement de Modèles d'Objets
Réseau de GNU") for example)

> 1/ Is this 'name' supposed to mean an 'ageless bearded dwarf with four
> toes' ?

No, it means a "a graphic desktop environement running on computers;
that is free software, and looks cool".
(I hadn't realized till now that the foot had only four toes! the "fifth-toe"
section suddenly takes a whole new sense)

Simply in other writing systems it may make sens to change the name
to best suit the language.
"GNOME" can be for example:

GNOME
Gnome
ГНОМ
ГНОМЕ
ኖም
குனோம்
गनोम
그놈
گنومه

and probably others.
(I myself prefer "Gnome" over "GNOME"; all caps is harsh and ugly passed the
third letter)
 
>> Much the same as "laser", even if it is said to be an acronym for
>> "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation".
>> it is "láser", "lazer", etc in other languages.
> 
> Yes looks like a good explanation next time someone challenges me.
> Thanks.
> 
> 2/ In the above example 'lazer' was the 'z' in german used so it can be
> phonetically close to laser in english? 

No, in German it is "laser" (like in most languages using latin alphabet);
some languages do adapt foreing nouns more than others (English seems to
copy foreing words without adaptation at all (other than converting to
latin script), which leads to words that nobody knows how to properly
pronounce them.
Spanish likes to adapt nouns more often (sometimes wrongly; like "gnu"
(the animal) which in spanish has become "ñu"in total contradiction with
native pronounciation, and amusingly enough, "gnu" in spanish would have
been an unambigous pronounciation (unlike English "gnu" as "gn" is sometimes
[gn] and sometimes [ɲ])

-- 
Ki ça vos våye bén,
Pablo Saratxaga

http://chanae.walon.org/pablo/		PGP Key available, key ID: 0xD9B85466
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