Re: GNOME Lovers Needed: l10n work for locations database

[Keld Jørn Simonsen <keld dkuug dk>]

On Sat, Dec 11, 2004 at 11:57:14PM +0100, Christian Rose wrote:
> lör 2004-12-11 klockan 18:02 +0100 skrev Keld Jørn Simonsen:
> > > > Remember that all strings in the Locations.xml.in file should be in the
> > > > C locale (US english). This means that locations should use their
> > > > American names or anglicized names. Otherwise use the local name. If you
> > > > use an anglicized name, add a comment to the XML so that translators
> > > > know about the local name.
> > > 
> > > Anglicized names are not necessarily obvious. When you mention that, you
> > > should mention your source. I have been using the preferences of the
> > > English Wikipedia and the recommendations of The Oxford Style Guide
> > > (R M Ritter, Oxford University Press, 2002), but I really believe
> > > different US style guides will recommend different things. It would be
> > > good if you could find one which has some good recommendations on city
> > > naming and use (and recommend) that.
> > 
> > Why not just use the local names, they are easier to establish, and
> > probably also easier to translate, as this does not have to go thru two
> > translations (native -> English -> translated) but only one (native ->
> > translated).
> 
> There's no guarantee that the native name will always be more obvious to
> the translator than the anglicised name. Even if that may be true in
> many cases, there's no guarantee it will be that way in all cases.
> 
> In addition, we require all other source strings to be spelled using
> American English, in order to bring consistency to the translators (and
> probably also users who do not specify any translation at all). Thus, I
> don't see the point in bringing inconsistency in breaking this policy
> regarding these names. Especially not as we've stated multiple times
> that all entries should already be labelled with a comment specifying
> the native name in case it's different from the anglicised name in the
> msgid, so that the translator will have both sources of information
> anyway in order to be able to produce a correct translation.
> 

I don't think we have a policy of using American English in the msgid.
We discussed this before, and I proposed to have a more thorough
discussion at the Guadec meeting in Krisiansand, but there was no
meeting on this in Kristiansand. Maybe next time. My suggestion is that
we continue to use English English, as it is more used around the world. 
and needs less modifications when going from one version of English to
another.

Best regards
keld