more messages (2) FROM CHINOOK-L

[Keola Donaghy]

FWIW, we did a Hawaiian translation of Communicator into Hawaiian back in
1998. It took two of us about two months to do the work (we did a binary
translation for Mac only). Depending on how much of the interface you want
to do, the amount of work is not insignificant, and there is constant
updating that needs to be done, part of the reason we have not maintained
Ka Ho'okele (the name for our translation -
http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/eng/resources/kahookele/).

For us, it really turned out to be a project that was "cool", as you say,
and got us a bit of notoriety, but only served us for a brief period of
time. It did require the creation of a considerable amount of new words
that needed to go through our new lexicon committee as well.

At the time that we did Ka Ho'okele, and when I last checked sometime last
year, the tools for translating and maintaining the translation were
pretty crude, but the staff of the ULP were quite helpful. If we had staff
to spare to maintain it I wouldn't mind continuing on the project, but in
our case I felt our limited resources were better served on other projects.

Keola

Penei ka ~Qölelo a Indigenous Languages and Technology
<ILAT at listserv.arizona.edu>:
>Mike Cleven (hiyu siah kopa huloima illahee)
>
>Netscape's Universal Localization Program: Netscape ULP homepage:
><http://www.mozilla.org/docs/l10n>
>
>Just thought I'd let y'all know I've been having a look at the Netscape
>ULP
>- purdy interestin', if I do say so myself.  I'm willing to slog through
>the "how to" of the damn thing if the rest of you can help me find
>suitable
>translations/renderings of the drawbar commands and other interfaces.  Not
>that a Jargon browser is going to have broad appeal; it'll just be "cool"
>-
>apparently we also can't call it Netscape, according to the rules of the
>project, so we also need a suggestion for a name.  "Wawabox" or
>"Wawahouse"
>occurred to me (as replacements for "Communicator").
>
>But as I was reading, it occurred to me that the Netscape ULP could have
>profound use within the First Nations/Native American linguistic
>communities.  I don't know if anyone out there is working on this for
>Cherokee or Navajo or any other major American native language, but I
>suspect someone is already working on Inuktitut/Inuvaluit and Cree
>variations on the theme.
>
>So it's occurred to me to suggest it to you Salishan list people to try
>and
>evolve a "standard" Salishan vocabulary for browser use; I know that there
>are wide disparities in languages within the language family, but maybe
>this is an opportunity to derive "New Salish" technological terms and
>ideoms......cooperation between linguists and actual tribal community
>members would seem to be a must.  The alternative would be to develop
>separate Secwepemc, Nlaka'pamux, Lushootseed, etc. versions.....
>
>I'm going to turn a couple of Kwakwala and Tsimshian people I know on to
>the idea; at least in their cases it's a little more
>straightforward.......


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Keola Donaghy
Hawaiian Language Curriculum and Technology Coordinator
Native Hawaiian Serving Institution Program
University of Hawai'i at Hilo

keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu        http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~nhsi
Kualono                           http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/
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