a thought on microsoft...

[Keola Donaghy]

Aloha Phil. In our case we do have a lexicon committee that has be
creating the terminology necessary to do these kinds of localizations, and
their work began well before we began localizations. We did begin the
localization process on a few simple programs, and went to the lexicon
commitee as we came across new vocabulary needs, and still do. A lot of
the terminology is shared across many programs, so with each localization
the job gets a bit easier.

In the case of our immersion children, they gained much of their computer
skill using our translations of AppleWorks, FirstClass, Navigator and
others, and those skills easily transfered to the English versions of the
program without any problems at all. It is getting people who can build
the bridge across the chasm between the technological word and the
language community that is the hard part. Once you get the tools to the
younger generation, they will carry the torch for you. We have students
who have gone through our K-12 programs using the localized applications
and are now in college. One is a member of our technology team.

I agree that for communities with smaller language populations, you need
to weigh the amount of work with the benefits. Our translation of Netscape
Navigator took two of us the better part of a summer to complete. I just
finished the translation of another browser for Mac OS X, and it took
several weeks of on and off work. I've done some apps in as little as a
few hours.

Keola



Indigenous Languages and Technology <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU> writes:
>I wonder if endangered language communities with small populations
>warrant the kinds of software localization like Quechua and Swahili.
>It would seem, in any given situation, one would need a strong
>developing literacy and stable orthography to support this kind of
>development, not to mention some long term heritage language benefits.
>
>Just curious, and thanks for all your messages as I am learning a lot
>from your discussions,


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Keola Donaghy
Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies
Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani             keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu
University of Hawai'i at Hilo           http://www2.hawaii.edu/~donaghy/
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