LL-L "Resources" 2004.01.02 (02) [E]
Lowlands-L
lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net
Fri Jan 2 18:30:18 UTC 2004
======================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L * 02.JAN.2004 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
http://www.lowlands-l.net * lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net
Rules & Guidelines: http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=rules
Posting Address: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org
Server Manual: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html
Archives: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8) [Please switch your view mode to it.]
=======================================================================
You have received this because you have been subscribed upon request.
To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l" as message
text from the same account to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or
sign off at http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
=======================================================================
A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
=======================================================================
From: Kenneth Rohde Christiansen <kenneth at gnu.org>
Subject: Minority languages and open source software
Here is an "article"/mail about minority languages and open source
software:
Written by Knut Yrvin, knuty at skolelinux.no
One of the really important issues with computer programs is
usability. The Skolelinux effort is to give the people their native
tongue when reading the signpost at the electronic highway. This is why
the Sami parliament and The Ministry of Local Government and Regional
Development has partly financed free software to The Northern Sami
Language. Also The Nynorsk dialect is of great importance. The
translation to Nynorsk (New Norwegian) was the reason why Skolelinux
went for KDE in the first place. Also the translation of KDE to
Northern Sami was boosted by the Skolelinux-effort.
Project participants also translate OpenOffice to New Norwegian and
Bokmål. This is partly financed by 8 County Councils and The Ministry
of Education and Research. We recommend schools to use Mozilla for
compatibility and stability reasons. The teachers demands
stability. The browser from Opera crashes and Konqueror is version
2.2.2 in Debian, and gives to many complications when using the
leading Learning Management System i the Nordic
Countries (http://fronter.info/index.phtml?set_lang=en).
Our main goal is that the users requirement and choices decides our
effort. We would not discriminate GNOME or KDE-applications. It's a
important observation that use of applications in the public sector is
regulated by many different laws. 25% of the written communication
shall be in New Norwegian. All teaching aid shall be in both New
Norwegian and Bokmål. Also all written communication shall be adapted
to Sami. All this has it's historical reasons:
After 400 years of Danish colonial rule in Norway, Norway seceded
from Denmark in 1814. Danish continued to be the written language in
Norway. This meant that Norwegians had to write in a language that
was not their mother tongue. In the 1840s to 1860s, a linguist,
Mr. Ivar Aasen (1813?96), conducted extensive research on the spoken
Norwegian language, and he developed a written norm for modern
Norwegian based on the common structure of the Norwegian
dialects. [...]
http://www.nm.no/english.cfm
Now the common theory is that the Sámi languages developed from
early proto-Finnic languages side by side with proto-Finnic
language, so that there was some sort of proto-Lappic language
around 1000 BC - 700 AD. This then developed to various languages
and dialects as we know them now. The Sámi languages are regarded as
Finno-Ugric languages and their closest relatives are the
Baltic-Finnic languages (Finnish, Estonian).
http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq23.html#2.3.5
* Cultural imperialism
A lot of English speaking people are fortunate that most of the small
countries in the world uses English as the language of trade. The
native language in Spain, Germany and France is also well
supported. But in smaller language societies looks at this and say,
this is yet a other imperial move from the proprietary software
industry.
It's easy to be in a large country as Mexico and say that, ¨hey free
software is funny because it's in my native language". It's not the
same if you are in Northen of Norway and is amongst the 30.000 who
speaks The Northen Sami language.
On Thursday 28 August 2003, the Nordic Council of Ministers launched a
joint Nordic website from which private and professional users can
download open-source programmes. On of the main reasons is:
Open-source programmes which are distributed to small language areas
have the advantage over license-based [proprietary] programmes that
the users themselves adapt the source code. This means that the
programme can be translated and become an important part in the
small countries fight to maintain linguistic and national identity.
www.nordicos.org is in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic
and English. The project has been financed by a grant of approximately
DKK 500,000 from the Nordic Council of Ministers.
http://www.norden.org/norden_i_veckan/2003/uk/030901.asp
Israel is an other country that demands applications with their native
language. The Register reports:
Hebrew writers have long complained that Microsoft Office for the
Mac doesn't support the script: even though it's drawn from the
Windows codebase which does support Hebrew, and many other
right-to-left scripts to boot. The lack of support wasn't fixed in
Office 2001:mac, and despite rich language support for developers in
Apple's Mac OS X, Microsoft says it has no plans to add Hebrew to
Office v.X:mac.[...]
The Israeli Ministry of Commerce has suspended all governmental
contracts with Microsoft, and indicated that the ban will last
throughout 2004.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/33365.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/25793.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/34154.html
This can be used as an argument to concentrate all the effort
with GNOME. I think this is to excluding. Skolelinux is a huge fan of
GNOME-applications, and promote the best of them. We also recommend
against KDE program that doesn't do the job. The most important issue
is to help the users, the pupils and thatcher to solve the day-to-day
operation with computer applications as a working tool for
learning. Our goal is to promote learning with the computer before the
learning about the computer. For Skolelinux the question about GNOME
and KDE isn't about technical usability. It's about our native language,
and the users right to choose what they prefers. The competition keeps
us focused.
Since Bruce Perens GNOME-decision is just based on politics in the
UserLinux draft, it's unfortunate that there is no sight of the
nations needs for native languages supported by national laws. The
danger is that the god things with the UserLinux-effort will loose
important momentum in unnecessary language struggle whit different
governments and private businesses that interact with the public . KDE
supports 42 languages (see the translation status further down). GNOME
fully support 15 languages.
My suggestion is that UserLinux makes national and regional language
support to a main goal for the project.
Sincerely
Knut Yrvin
Project leader Skolelinux Norway
KDE 3.1 translation status:
42 supported languages (100% in the essential, 98,01% is OK)
10 partly supported languages (from 98% to 50% in the essential)
25 unsupported languages (< 49,99% translated) For 15 of these the
traslation has stared in KDE 3.1, and even more is translated some
or more in KDE 3.2
77 Total in KDE 3.1
78 Languages in KDE 3.2. Translation of 1 language has nearly begun.
http://i18n.kde.org/stats/gui/KDE_3_1_BRANCH/essential.php
http://i18n.kde.org/stats/gui/HEAD/essential.php
Gnome 2.4 translation status:
15 supported languages (100% in the essential, 98,01% is OK))
25 partly supported languages (from 98% to 50% in the essential)
23 unsupported languages (< 49,99% translated). For 15 of these the
traslation has stared in GNOME 2.4, and even more is translated
some or more in GNOME 2.6
63 Total in GNOME 2.4
76 Languages in GNOME 2.6. Translation of 10 language has nearly begun.
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gtp/status/gnome-2.4/essential.html
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gtp/status/gnome-2.6/essential.html
About Skolelinux:
Skolelinux is heavily involved in both the creation and testing of the
new debian-installer and the localization of Debian. Skolelinux is an
effort to create a Custom Debian Distribution aimed at schools and
universities. An easy 3-question installation results in a
preconfigured system tailored for schools, requiring almost no Linux
or networking knowledge. This includes 15 preconfigured services and a
localized environment.
http://www.debian.org/partners/index.en.html
Taken from: http://lists.userlinux.com/pipermail/discuss/2004-
January/002610.html
Cheers, Kenneth
================================END===================================
* Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.
* Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.
* Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
* Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at
http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
=======================================================================
More information about the LOWLANDS-L
mailing list