We are starting the translation round for the next Sailfish OS release 4.6.0.
It has around 140 strings to be translated depending on a language. The deadline for this round is Sunday the 24th of March inclusively.
There are a few special things to pay attention to on this translation round:
Do not localise the Android⢠AppSupport product name.
It should be left as-is, not translated throughout the whole OS.
Means all existing mentions of AppSupport should be amended, e.g. in Finnish:
âAndroidâ˘-sovellustukiâ change to âAndroid⢠AppSupportâ (and all its declinations)
Android-sovellustuki change to âAndroid AppSupportâ (for cases without â˘)
App Support change to âAppSupportâ (no space in between)
Due to limitations of our translation tool, some affected strings may have lost their old translations and no longer suggest any translation memory. We have made a backup for you (Translation Backup of old strings containing âApp Supportâ) to the rescue, if you need to check how to translate all other relevant words in long sentences, now leaving only the AppSupport bit not localised.
And a kind reminder of the old guidelines:
Always use âEnglish (United Kingdom)â as the source for your translations please, not Engineering English. Some translations are still doing it the wrong way.
Please try to check old terms used, to keep consistency: e.g. if unsure how to translate the word âdeviceâ, put the word in the Search box to see how it has been previously translated into your language.
The same goes for language style (e.g. how to address the user).
Feel free to keep improving any old translations, even between L10n rounds.
Finally, please notice if there is a comment on a string to e.g. keep the translation short or some other guidance (via the âContent instructionsâ meta-language).
Swedish done!
I have also one suggestion here, as I donât have access to full terminology. Please change translation for âpairedâ from âihopparadeâ (which is poor/childish Swedish) to âparkoppladeâ.
AFAIK the ⢠is not necessary on every occurrence of Android, itâs enough to have it once per view. So if the source string does not have it, then it doesnât need to be added in the translation.
Should it maybe be âAndroid AppSupport -tukiâ or somesuch, where the English product name could stay intact and only the Finnish word gets declinated?
âAndroid AppSupport -tuen käynnistäminenâ etc.
I would guess the trademark holders would be more appreciative of this approach, than the Finnish-declinated abominations. âAndroid AppSupportiinâ.
Actually now to think of it, Iâm pretty sure the current Finnish translation on the Android AppSupport sub-page or at least part of it was from me. Might even be I may the culprit to this affront at their product name (for the reasons stated above). If so, duly noted.
For Dutch (swamp German ;p ) âuitbreidingâ (similar to Erweiterung") felt the most natural. But I can only guess by name what an AddOn is. Iâd guess some kind of paid, extra service tied to your Jolla account, perhaps related to the AI direction Jolla is heading towards?
Semi-offtopic: Firefox uses Add-on in Dutch, but I donât agree with them. Iâm in favour of sticking to Dutch words when it sounds natural. The everyday Dutch language is already showing enough signs of English due to some translators in the technology field being lazy.
The declination being clumsy in some cases is a good point. And Iâm not sure if we have any kind of guidelines for such things, so something to think about.
There are probably some options, like
If the context allows, and it doesnât become more clumsy, try to avoid the declination with different sentence structure. This might in many cases make it sound even worse, so definitely does not work everywhere
Use colon, like âAppSupport:n käynnistäminen kestää hetkenâ. I donât know if this is good or badâŚ
Use the â-tukiâ, â-järjestelmäâ, â-ympäristĂśâ or some such additive suffix. Not sure which would be the best, and it makes the string longer, which might be problematic in some context.
We probably also need a better review on where we actually need to use the product name and where some more generic term could be suitable.
Unfortunately I am not a linguist so I canât give very good advice on any of this, but together we probably can figure out the best ways to solve these.
Add-ons are the additional features that come with paid Sailfish X licence, like AppSupport, and MS Exchange support. So usual translations for âadd-onâ are probably suitable in most cases.
Upon looking it up, the Finnish Language Office seem to recommend that the product names get declinated like any normal Finnish word. Iâm not sure if the trademark holders particularly approve, but the language people seem to have this opinion.
Vieraskielisiä nimiä taivutetaan yleensä vieraskielisten nimien taivutusohjeiden mukaan:
Airport Area Marketing : Airport Area Marketingia (markkinointiyritys)
Lidl : Lidlissä (ruokakauppa)
Hennes & Mauritz : Hennes & Mauritzista (vaatekauppa)
Party Lite : Party Liten (kynttiläyritys)
Galaxy Note Edge : Galaxy Note Edgellä (älypuhelin)
Mobile Pay : Mobile Paylla ~ Mobile Payllä (mobiilimaksusovellus)
Spotify : Spotifyta : Spotifyhin (digitaalinen musiikkipalvelu)
Without knowing the context, and I do agree that âihopparadeâ (or âihopkoppladeâ for that matter) is not the most suitable word, I think âparkoppladeâ sounds technical. I would rather have âsammankoppladeâ.
Even though âsammankoppladeâ definitely might be an option in some cases, it doesnât define how many devices it is about, where âparkoppladeâ does.
As far as technicality is concerned, it is in fact a technical product, and we do not want to fall into language impoverishment, do we?
Unfortunately, it is the case that young Swedes generally have a limited vocabulary, so it may be possible to improve the situation somewhat, if we actually use the words that are available.
In addition to that, I would like to think that most Swedes ( and Swedish talking Finns) who use Sailfish, are at a fairly high language level.
I donât have reference at hand for Slovenian language but itâs the same.
Of course I try to do a compromise with the sentence structure as Keto is suggesting if possible. Mostly itâs only limitation if there is a limited length of translation. Our language rules are quite complex but there is some flexibility.