Bug#382341: INTL:vi
On Sun, Aug 13, 2006 at 04:12:15PM +0930, Clytie Siddall wrote:
> On 13/08/2006, at 4:43 AM, Steve Langasek wrote:
> >>>>- voila
> >>>>+ voilà
> >>>Using non-ASCII in the original English version is likely to create
> >>>some problems with PO files handling, os I'd recommend changing this
> >>>with caution even if it's certainly correct as the English speakers
> >>>have stolen that word from my language..:-)
> >>How about a recommendation not to use words from another language
> >>unless you can write them properly?
> > http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=voila
> >Given that such words can be found in English dictionaries, that's
> >not a very useful recommendation.
> As a linguist, I am aware that incorrect forms of words can be
> variants in some use.
As a linguist, I and 200 million of my native English-speaking brethren
reject your claim of authority over what constitutes the "correct" spelling
of a loan word whose source form includes diacritics not present in standard
English.
> I'd still strongly advise either using the correctly-spelt form of the
> word,
I disagree; I think we should only use correctly-spelled forms of words.
I accept "voila" as a valid variant of "voilà" in English; moreover, it's
the only spelling of the word which is guaranteed to be compatible with .po
files for all destination languages due to encoding concerns.
> or not using it at all.
Which would be a fair recommendation, but such an interdiction doesn't carry
much weight if you don't have consensus on the question of what is or isn't
an acceptably correct form.
> Translators are not expecting incorrect forms in the original strings. We
> have enough difficulty with the wild variety of vocabulary and syntax used
> in original strings, without having to cope with incorrect forms of
> loan words (entire words borrowed from another language).
Quite frankly, I consider that the translators' problem, not the
maintainers'. It is quite reasonable to constrain source English strings
with style rules concerning consistent use of vocab, forms of address, and
UI references because these are rules that benefit the primary audience of
the string: the user. Subsetting the language for the benefit of
translators, OTOH, is a misoptimization which impoverishes the user
experience and deprives the translators themselves of opportunities for
enrichment.
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org http://www.debian.org/
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