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Subject:RE : Translating GUI labels to French <medium> From:Yves JEAUROND <jingting -at- rogers -dot- com> To:Carol Kiparsky <carolk -at- satmetrix -dot- com>, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Thu, 30 Aug 2007 08:55:49 -0400 (EDT)
Carol Kiparsky:
Sounds like you are experiencing a mix of GIGO--garbage in,
garbage out--, and the ongoing conflict between culturally aware reviewers,
the pragmatism of translators and unilingual speakers. Hers's a bit of
background, followed by some solutions, at the end of this note.
In computing, the French have taken in a lot of English terms.
Your reviewer is right "filtre" is a true French term; yet there
may be French speakers who think that "filter"--as on cigarette
packages and such, to be as French as "charter"--a widely used term
for chartered buses in France, due to past imports of American
buses and cigarettes. Many unilingual people--French or otherwise--
have a hard time with a foreign word thrown into their own language's
context. They cannot tell that a if a term comes from another language.
So when a foreign term appears legitimate, due to its being printed
on a package, a good, or software :-), they adopt it, thinking it is
in their language.
Another problem is geek-speak in source terms. A translator's style
guide may state that errors in the source language--such as juxtaposed
nouns like "page parameters"--be reflected in the translation. Note that
the English here is ambiguous: Is it "parameters for the page's format",
"paremeters for paging" or a "command to call parameters"? When a
translator sees bad source, he can opt to contact the source to find out
what was meant--a costly exercise in lexicography--, or to make do
with what is at hand.
And finally, French as a technical language: the French have
a long history of technical innovation--Nobel prizes, weapons
(remember the use of Exocet missiles by the Argentinians during
the Falklands War?), manufacturing excellence, and so on--,
and ruling their own language. So they do have their own terms
now and then for some SW labels, that replace or at least conflict
with imported English terms. The terms for French computer GUIs
are still in flux.
So to sum up, some suggestions:
(1) Before sending English SW labels out for translation, check them for
ambiguity, geek speak, and plain old bad English--syntax, semantics,
grammar, pragmatics, performatives and utterances. Most SW labels
and messages are not proper English. And if the English at the source
is faulty, what is a translator to do? GIGO.
(2) Translators are not always aware of the glossary used by the target
audience--including speaking habits, utterances, tolerated errors and
tolerance of ambiguity. These localization errors can be caught by
a reviewer; just beware: anglophiles, unilinguals and purists are still
at each others throats about some technical terms in French--as in
other cultures.
(3) Translators have algorithms and procedures for dealing with
all source text--imprecise or not. This often makes the localized text
incoherent (GIGO for 1, and requiring rework) or in error (for 2).
Regards,
YJ
Carol Kiparsky <carolk -at- satmetrix -dot- com> a écrit :
Are you familiar with how computer programs look in French? If so, I need your advice:
I have just had a set of resource files translated to French by a localization vendor. These files contain the text that will populate buttons, labels, and messages in the product's GUI. We used the translated files to build a French version of the product, and sent it off to a French-speaking colleague to review.
To my dismay, he pronounced it a very bad translation. The disagreements were in most cases a matter of degree of explicitness. The vendor had used a 'telegraphic' French, much the way we do in English when we label things on a computer program.
For example,
French English (original)
====== ==================
Vendor: Paramètres Page "Page Parameters"
Reviewer: Paramètres de la page
Vendor: Sauvegarder filter "Save Filter"
Reviewer: Sauvegarder le filtre
I am wondering if this is just a case of two different but equally valid conventions, or if one or the other represents the accepted way to do this in French GUIs. Like the difference between "Save the filter" and "Save Filter" as the label for a button in an English-language application.
Notes: * Capitalization was also an issue, see examples.
* The audience for this application is business users, typically market researchers, executives, sales reps....
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