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⚫
Internationalization technology is the technology for representing and composing the languages spoken, taught or used in your countries. Localization is the process of taking software or content and adapting it for local use.
⚫
== Current l10n projects ==


⚫
Localization involves fonts, script layout, input methods, speech synthesis, musical instrumentation, collating order, number & date formats, dictionaries, and spelling checkers, among other issues.
⚫
'''library exchange'''
⚫
* [[Localization/Library|Library strings]] -- header and descriptive strings for an [http://dev.laptop.org/pub/content/Library/ OLPC sample library]. Includes some ''PO-like'' strings for the following sections:
⚫
** [[Localization/Library/sidebar po|sidebar]] — en | es | ko | pt
⚫
** [[Localization/Library/biology po|biology]] — en | es | ko — '''to review:''' pt
⚫
** [[Localization/Library/books po|books]] — en | es | ko — '''''wanted:''''' pt
⚫
** [[Localization/Library/games po|games]] — en | es | ko | pt
⚫
** [[Localization/Library/nature po|nature]] — en | es | ko | pt
⚫
** [[Localization/Library/atlas po|atlas]] — en | es | ko | pt
⚫
* [[Localization/www.laptop.org]] -- The l10n effort for the [http://www.laptop.org new www.laptop.org website]
⚫
* We can't translate everything, but we sure want to hear what you would like to see translated into your language. If you got a [[Translating#suggested translations|translation to suggest]] please let us know!

⚫
'''activities''' (include links to upstream localization where appropriate)
⚫
* [[Localization/Library/camera po|camera]] — en | es | ko | pt
⚫
* web?
⚫
* read?
⚫
* write?
⚫
* blockparty?

⚫
; See also : [[Translators]] & [[Translating]] for the localization of this wiki.

== Problem Statement ==

⚫
Internationalization technology is technology for representing and composing the languages spoken, taught or used in your countries. Localization is the process of taking software or content and adapting it for local use.

⚫
Localization involves fonts, script layout, input methods, speech synthesis, musical instrumentation, collating order, dictionaries, and spelling checkers, among other issues.


Linux is already more widely localized than Microsoft Windows since no cooperation from a vendor is required to do so: having said this, cooperation with the free software and content community is vital to reduce overall work required.
Linux is already more widely localized than Microsoft Windows since no cooperation from a vendor is required to do so: having said this, cooperation with the free software and content community is vital to reduce overall work required.
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The size of the problem is huge. [http://www.ethnologue.org/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=size Ethnologue] has extensive information on the languages of the world.
The size of the problem is huge. [http://www.ethnologue.org/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=size Ethnologue] has extensive information on the languages of the world.


==Localization Topics==
== Localization Topics ==

⚫
:''See [[:Category:Languages (international)]], [[:Category:Language support]].''


This is an outline of (some of) the topics and tools, and issues of localization.
This is an outline of (some of) the topics and tools, and issues of localization.


===Character Sets===
=== Character Sets ===

⚫
:''See [[Category:Fonts]], [[Unicode]].''


[http://www.unicode.org/ Unicode] is fully supported in “modern” applications and toolkits used in free software.
[http://www.unicode.org/ Unicode] is fully supported in “modern” applications and toolkits used in free software. Legacy character set support also present, but modern applications use Unicode.
Legacy character set support also present, but modern applications are use Unicode.


Collation order (the sorting order when text is sorted by Linux) is generally well supported in the C library.
Collation order (the sorting order when text is sorted by Linux) is generally well supported in the C library.


⚫
: See also: [[:Category:Fonts]], [[Unicode]].
⚫
===Script Layout===


⚫
=== Script Layout ===
:''See [[:Category:Languages (international)]]''


OLPC primarily concentrates on using the [http://www.pango.org/ Pango library], which is able to layout most “hard” languages, including: Arabic, the Indic languages, Hebrew, Persian, Thai, etc. It has a modular puggable layout engine and supports vertical text, bi-directional layout is supported. Overall, some issues remain – but overall Pango in pretty good shape and can handle most scripts already.
OLPC primarily concentrates on using the [http://www.pango.org/ Pango library], which is able to layout most of the “hard” languages, including: Arabic, the Indic languages, Hebrew, Persian, Thai, etc. It has a modular puggable layout engine and supports vertical text, as well as supporting bi-directional layout. Overall, some issues remain – but overall Pango is in pretty good shape and can handle most scripts already.


⚫
: See also: [[:Category:Languages (international)]]
⚫
===Fonts===


⚫
=== Fonts ===
⚫
:''See [[:Category:Fonts]], [[Fonts]].''


To share content and preserve cultural heritage OLPC's goal must be and is full coverage of all the world's languages.
To share content and preserve cultural heritage OLPC's goal must be and is for full coverage of all the world's languages. By using the [http://www.fontconfig.org/wiki/ Fontconfig] system Linux has a better concept of language coverage of fonts than other systems. This system is used to configure the font system and determine what set of fonts are needed to cover a set of languages.
Linux using the [http://www.fontconfig.org/wiki/ Fontconfig] system has a better concept of language coverage of fonts than other systems. This system is used to configure the font system and determine what set of fonts are needed to cover a set of languages.


The formats of fonts supported on Linux include OpenType, TrueType and many others: see [http://www.freetype.org/ Freetype] for details. Most of the current font formats supported by Freetype are obsolete, and by far the best results on the screen will be had from OpenType and TrueType format fonts. Type 1 fonts are useful primarily for printing; the renderer for Type1 fonts in Freetype we have today is not very good, and Type 1 does not support programmatic hinting for low resolution screens.
The formats of fonts supported on Linux include [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenType OpenType], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueType TrueType] and many others: see [http://www.freetype.org/ Freetype] for details. Most of the current font formats supported by Freetype are obsolete, and by far the best results on the screen will be had from OpenType and TrueType format fonts. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_1_font Type 1 fonts] are useful primarily for printing; the renderer for Type1 fonts in Freetype we have today is not very good, and Type 1 does not support programmatic hinting for low resolution screens.


⚫
====Free Fonts====

⚫
Free fonts are available for most scripts in the world, though some fonts are licensed incorrectly for completely free redistribution.
OLPC itself has a relatively high resolution screen; this helps us considerably, particularly in grayscale mode at 200DPI.
OLPC itself has a relatively high resolution screen; this helps us considerably, particularly in grayscale mode at 200DPI.


⚫
: See also: [[:Category:Fonts]], [[Fonts]]
⚫
====Need for Screen Fonts====

⚫
==== Free Fonts ====

⚫
Free fonts are available for most scripts in the world, though some fonts are [[#Licensing|licensed]] incorrectly for completely free redistribution.

⚫
==== Need for Screen Fonts ====

⚫
Regardless of the XOs resolution, we also need our applications and content to be usable on other screens everywhere, so we need to work together on extending the coverage we have today on high quality screen fonts. The [http://dejavu.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page "DejaVu"] font family (derived from Bitstream Vera) covers most [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_alphabet Latin alphabets] and some other languages. This family has in general good "hinting" for screen use.


⚫
However, we also need our applications and content to be usable on other screens everywhere, so we need to work together on extending the coverage we have today on high quality screen fonts. The [http://dejavu.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page "DejaVu"] font family (derived from Bitstream Vera) covers most Latin alphabets and some other languages. This family has in general good "hinting" for screen use.
[http://www.sil.org/computing/catalog/show_software_catalog.asp?by=cat&name=Font SIL International] also builds fonts for a number of additional languages of local interest.
[http://www.sil.org/computing/catalog/show_software_catalog.asp?by=cat&name=Font SIL International] also builds fonts for a number of additional languages of local interest.


Helping with these or other efforts to build fonts or to increase coverage of existing fonts is greatly appreciated. Pooling efforts on hinting glyphs, which is boring but important work, and/or donations and buyouts are also being investigated.
Helping with these or other efforts to build fonts or to increase coverage of existing fonts is greatly appreciated. Pooling efforts on hinting glyphs, which is boring but important work, and/or donations and buyouts are also being investigated.


===Keyboards===
=== Keyboards===

⚫
:''See [[:Category:Keyboard]]''.


[[OLPC Keyboard layouts]] document OLPC's currently available keyboard layouts: further layouts are a modest amount of work, requiring people with local expertise to work with OLPC staff to generate new layouts.
[[OLPC Keyboard layouts]] document OLPC's currently available keyboard layouts: further layouts are a modest amount of work, requiring people with local expertise to work with OLPC staff to generate new layouts.


⚫
: See also: [[:Category:Keyboard]]
===Input Methods===


:''See [[Input methods]]''.
=== Input Methods ===


An input method is software that allows typing of complex characters, for example for languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean. Some issues remain, for example: Arabic ligatures, by avoiding putting them on the keyboard we've avoided the need for an input method. However, such workarounds may not be feasible for your language.
An input method is software that allows typing of complex characters, for example for languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean. Some issues remain, for example: Arabic ligatures, by avoiding putting them on the keyboard we've avoided the need for an input method. However, such workarounds may not be feasible for your language.
Line 89: Line 61:
Free software systems now are using [http://www.scim-im.org/projects/imengines SCIM - Smart Common Input Method Platform]. SCIM is replacing older input method systems.
Free software systems now are using [http://www.scim-im.org/projects/imengines SCIM - Smart Common Input Method Platform]. SCIM is replacing older input method systems.


We need to know what languages are taught as “foreign” languages, as well as are native, to design keyboards that are most useful in country. For example, the Nigerian keyboard is designed to allow easy entry of English, Hausa, and Yoruba, which are common languages in much of Nigeria. The "US/International" covers most of the western European languages.
We need to know what languages are taught as “foreign” languages, as well as are native, to design keyboards that are most useful in each country. For example, the Nigerian keyboard is designed to allow easy entry of English, Hausa, and Yoruba, which are common languages in much of Nigeria. The "US/International" covers most of the western European languages.


: See also: [[Input methods]]
⚫
===Speech Synthesis===


⚫
=== Speech Synthesis ===
⚫
There are tradeoffs of size vs. fidelity vs. effort to synthesize a new language between the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_synthesis speech synthesis] software that is available, which includes [http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/ festival], [http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/ flite], [http://espeak.sourceforge.net/ espeak] are available.

⚫
There are tradeoffs of size vs. fidelity vs. effort to synthesize a new language between the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_synthesis speech synthesis] software that is available, which includes [http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/ festival], [http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/flite/ flite], [http://espeak.sourceforge.net/ espeak] are available.


[http://sourceforge.net/projects/espeak/ Espeak] is small enough for us to often bundle and covers quite a few languages: ~10 languages currently supported tuned by native speakers with 10 more languages underway.
[http://sourceforge.net/projects/espeak/ Espeak] is small enough for us to often bundle and covers quite a few languages: ~10 languages currently supported tuned by native speakers with 10 more languages underway.


Synthesis is essential or accessibility to content by people with vision problems, and will need to be integrated with the [http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/ ATK library] used, as well as literacy training, other uses as part of a GUI. Full localization therefore involves selection of a suitable synthesis system and integration into the ATK
Synthesis is essential or accessibility to content by people with vision problems, and will need to be integrated with the [http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/ ATK library] used, as well as literacy training, other uses as part of a GUI. Full localization therefore involves selection of a suitable synthesis system and integration into the ATK framework, along with localization of that system for the particular language involved.
framework, along with localization of that system for the particular language involved.


Speech synthesis is usually not a good guide for pronunciation learning languages – but it may be better than a poor teacher who has never had the opportunity to learn from a native speaker of that language.
Speech synthesis is usually not a good guide for pronunciation learning languages – but it may be better than a poor teacher who has never had the opportunity to learn from a native speaker of that language.


===Music and Sound Samples===
=== Music and Sound Samples ===


We want much more than dead white male western instruments for dead white male composers!
We want much more than dead white male western instruments for dead white male composers!
Line 108: Line 81:
Clean samples of your musical instruments and music needed!
Clean samples of your musical instruments and music needed!


Samples need appropriate licensing terms.
Samples need appropriate [[#Licensing|licensing]] terms.


===Dictionaries, Spelling Checkers, Thesaurus===
=== Dictionaries, Spelling Checkers, Thesaurus ===


Support exists for most major languages.
Support exists for most major languages.
Line 116: Line 89:
Spelling, Hyphenation, Thesaurus dictionaries may be needed for different parts of Linux, which may or may not apply to OLPC directly; for example you can check:
Spelling, Hyphenation, Thesaurus dictionaries may be needed for different parts of Linux, which may or may not apply to OLPC directly; for example you can check:


* [[http://aspell.net/man-html/Supported.html aspell]]
* [http://aspell.net/man-html/Supported.html '''aspell''']
* [[http://dictionaries.mozdev.org/installation.html mozilla]]
* [http://dictionaries.mozdev.org/installation.html '''mozilla''']
* [[http://www.abiword.org/languages.phtml abiword]]
* [http://www.abiword.org/languages.phtml '''abiword''']
* [[http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries Open Office]]
* [http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries Open Office]


Of these, the first three are most immediately interesting to OLPC.
Of these, the first three are most immediately interesting to OLPC.


===Character Recognition===
=== Character Recognition ===


Stroke/character recognizer localization is of some interest with the pen/tablet: in the future (Gen 2) when we have a touch screen they will become essential. [ftp://ftp.handhelds.org/projects/xstroke/release-0.5/ xstroke] is one such individual character/stroke recognizer, sufficient for alphabets of up to about 100 characters.
Stroke/character recognizer localization is of some interest with the pen/tablet: in the future (Gen 2) when we have a touch screen they will become essential. [ftp://ftp.handhelds.org/projects/xstroke/release-0.5/ xstroke] is one such individual character/stroke recognizer, sufficient for alphabets of up to about 100 characters.


===Current Shortcomings===
=== Current Shortcomings ===


There are some real shortcomings where help is needed. These include:
There are some real shortcomings where help is needed. These include:
* Non-Gregorian calendars
* Non-Gregorian [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CalendarList_of_calendars calendars]
* Non-Latin digits (Roozbeh Pournader has patches, but these are not yet integrated and may need help).
* Non-Latin digits (Roozbeh Pournader has patches, but these are not yet integrated and may need help).
* and the sheer scale of the localization problem will eventually require changes in free software projects.
* and the sheer scale of the localization problem will eventually require changes in free software projects.


===Localization Techniques===
=== Localization Techniques ===


It only takes a small team to localize Linux for a language: e.g. Welsh, Icelandic, which are relatively small languages, have been pretty fully localized by small teams.
It only takes a small team to localize Linux for a language: e.g. Welsh, Icelandic, which are relatively small languages, have been pretty fully localized by small teams.


You can do the work yourself, hire the work out, or find volunteers among universities (worldwide), the world wide internet and free software community. Add to existing projects whenever possible. By checking with some of the major free software projects (e.g. Gnome, OpenOffice, Mozilla, KDE), you can often locate people already at work in your language.
You can do the work yourself, hire the work out, or find volunteers among universities (worldwide), the world wide internet and free software community. Add to existing projects whenever possible. By checking with some of the major free software projects (e.g. [http://live.gnome.org/TranslationProject Gnome], [http://l10n.openoffice.org/ OpenOffice], [http://www.mozilla.org/projects/l10n/ Mozilla], [http://l10n.kde.org/ KDE]), you can often locate people already at work in your language.


Work directly in the software and content projects whenever possible. This makes your work available worldwide, while lessens the ongoing work. If you keep your localization work local, others cannot benefit from your work and effort and your software and content will be that much harder to localize.
Work directly in the software and content projects whenever possible. This makes your work available worldwide, while lessens the ongoing work. If you keep your localization work local, others cannot benefit from your work and effort and your software and content will be that much harder to localize.


===Tools===
=== Tools ===


Some example tools include pootle, kbabel and rosetta.
Some example tools include [http://pootle.wordforge.org/ pootle], [http://kbabel.kde.org/ kbabel] and rosetta.
Most software uses the GNU “gettext” libraries and standard .po files, including Sugar; Firefox and OpenOffice have their own systems for historical reasons. [http://www.wordforge.org/drupal/ Wordforge] is a good place to get plugged into tools and the community efforts.
Most software uses the GNU “gettext” libraries and standard .po files, including Sugar; Firefox and OpenOffice have their own systems for historical reasons. [http://www.wordforge.org/drupal/ Wordforge] is a good place to get plugged into tools and the community efforts.


Line 150: Line 123:
Remember, contribute your translations to the “upstream” projects to minimize long term effort: share your work with the world. Do not presume that if one Linux distribution has your effort that you are finished; some Linux distributions are not good about working with the community that builds and distributes the original software.
Remember, contribute your translations to the “upstream” projects to minimize long term effort: share your work with the world. Do not presume that if one Linux distribution has your effort that you are finished; some Linux distributions are not good about working with the community that builds and distributes the original software.

===Licensing===
=== Licensing ===
⚫
Translated strings will often be useful among many projects, not just the the project you are working on translating,

Therefore, since the MIT/BSD (3 clause) licenses are usable by all projects, these are the safest licenses to use for translation to enable widest sharing.
⚫
Translated strings will often be useful among many projects, not just the the project you are working on translating, therefore, since the MIT/BSD (3 clause) licenses are usable by all projects, these are the safest licenses to use for translation to enable widest sharing.


The [http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=OFL SIL OFL license] recommended for Fonts. An often overlooked issue with fonts is that they are incorporated into documents themselves (for example, into PDF documents) and that therefore licensing needs to be considered carefully.
The [http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=OFL SIL OFL license] recommended for Fonts. An often overlooked issue with fonts is that they are incorporated into documents themselves (for example, into PDF documents) and that therefore licensing needs to be considered carefully.

===Next Steps===
===Next Steps===

Localization is by nature local: but language often crosses borders.
Please contact Jim Gettys to identify issues.
Localization is by nature local: but languages often crosses borders. Please contact [[User:Jg|Jim Gettys]] to identify issues.

We need identified people/organizations responsible for language, translation, keyboards, speech synthesis, an effective free software community leaders to help with local deployment and "on the ground" knowledge.
We need identified people/organizations responsible for language, translation, keyboards, speech synthesis, an effective free software community leaders to help with local deployment and "on the ground" knowledge.


====Sugar Localization====
==== Sugar Localization ====


Sugar and sugar applications use standard .po files, and can be localized using the usual tools.
Sugar and sugar applications use standard .po files, and can be localized using the usual [[#Tools|tools]].


====General Linux Localization====
==== General Linux Localization ====


By looking at the [http://www.gnome.org/i18n/ gnome], [http://www.mozilla.org/projects/l10n/mlp.html mozilla], [http://contributing.openoffice.org/native-lang.html OpenOffice], [http://l10n.kde.org/ KDE] projects, you can get plugged into translating other Linux software of general interest.
By looking at the [http://www.gnome.org/i18n/ gnome], [http://www.mozilla.org/projects/l10n/mlp.html mozilla], [http://contributing.openoffice.org/native-lang.html OpenOffice], [http://l10n.kde.org/ KDE] projects, you can get plugged into translating other Linux software of general interest.

⚫
== Current l10n projects ==

⚫
'''library exchange'''
⚫
* [[Localization/Library|Library strings]] -- header and descriptive strings for an [http://dev.laptop.org/pub/content/Library/ OLPC sample library]. Includes some ''PO-like'' strings for the following sections:
⚫
** [[Localization/Library/sidebar po|sidebar]] — en | es | ko | pt
⚫
** [[Localization/Library/biology po|biology]] — en | es | ko — '''to review:''' pt
⚫
** [[Localization/Library/books po|books]] — en | es | ko — '''''wanted:''''' pt
⚫
** [[Localization/Library/games po|games]] — en | es | ko | pt
⚫
** [[Localization/Library/nature po|nature]] — en | es | ko | pt
⚫
** [[Localization/Library/atlas po|atlas]] — en | es | ko | pt
⚫
* [[Localization/www.laptop.org]] -- The l10n effort for the [http://www.laptop.org new www.laptop.org website]
⚫
* We can't translate everything, but we sure want to hear what you would like to see translated into your language. If you got a [[Translating#suggested translations|translation to suggest]] please let us know!

⚫
'''activities''' (include links to upstream localization where appropriate)
⚫
* [[Localization/Library/camera po|camera]] — en | es | ko | pt
⚫
* web?
⚫
* read?
⚫
* write?
⚫
* blockparty?

⚫
; See also : [[Translators]] & [[Translating]] for the localization of this wiki.


== Country groups and descriptions ==
== Country groups and descriptions ==

Revision as of 01:33, 28 April 2007

Internationalization technology is the technology for representing and composing the languages spoken, taught or used in your countries. Localization is the process of taking software or content and adapting it for local use.

Localization involves fonts, script layout, input methods, speech synthesis, musical instrumentation, collating order, number & date formats, dictionaries, and spelling checkers, among other issues.

Linux is already more widely localized than Microsoft Windows since no cooperation from a vendor is required to do so: having said this, cooperation with the free software and content community is vital to reduce overall work required.

The size of the problem is huge. Ethnologue has extensive information on the languages of the world.

Localization Topics

This is an outline of (some of) the topics and tools, and issues of localization.

Character Sets

Unicode is fully supported in “modern” applications and toolkits used in free software. Legacy character set support also present, but modern applications use Unicode.

Collation order (the sorting order when text is sorted by Linux) is generally well supported in the C library.

See also: Category:Fonts, Unicode.

Script Layout

OLPC primarily concentrates on using the Pango library, which is able to layout most of the “hard” languages, including: Arabic, the Indic languages, Hebrew, Persian, Thai, etc. It has a modular puggable layout engine and supports vertical text, as well as supporting bi-directional layout. Overall, some issues remain – but overall Pango is in pretty good shape and can handle most scripts already.

See also: Category:Languages (international)

Fonts

To share content and preserve cultural heritage OLPC's goal must be and is for full coverage of all the world's languages. By using the Fontconfig system Linux has a better concept of language coverage of fonts than other systems. This system is used to configure the font system and determine what set of fonts are needed to cover a set of languages.

The formats of fonts supported on Linux include OpenType, TrueType and many others: see Freetype for details. Most of the current font formats supported by Freetype are obsolete, and by far the best results on the screen will be had from OpenType and TrueType format fonts. Type 1 fonts are useful primarily for printing; the renderer for Type1 fonts in Freetype we have today is not very good, and Type 1 does not support programmatic hinting for low resolution screens.

OLPC itself has a relatively high resolution screen; this helps us considerably, particularly in grayscale mode at 200DPI.

See also: Category:Fonts, Fonts

Free Fonts

Free fonts are available for most scripts in the world, though some fonts are licensed incorrectly for completely free redistribution.

Need for Screen Fonts

Regardless of the XOs resolution, we also need our applications and content to be usable on other screens everywhere, so we need to work together on extending the coverage we have today on high quality screen fonts. The "DejaVu" font family (derived from Bitstream Vera) covers most Latin alphabets and some other languages. This family has in general good "hinting" for screen use.

SIL International also builds fonts for a number of additional languages of local interest.

Helping with these or other efforts to build fonts or to increase coverage of existing fonts is greatly appreciated. Pooling efforts on hinting glyphs, which is boring but important work, and/or donations and buyouts are also being investigated.

Keyboards

OLPC Keyboard layouts document OLPC's currently available keyboard layouts: further layouts are a modest amount of work, requiring people with local expertise to work with OLPC staff to generate new layouts.

See also: Category:Keyboard

Input Methods

An input method is software that allows typing of complex characters, for example for languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean. Some issues remain, for example: Arabic ligatures, by avoiding putting them on the keyboard we've avoided the need for an input method. However, such workarounds may not be feasible for your language.

Free software systems now are using SCIM - Smart Common Input Method Platform. SCIM is replacing older input method systems.

We need to know what languages are taught as “foreign” languages, as well as are native, to design keyboards that are most useful in each country. For example, the Nigerian keyboard is designed to allow easy entry of English, Hausa, and Yoruba, which are common languages in much of Nigeria. The "US/International" covers most of the western European languages.

See also: Input methods

Speech Synthesis

There are tradeoffs of size vs. fidelity vs. effort to synthesize a new language between the speech synthesis software that is available, which includes festival, flite, espeak are available.

Espeak is small enough for us to often bundle and covers quite a few languages: ~10 languages currently supported tuned by native speakers with 10 more languages underway.

Synthesis is essential or accessibility to content by people with vision problems, and will need to be integrated with the ATK library used, as well as literacy training, other uses as part of a GUI. Full localization therefore involves selection of a suitable synthesis system and integration into the ATK framework, along with localization of that system for the particular language involved.

Speech synthesis is usually not a good guide for pronunciation learning languages – but it may be better than a poor teacher who has never had the opportunity to learn from a native speaker of that language.

Music and Sound Samples

We want much more than dead white male western instruments for dead white male composers!

Clean samples of your musical instruments and music needed!

Samples need appropriate licensing terms.

Dictionaries, Spelling Checkers, Thesaurus

Support exists for most major languages.

Spelling, Hyphenation, Thesaurus dictionaries may be needed for different parts of Linux, which may or may not apply to OLPC directly; for example you can check:

Of these, the first three are most immediately interesting to OLPC.

Character Recognition

Stroke/character recognizer localization is of some interest with the pen/tablet: in the future (Gen 2) when we have a touch screen they will become essential. xstroke is one such individual character/stroke recognizer, sufficient for alphabets of up to about 100 characters.

Current Shortcomings

There are some real shortcomings where help is needed. These include:

  • Non-Gregorian calendars
  • Non-Latin digits (Roozbeh Pournader has patches, but these are not yet integrated and may need help).
  • and the sheer scale of the localization problem will eventually require changes in free software projects.

Localization Techniques

It only takes a small team to localize Linux for a language: e.g. Welsh, Icelandic, which are relatively small languages, have been pretty fully localized by small teams.

You can do the work yourself, hire the work out, or find volunteers among universities (worldwide), the world wide internet and free software community. Add to existing projects whenever possible. By checking with some of the major free software projects (e.g. Gnome, OpenOffice, Mozilla, KDE), you can often locate people already at work in your language.

Work directly in the software and content projects whenever possible. This makes your work available worldwide, while lessens the ongoing work. If you keep your localization work local, others cannot benefit from your work and effort and your software and content will be that much harder to localize.

Tools

Some example tools include pootle, kbabel and rosetta. Most software uses the GNU “gettext” libraries and standard .po files, including Sugar; Firefox and OpenOffice have their own systems for historical reasons. Wordforge is a good place to get plugged into tools and the community efforts.

The cldr project is worth watching, though OpenOffice is the first major project using this.

Remember, contribute your translations to the “upstream” projects to minimize long term effort: share your work with the world. Do not presume that if one Linux distribution has your effort that you are finished; some Linux distributions are not good about working with the community that builds and distributes the original software.

Licensing

Translated strings will often be useful among many projects, not just the the project you are working on translating, therefore, since the MIT/BSD (3 clause) licenses are usable by all projects, these are the safest licenses to use for translation to enable widest sharing.

The SIL OFL license recommended for Fonts. An often overlooked issue with fonts is that they are incorporated into documents themselves (for example, into PDF documents) and that therefore licensing needs to be considered carefully.

Next Steps

Localization is by nature local: but languages often crosses borders. Please contact Jim Gettys to identify issues.

We need identified people/organizations responsible for language, translation, keyboards, speech synthesis, an effective free software community leaders to help with local deployment and "on the ground" knowledge.

Sugar Localization

Sugar and sugar applications use standard .po files, and can be localized using the usual tools.

General Linux Localization

By looking at the gnome, mozilla, OpenOffice, KDE projects, you can get plugged into translating other Linux software of general interest.

Current l10n projects

library exchange

activities (include links to upstream localization where appropriate)

  • camera — en | es | ko | pt
  • web?
  • read?
  • write?
  • blockparty?
See also
Translators & Translating for the localization of this wiki.

Country groups and descriptions

Korean-based Nations and Regional Communities using Korean

Korea map.gif

People using Korean as their native language are those in South Korea (한국인) and North Korea (조선인). Some Chinese and those with other nationalities, living in the Nothern part of Korea also are using Korean as their second language, because of some historical issues. They are called as 고려인(Korea-in) and 조선족 (Chosun-zok or Korean Chinese) respectively.

Currently OLPC Korea (or XO Korea) is covering all those nations and regions. In a near future, we hope there will be regional XO groups for those.

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