Languages

From OLPC
Revision as of 01:16, 14 January 2008 by LeeSI (talk | contribs) (category sortkey)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
  english | 日本語 HowTo [ID# 96501]  +/-  

This page looks at languages in terms of need in target countries, and availability in Linux.

Core languages for OLPC

Volunteers are needed to translate software into the languages of OLPC target countries. See Pootle for details.

These are languages important for our firmware messages, Sugar messages, interface strings for core activities, key web pages, and the like:

Tier 1: Spanish (es), English (en), Portuguese (pt)
Tier 2: Arabic (ar), Amharic (am), French (fr), Hebrew (he), Hindi (hi), Russian (ru), Thai (th)
Tier 3: Hausa (ha), Igbo (ig), Yoruba (yo), Kazakh (kk), Mongolian (mn), Nepali (ne), Marathi (mr), Romanian (ro), Turkish (tr), Urdu (ur)
Tier 4: German (de), Italian (it), Korean (ko), Uzbek (uz), Chinese (zh), other languages with keyboards, other official languages of green countries
other: Greek (el), Croatian (hr), Indonesian (id), Dutch (nl), Newari (new), other official languages of red countries
Give One Get One countries: French (fr), Kreyol Aiysyen (ht), Kinyarwanda (rw), Cambodian (km), Mongolian (mn), Dari (prs) (Eastern Farsi (fa)), Pashto (ps), Hazaragi (haz)

Languages by country status:

Green countries : Amharic, Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Hausa, Hindi, Igbo, Nepali, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Kinyarwanda, Thai, Urdu, & Yoruba
Red countries : Template:Status red languages

Partner country official languages

Data on official languages from both Wikipedia and Ethnologue.

These sources often do not agree. The view on this page is that the more inclusive definition should be used, combining languages on both lists. Even if a language listed here is not formally adopted as an official language in the country of use, it is important enough for our purposes.

List from map of launch countries, as of 16:53, 12 October 2007 (EDT): Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Libya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Thailand, Uruguay & USA.

Country Official Other Language(s) Region(s)
Argentina Spanish living languages: 25
Guarani Corrientes, Misiones
Brazil Portuguese living languages: 188
China,
People's Republic of
Mandarin
(aka Putonghua)
living languages: 235
Cantonese Hong Kong, Macau (de facto)
English Hong Kong
Kazakh Ili Kazakh
Korean Changbai, Yanbian
Mongolian Inner Mongolia
Portuguese Macau
Tajik Taxkorgan
Tibetan Tibet
Uyghur Xinjiang
Zhuang Guangxi
Daur - regional -
Kalmyk-Oirat - regional -
Lu - regional -
Peripheral Mongolian - regional -
Central Tibetan - regional -
Uyghur - regional -
Xibe - regional -
Northern Zhuang - regional -
Egypt (Egyptian) Arabic living languages: 11
India Hindi
English
living languages: 415
sheduled official Assamese Assam
sheduled official Bengali Tripura, West Bengal
sheduled official Bodo Assam
sheduled official Dogri Jammu, Kashmir
sheduled official Gujarati Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Daman, Diu, Gujarat
sheduled official Kannada Karnataka
sheduled official Kashmiri Jammu, Kashmir
sheduled official Konkani Goa
sheduled official Maithili Bihar
sheduled official Malayalam Kerala, Pondicherry, Lakshadweep
Meitei Manipur
sheduled official Marathi Maharashtra
sheduled official Nepali Sikkim
sheduled official Oriya Orissa
sheduled official Punjabi Punjab
Sanskrit classical learning language
sheduled official Santali Jharkhand
sheduled official Sindhi Jammu, Kashmir
sheduled official Tamil Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry
sheduled official Telugu Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry
sheduled official Urdu Jammu, Kashmir
French Pondicherry Union Territory - only
Libya Arabic (std) living languages: 9
Nigeria Hausa
Igbo
Yoruba
English
living languages: 510
widely used Adamawa, Edo, Efik, Fulfulde, Idoma, (central) Kanuri
Rwanda Kinyarwanda
French
English
living languages: 3
Source: Ethnologue
Thailand Thai living languages: 74
Uruguay Spanish

Languages in Target Countries

Lists of languages of countries in discussions with OLPC, with links to priorities and status of OLPC-related language work in each, where available. All of these languages except Mongolian in its traditional alphabet can be entered, viewed, and printed in most distributions of Linux. Language support from one distribution can be easily added to almost any other. There are local OLPC organizations in several other countries.

Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba (the most important three of the eight official languages of Nigeria other than English) lack further support, including native keyboard layouts and locales. Mongolian is currently supported only in Cyrillic, not in its traditional alphabet.

Europe and America

(en) English

Primary source language for the Internet, and for high-tech in general. Easier to describe materials for which this is not true in this section.

Users and translators: See Category:User en

(fr) French

Users and translators: See Category:User fr

(de) German

Users and translators: See Category:User de

(pt) Portuguese

Main dialects: Brazilian and continental

Users and translators: See Category:User pt

(es) Spanish

Users and translators: See Category:User es

(ru) Russian

Users and translators: See Category:User ru

(uk) Ukrainian

Users and translators: See Category:User uk

East and Central Asia

(ru) Russian

Users and translators: See Category:User ru

(zh) Chinese

Main written dialects: simplified and traditional

Users and translators: See Category:User zh

(ja) Japanese

Users and translators: See Category:User ja

(ko) Korean

Users and translators: See Category:User ko

(mn) Mongolian

Users and translators: See Category:User mn

(bo) Tibetan

Users and translators: See Category:User bo

South Asia

(bn) Bengali

Users and translators: See Category:User bn

(gu) Gujarati

Users and translators: See Category:User gu

(hi) Hindi

Users and translators: See Category:User hi

(kn) Kannada

Users and translators: See Category:User kn

(ml) Malayalam

Users and translators: See Category:User ml

(mr) Marathi

Users and translators: See Category:User mr

(np) Nepali

Users and translators: See Category:User np

(or) Oriya

Users and translators: See Category:User or

(ps) Pashto

Users and translators: See Category:User ps

(pa) Punjabi

Users and translators: See Category:User pa

(ta) Tamil

Users and translators: See Category:User ta

(te) Telugu

Users and translators: See Category:User te

(th) Thai

Users and translators: See Category:User th

Sub-Saharan Africa

(ha) Hausa

Users and translators: See Category:User ha

(ig) Igbo

Users and translators: See Category:User ig

(yo) Yoruba

Users and translators: See Category:User yo

(rw) Kinyarwanda

Users and translators: See Category:User rw

Middle East and North Africa

(ar) Arabic

Users and translators: See Category:User ar

i18n & l10n

The following table is focused on the list of languages present in the currently 'green status' countries (Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Libya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Thailand, United States, Uruguay). Countries with other 'status' may benefit from efforts for the 'green languages', plus add their own set of languages. Each language must be fully supported for the Localization effort.

Language Green Countries Red Countries Orange
Arabic Libya Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq (+), Israel (+), Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon (+), Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan (+), Syria (+), Tunisia, Yemen
English Nigeria,
Rwanda,
USA (+)
Belize (+), Pakistan (+), Philippines (+) Canada (+), Gambia, Guyana, India (+), Kenya (+), Mauritius (+), Namibia (+), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sierra Leone, Singapore (+), South Africa (+), St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda (+), Zimbabwe (+)
French Rwanda Haiti (+) Benin, Cameroon (+), Democratic Republic of the Congo (+), Gabon, Mali, Niger, Senegal, St. Martin (+), Togo
Hausa Nigeria
Igbo Nigeria
Kinyarwanda Rwanda
Portuguese Brazil Angola Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe
Spanish Argentina,
Peru (+),
Uruguay,
USA (+)
Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala (+), Honduras, México (+), Nicaragua, Panamá, Colombia Bolivia (+), Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay (+), Puerto Rico (+), Spain (+), Venezuela (+)
Thai Thailand
Yoruba Nigeria
Other non-green languages Ethiopia, Indonesia, Philippines (+), Pakistan (+), Vietnam Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan (+), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, China (+), Croatia, Cyprus, Eritrea, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India (+), Iran, Italy, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vatican City


The following table presents on a per country base the target languages that must be considered for the Localization effort of the countries with 'green status' (Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Libya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Thailand, United States, Uruguay).

Country Target Languages Mayor/important languages Minor/relevant languages
Argentina
EthnologueAR
[spa] Spanish [quh] Quechua (0.85M - 2.1%) See OLPC Argentina/Languages
Brazil
EthnologueBR
[por] Portuguese none reported by Ethnologue BR above 50,000 speakers.
Ethiopia
EthnologueET
[amh] Amharic,
[eng] English,
[tir] Tigrigna language
see ethnologue see ethnologue
India
EthnologueIN
see ethnologue see ethnologue see ethnologue
Libya
EthnologueLY
[arb] Arabic, Standard [ayl] Arabic, Libyan Spoken (4.2M - 75%),
[jbn] Nafusi (0.14M - 2.5%)
[rmt] Domari (0.03M - 0.6%)
Nepal
EthnologueNP
see ethnologue see ethnologue see ethnologue
Nigeria
EthnologueNG
[eng] English,
[hau] Hausa
—(18.5M - 13.5%)
,
[yor] Yoruba
—(18.9M - 13.8%)
[bin] Edo (1.0M - 0.7%) official,
[efi] Efik (0.4M - 0.3%) official,
[fub] Fulfulde, Adamawa (7.6M - 5.6%) official,
[fuv] Fulfulde, Nigerian (1.7M - 1.2%),
[ibb] Ibibio (1.5M to 2.0M - 1.0-1.5%),
[idu] Idoma (0.6M - 0.4%) official,
[ibo] Igbo (18.0M - 13.1%) official,
[knc] Kanuri, Central (3.0M - 2.2%) official,
[tiv] Tiv (2.2M - 1.6%)
See OLPC Nigeria/Languages
Pakistan
EthnologuePK
see ethnologue see ethnologue see ethnologue
Peru
EthnologueNG
[spa] Spanish pending See OLPC Peru/Languages
Romania
EthnologueRO
see ethnologue see ethnologue see ethnologue
Russia
EthnologueRU
see ethnologue see ethnologue see ethnologue
Rwanda
EthnologueRW
[kin] Kinyarwanda,
[fra] French,
[eng] English
[swh] Swahili (0.01M - 1.3%)
Thailand
EthnologueTH
Thai (dialects?) [nan] Chinese, Min Nan (1.1M - 1.7%),
[kxm] Khmer, Northern (1.1M - 1.8%),
[mfa] Malay, Pattani (3.1M - 4.8%),
[tha] Thai (20.2M - 32%),
[tts] Thai, Northeastern (15.0M - 23%),
[nod] Thai, Northern (6.0M - 9.2%),
[sou] Thai, Southern (5.0M - 7.7%)
[ksw] Karen, S'gaw (0.3M - 0.5%),
[kdt] Kuy (0.3M - 0.5%)
Uruguay
EthnologueUY
[spa] Spanish none other reported by Ethnologue UY
USA
EthnologueUS
[eng] English [spa] Spanish (22.4M - 7.5%),
[___] Polish (3.4M - 1.1%),
[deu] German, Standard (6.1M - 2.0%),
[___] Arabic (3.0M - 1.0%)
[___] Armenian (1.1M - 0.4%),
[___] Chinese (1.6M - 0.5%),
[___] Czech (1.5M - 0.5%),
[___] Eastern Yiddish (1.3M - 0.4%),
[___] French (1.1M - 0.4%),
[frc] French, Cajun (1.0M - 0.3%),
[hwc] Hawai'i Creole English (0.6M - 0.2%),
[___] Italian (0.9M - 0.3%),
[___] Japanese (0.8M - 0.3%),
[___] Korean (1.8M - 0.6%),
[___] Philippines (1.4M - 0.5%),
[___] Portuguese (1.3M - 0.4%),
[___] Swedish (0.6M - 0.2%),
[___] Ukrainian (0.8M - 0.3%),
[___] Vietnamese (0.9M - 0.3%),
[___] Vlax Romani (0.7M - 0.2%),
[___] Western Farsi (0.9M - 0.3%)

External Links

See Also