git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

Re: [PATCH] po/hi.po: Add Hindi Translation

From
APAntriksh Pany <antriksh.pany@gmail.com>
Date
Sep 8, 2010, 13:53 UTC
Message-ID
<AANLkTimQx7nNBTnOZ334=1bmuRH5x-r4XtNRU4ODbm-e@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<20100907075509.GA9533@kytes>
Hi Ram

Some more comments (spotted a few more possible improvements) and responses inline.

On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 1:25 PM, Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com> wrote:
Show 37 quoted lines
> Hi Antriksh,
>
> Antriksh Pany writes:
>> Nice to see some Hindi around here ;P
>>
>> A few comments inline.
>
> Thanks for the wonderful feedback! :)
>
>> >  #, c-format
>> >  msgid "insanely long template name %s"
>> > -msgstr "टेम्पलेट का नाम बहुत लंबा है: %s"
>> > +msgstr "टेम्पलेट %s का नाम बहुत लंबा है"
>> bahut -> atyant?
>
> Yes, definitely. बहुत did feel out of place here.
>
>> >  #, c-format
>> >  msgid "insanely long symlink %s"
>> > -msgstr "प्रतीकात्मक लिंक बहुत लंबा है: %s"
>> > +msgstr "प्रतीकात्मक लिंक %s बहुत लंबा है"
>> Same suggestion: bahut -> atyant?
>> Also, dropping the 'है' might be crisper and closer to the English
>> version.
>
> Okay.
>
>> >  #, c-format
>> >  msgid "cannot copy '%s' to '%s'"
>> > -msgstr "'%s' का नकल '%s' नहीं बना सके"
>> > +msgstr "'%s' का अनुकृति '%s' में नहीं कर सके"
>> ka -> ki
>
> Ah, yes. Gender ambiguity in Hindi. I also felt it should be की. Can
> you explain why though? '%s' a noun here; have you chosen it to be
> feminine? But अनुकृति is a noun as well, and quite obviously
> feminine. Is that why?
Yes, अनुकृति being feminine is what causes 'ki' to be used here.
Show 11 quoted lines
>
>> >  #, c-format
>> >  msgid "ignoring template %s"
>> > -msgstr "टेम्पलेट को उपेक्षा कर रहे है: %s"
>> > +msgstr "टेम्पलेट %s का उपेक्षा कर रहे है"
>> ka -> ki
>
> Similar confusion- I'd like an explanation if possible. उपेक्षा is a
> verb, and I'm not sure how it transforms when gender is afflicted on
> it. I have chosen टेम्पलेट to be masculine- do you think it should be
> feminine?

Again, उपेक्षा is determining the gender usage. Also, not sure if this is a good word to use. उपेक्षा typically has a negative connotation, so does not seem to fit well here. अनदेखा (while not being perfect either) may be better?

Show 8 quoted lines
>
>> >  #, c-format
>> >  msgid "insanely long template path %s"
>> > -msgstr "टेम्पलेट का आकार बहुत लंबा है: %s"
>> > +msgstr "टेम्पलेट %s का आकार बहुत लंबा है"
>> Again: bahut -> atyant. And again, 'है' could be dropped perhaps.
>
> Ok.

On second thoughts, आकार is definitely not close enough to 'path'. Can we think of something else?

Show 13 quoted lines
>
>> >  #, c-format
>> >  msgid "not copying templates of a wrong format version %d from '%s'"
>> > -msgstr "'%s' से गलत स्वरूप संस्करण %d का टेम्पलेट नकल नहीं कर रहे है"
>> > +msgstr "'%s' से गलत स्वरूप संस्करण %d के टेम्पलेट्स के नकल नहीं कर रहे
>> > है"
>> Had changed नकल to अनुकृति earlier. Not doing that here?
>
> While नकल is definitely the easier word to use, it's a verb. अनुकृति is
> a noun on the other hand- I had to introduce it into the previous
> sentence because "Make a नकल of X in Y" would be technically
> incorrect.
>

'टेम्पलेट्स के ' -> 'ki' would have to be used here. 'नकल' is determining gender here :)

Show 44 quoted lines
>> >  #, c-format
>> >  msgid "insane git directory %s"
>> > -msgstr "खराब गिट निर्देशिका %s"
>> > +msgstr "%s खराब गिट निर्देशिका है"
>> I think the first one was better.
>
> Ok.
>
>> Having gone through this, I find it hard to think that anyone is
>> really going to use the Hindi translation. Any Indian who would be
>> involved with git would almost certainly be involved with it in the
>> English language, particularly given that some of the Hindi words are
>> fairly hard to follow. Also, when it comes to the Sciences (and in
>> particular, Computers) Indians (at least the Hindi speaking
>> population) have directly adopted the English versions instead of
>> seeking appropriate Hindi ones.
>
> I understand.
>
>> If we are going to have a hindi.po, I think it may be altogether
>> better to drop the unusual Hindi words, and literally use the English
>> word written in Hindi.. the way you did for words like 'templates',
>> 'link' etc. Other candidates could be 'directory', 'format',
>> 'version', 'copy', 'symbolic (link)', 'group', 'read', 'write'. I know
>> that translation for the last few words are not complicated. However,
>> the subtle meanings of these words in the context of computers gets
>> lost when translated in Hindi. (For example, 'read' and 'write', while
>> being similar to real-life usage, have in fact taken very specific
>> meanings in the context of computer science.)
>
> A number of my friends pointed out the same thing. I don't completely
> agree though. In my opinion, the translations are really just fun, and
> give the user a warm feeling- it's quite unlikely that a person
> (atleast Indian) who doesn't understand English will use Git in the
> first place.
>
> Personally, I find English words written in Devanagiri script quite
> annoying: there is really no elegance or point in translating "Could
> not stat copy of symbolic link" to "सिम्बोलिक लिंक का कॉपी स्टाट नहीं कर
> सके". A person who uses hi.po is doing it mainly for recreational
> purposes, and we'd like to give that person a beautiful and elegant
> experience, instead of dumbly writing all the nouns in Devanagiri
> script and inserting a few trivial filler verbs.
>

Well, I really thought that the purpose of translation is more utilitarian than anything else. And I would still count myself among those friends of yours who either don't see many Indians using this, or see some value only if words which don't have a direct reference in Hindi are transliterated :)

There are other languages where effort is taken to find equivalents to modern terms, and hence don't need a lot of transliterations. That, unfortunately, is not the case with Hindi :(

Show 12 quoted lines
> While I probably took this too far with words like निर्देशिका, I'd like
> to be able to find some kind of compromise- I'll submit another
> revision shortly using a combination of real Hindi words, English
> words written in Devanagiri script, and English words expressed
> plainly (like "[stat]").
>
> I wasn't joking when I said that I don't know Hindi. I've never used
> applications that speak anything but English, and have never been
> involved with translation before. Thanks for poking- I'll email some
> Indians involved with translation projects hi.po and ask them for
> feedback.
>

Really appreciate the effort you have put in on this, despite not being a native Hindi speaker. Sorry for so many nits :)

Cheers Antriksh

Previous: Ramkumar RamachandraNext: Ramkumar Ramachandra
Message 7 of 9 in “po/hi.po: Add Hindi Translation”
  1. po/hi.po: Add Hindi TranslationRamkumar Ramachandra, Sep 5, 2010
  2. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonSep 5, 2010
  3. Sitaram ChamartySep 6, 2010
  4. Ramkumar RamachandraSep 6, 2010
  5. Antriksh PanySep 7, 2010
  6. Ramkumar RamachandraSep 7, 2010
  7. Antriksh PanySep 8, 2010
  8. Ramkumar RamachandraSep 8, 2010
  9. Ramkumar RamachandraSep 8, 2010

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.