free openSS

Recommendations ❘ 23Language ConsiderationsFOSS has typically been localized by a few volunteers working remotely, without the benefit of linguistsor a technical dictionary for translation. The work can take a long time and it can be riddled withinconsistencies or errors.The pace of FOSS localization is uneven. In countries where the language is similar to English and thereare many bilingual volunteers, FOSS localization is well established. Where governments and otheragencies have stepped in to provide financial support for localization, the results have also beenimpressive. (The “CJK” partnership of China, Japan, and Korea stands out as an example.)In countries without much technical infrastructure, localization of both commercial software and FOSSis slow. It is far slower when the language is not of the Indo-European group. Commercial companies seelittle profit in the work, and few local professionals have the time or skills to localize FOSS. Even thoughthe source code is freely available for localization work to begin, few specialized technical standards ortechnical dictionaries exist.Some languages, particularly those with Latin-based scripts, are relatively easy to localize. Others can bevery difficult. As an example, both Lao and Thai share a 42-consonant script, with vowel and intonationmarks. These scripts follow complex rules of layout involving consonants, vowels, special symbols,conjuncts and ligatures. All of these writing systems share certain characteristics: spaces are not necessarilyused to separate words, and vowels appear before and after, under, over, and after consonants.Thai and Lao volunteers responsible for localizing FOSS have saved a great deal of time and avoidedfrustration by cooperating on technical issues, and sharing information on resources and tools.Across Asia, opportunities exist for shared localization efforts at the inter-governmental level. Many otherAsian languages share similarities, and often the programming tasks are nearly identical across similarlanguage groups. Properly funded and organized, pan-Asian software localization is a realistic goal.