Introduction

This document contain information and as a guide on translating Dhivehi on Launchpad. This contains details about strings, basically what to be translated and what not to be translated. In addition examples of what you need to be aware while translating. Last some important links to get you started in Dhivehi.

Anybody is free to use this guideline in anyway that is necessary and you are free to share it as you fit necessary.

For quality control purposes and to maintain consistency, it is necessary that all translators read this guideline and follow it.

If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to contact the team via the mailing list or IRC

Mailing List

http://groups.google.com/group/divtranslators

IRC

Server: irc.freenode.net

Room: #moss

Meeting Start At: 10pm - 11pm GMT+5 (everyday)

IRC Online

http://www.mibbit.com/chat/

Always follow common sense

It would be hard to list all possible scenarios in a guideline at its start, so it is always advised to follow common sense whenever this guideline fails to point out the question. If in doubt, open a discussion either in the mailing list or the IRC chat. In short all translators should follow the following basic rules.

• Make sure to read and understand this guideline, if you need any clarification, raise it with others translators or administrators.
• Before and after translation, read the string that is to be translated and make sure that it is written properly in Dhivehi and that it can be applied in the context that it is used.
• If the translation does not sound correct, than it is always wrong. Either redo it, or leave it as a suggestion for someone to review or raise the issue.
• Always, when in doubt ask the team for advise, as this is a collaborative community effort, consensus amount the team will be taken as the final say.
• Consistency is a must, hence, it is advise to go through with other peoples work, already translated strings and get a feel of what should and should not be done.

Level of Dhivehi

Dhivehi language has three levels, first level is the enme maaiy goiy, second maaiy goiy and third the aadhaige goiy. In the translation we have decided to use the third level as that is used in our every day life.

Examples:

"Not a launchable item" is translated to Dhivehi as

ލޯންޗް ކުރެވޭފަދަ އައިޓަމެއް ނޫން

not

ލޯންޗް ކުރެއްވެވޭފަދަ އައިޓަމެއް ނޫން

Similarly

"Less common media formats can be configured here" is translated to Dhivehi as

މަދުން ފެންނަ މީޑިއާ ފޯމެޓްތައް މިތަނުގަ ކޮންފިގަރ ކުރެވޭނެ

not

މަދުން ފެންނަ މީޑިއާ ފޯމެޓްތައް މިތަނުގަ ކޮންފިގަރ ކުރެއްވޭނެ

Language Script: Thaana

You must be familiar typing in Dhivehi, this can be done on Linux, Mac OS X or Windows. More or less you will be using a browser for translation, practically any browser can be used to translate given that it support Unicode, or you can see and type Thaana letters. There is a way to do offline translation, but we only recommend it to advance users who know a bit of technical aspect of translation and Linux.

To setup your computer to type Dhivehi

Before you can participate in translation your computer must support Dhivehi, below find some how-to's on setting different types of operating systems.

For Ubuntu Users

http://ellipticallyspeaking.com/?tag=write-dhivehi-on-ubuntu [NOT functional any more.]

How to install Dhivehi fonts on Ubuntu

http://vishah.blogspot.com/2007/05/install-dhivehi-fonts.html

For Mac Users

http://ellipticallyspeaking.com/?tag=how-to-write-dhivehi-on-mac-os-x

For more info on Thaana

http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/bylanguage/thaana.html

If you want to install fonts, download from mcst.gov.mv

http://www.mcst.gov.mv/News_and_Events/xpfonts.htm [NOT functional any more.]

Thaana Keyboard layout

http://www.mcst.gov.mv/News_and_Events/xpfonts.htm [NOT functional any more.]

English to Dhivehi Word Wed Online

We are working on an online dictionary of English to Dhivehi strings, so make sure you visit the site for both reference, learning and to enrich the list of words. In addition to being able to search the word web database, if a translator finds an error you are advised to raise the issue as soon as possible by either suggesting through the website or through the mailing list or IRC.

English to Dhivehi Word Web

<under construction>

Menu accelerators and shortcuts

Menu accelerators and shortcuts are keys used on the keyboard to access the menu and other features quickly. So when translating it is very important to draw up a list of shortcuts that are currently used. List them out first for each application. As for the accelerators, given to the face dhivehi has fili hence some of the accelerator keys that are used now cannot be assigned, it is advise to draw up a list of accelerator keys as one goes translating an application. The accelerator keys will be setup in a wiki page and all translators are advised to refer to the wiki and assign accelerator keys accordingly.

Example of translation of accelerator keys.

<need to input some examples here>

Wiki page of accelerators

<under constriction>

Translating links and XML

At time you will come across links and XML tag, these are easily identifiable as they will be includes using < and >. When translating these you have to make sure that the case and the text inside the tags remain as they are.

Examples:

<b>Home</b>

when translating to dhivehi, it is best to copy the whole thing first, and then replace 'Home' in Dhivehi, untouching the tags. But as soon as you start typing in thaana, the tags seem to get jumbled to

<b/>ހޯމް<b>

This behaviour is infact correct, and the translation should be left as given above.

English: See the <ulink url="http://ubuntustudio.org/">

Dhivehi: balaa la <ulink url="http://ubuntustudio.org/">

Also note when translating XML tag the tags has to be closed properly.

<guimenuitem>Mediaa Playar</guimenuitem>

Here the <guimenuitem> was properly close using </guimenuitem>

Also note that these text always run from Left to Right, the <guimenuitem> open tag always has to be on the left while </guimenuitem> always has to be on the right. The easiest way to do this would be to copy and paste the English version and only make the necessary Dhivehi translation by deleting the part that is being translated.

Common tages

"guibutton | guiicon | guilabel | guimenu | guimenuitem | guisubmenu | interface"

What to ignore when translating.

When translating there are couple of things to look at as some need not be translated into Dhivehi language. In this section make note of what you should leave as it and ways on how to identify those. Also as you go on translating in most cases you will find a comment stating where and how it should be translated. Unfortunately some times some programmers leave out these comment so in general you have to be aware of what not to translate.

Data placeholders and variables

The use of variables is very common in programming language, they are generally defined as %s, or %d. Data are values that can be changed during the program runs. For example when a program tries to open a file, the file that get opened can change. So if there is an error like, The file %s cannot be opened. The %s will change respectively to the file that the user is trying to open. So we have to leave those variables as they are. Special attentional should be give to the position of %. It should always written before the s or d. Due to how some browsers render it might look like that it is situated on the right of the letter s or d. However, if you type the % first and than the letters it should be ok.

Some examples of other forms of variables.

%(variable)

The english phrase "About %s" when translated to dhivehi appears in most browsers as

އާއި ބެހޭ s%

Here, the first character typed is %, then s, then އ and so on. The % appears on the right of 's' because of browser rendering issue. It is not necessary that % is on the left, only that it is the character before the variable when typed.

"%s, %s and %s" when translated becomes

s% އާއި ،s، %s%

Though it _looks_ way wrong, it is correct sequence of characters entered (which is % s ، % s ، އ ާ އ ި % s). The display of the characters are slightly messed up, and is only a rendering issue.

$variable

${variable}

The best practices would be to copy these variables as you see in the English string.

Examples:

<need to input some examples here>

XML tags

All xml and html tags should be copies as they are, to identify is easy as they are always enclose within < > tags.

Examples:

<need to input some examples here>

Parameters

All of the command line parameters should be left as they are, these can be like \n for new line. All of these parameters are easy to identify as they begin with two dashes, like '--quick' or '--slow'. Also ignore those that start with \, like \n.

Examples:

<need to input some examples here>

TRUE/FALSE, and CONSTANTS

Most strings like “TRUE” and “FALSE” should be left in English as they are. Also all the constants should be left as they are. The easiest way to identify a contact is most of the time they are enclosed within ' ' and have underscore or a dash separating the words. Like 'gtk-ok', 'gtk-cancel', 'toolbar-icon' or 'use_alternative_port'.

These should be left as they are and need not be translated, if translated it will create bugs in the software so be very careful when translating these.

Examples:

<need to input some examples here>