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Localisaztion of software on Afaan Oromo

Making Afaan Oromo fit to the digital world!

1 Introduction

The aim of this paper is to give short introduction to the need for localization of software on Affan Oromo. The paper starts with explaining basic defininition of localization terms such as localizing of software, Internationalization, locale...etc and tries to answer what, how and why localizing software on Affan Oromo. In addition the paper will give brief information about the Oromo people and its language Affan Oromo.

1.1 Localization & Internationalization Localization is about breaking development down into manageable pieces through the process of adopting an ICT product, service or software to a culture and by that making it available to the poor.

“Localization involves taking a product and making it linguistically and culturally appropriate to the target locale (country/region and language) where it will be used and sold”[5]

Internationalization is also defined by LISA as:

“The process of generalizing a product, so that it can handle multiple languages and cultural conventions without the need for design”

Localization and Internationalization are two interrelated concepts with different objectives during software development. However, they are not contrary to each other as their name indicates. The need to localize software depends on the desire to make ICT available equally for all. ICT plays big role in satisfying human need for providing and receiving Information asymmetrically. Localization has significant importance in alleviating poverty in developing countries. Most interesting in this regard is the issue of asymmetric information in which the developing countries benefit to overcome their inefficient information systems due to lack of resources and relevant data When talking about the role of ICT in poverty alleviation. The writer of this paper has some critical questions such as what is the measurement of poverty? Should fast broadband connection take priority before basic necessities such as clean water, bread and medicine for the poorest countries? Who is benefiting from ICT investment? The governments in developing countries should think twice the advantage and disadvantage of making priorities when investing on ICT.

If ICT investment in developing countries managed rationally, there is huge importance of localization of software as easiest way of teaching people computer technology and saving other languages from being substituted by English and other languages. This importance of localization of software is explained as:

• “The question of introducing ICT is not about technology transfer alone, instead it is more about adapting and developing ICT solutions to suit particular local needs” [7] In general localization of software gives the end users regardless of where and what language they speak to use computers without the need of learning new languages such as English and keeping their own language from gradual disapperance.

These benefits can be seen as:

Reducing the amount of training needed to make new users to use computers. Avoid costly software by using open software The right to communicate in their native language Protect minority languages from being extinguished Enable to preserve and spread local culture Provide a fair access to knowledge The goal of localizing software on Affan Oromo is also to give the above benefits to the Oromo people. Why so Important? To answer this question let us have a brief introduction about the Oromo people and their language Affan Oromo.

1.2 The Oromo People The Oromo people is one of the Cushitic speaking groups and their homeland Oromia (Oromiya) is found in East Africa currently as a federal region in Ethiopia. A significant amount of people also live in neighboring country Kenya, Somalia and Middle East. As shown in the following map of Ethiopia Oromiya is stretching between 3 degree and 15 degree north latitude and 33 degree and 40 degree longitude. [4]

According to 1995 census population of Oromo is more than 30 million. This figure makes Oromo the third largest nationality in Africa and single largest nationality in East Africa occupying an area of 600 000 square kilometer.[4]

One may wonder why such single large nationality couldn’t manage to be a legitimate soverign country. Even though the aim of this paper is not to politicise the topic I refer the readers to the following answer.

“The Oromo were colonized during the last quarter of 19 th centuries by a black African nation –Abyssinia or Ethiopia with the help of European colonial powers of that day. During the same period, of course Somali, Kenya, Sudanese and others were colonized by European powers. The fact that Oromo was colonized by black African nation makes their case quite special.”[4]

1.3 Afaan Oromoo Afaan Oromo is a single common mother tongue and basic ground of Oromo culture. Afaan Oromo belongs to the Eastern Cushitic group of languages. It is considered as one of the five most widely spoken African languages (Gragg 1982).

• I believe that the amount of people who speak Afaan Oromo in Ethiopia is growing since 1992 after introducing elementary education in Afaan Oromoo in Oromiya region. However, there are only few TV and radio stations which transmit programs in Afaan Oromo. The following table shows the name locationa and air time of some radio stations.

NB: The lists bellow are based only on what i found on internet links. There can be more in each category which i haven’t discovered.

Name of Radio Station

• Location Air time

Ethiopia Radio

• Finnfine(Addis Abeba)

Radio Fana

Voice Of America

• USA 30 minutes

Sagalee Bilisummaa

• Unknown 30 minutes for 5 days

Oromo community radio

• Washington DC 30 minutes

Voice Oromiya

• Mineapolis 30 minutes

Oromo Community Radio

• Washington DC

Oromo Christian Fellowship radio

• Washington DC

Selam Radio (Afan Oromo)

• Washington DC

Sagalee Gudina dergago Oromo

• Sweden, Stockholm 30 minutes/week

Why to localize Software On Affan Oromo?

The answer to this question are: To enable the Oromo people to exercise his right to communicate with its native language using modern information communication technology. Avoid costly softwares by using open software to develope programs and web applications in Affan Oromo. Protect the Oromo language from being extinguished as any minority languages Enable to preserve and spread the Oromo culture via modern technoogies such as internet websites, blogs, discussion forums..etc Provide a fair access to knowledge. What will hapen if suddenly the government, UN or any organization introduce the so called one Laptop per child (OLPC) project in Ethiopia? What will be the choice of Oromo children if we are not ready today to teach those Laptops Affan Oromo? The discovery of information about the localization of software on Affan Oromo is the prior step in coordinating different efforts existing to develope Oromo software. As when witting this paper there are only some web sites having their texts in Affan Oromo mixed with English however, I haven’t seen any website or software application written in Affan Oromo. One of web sites i found trying to make all pages in Afaan Oromo:is http://bilisummaa.com/. There is also ongoing work in Addis Abeba university which is trying to translate ICT terms to Affan Oromo, Amharic and Tigringa. The Affan Oromo part has only 185 translated words which is better than nothing. See http://www.aau.edu.et/glossary/index.php

1.4 Qubee Affan Oromoo Until 1970 Afaan Oromo has been written in Ethiopic script with difficulty as Ethiopic script is not technically and linguistically best fit to Affan Oromo. However, Affan Oromo has a rich oral poetic tradition while couldn’t use its own script because of reasons related to democracy and the right of self governance.

From 1970s Roman alphabet comes to the scene as the best fit for Afaan Oromo. However, it has not been allowed by the Ethiopian governments to use the Roman alphabet for writing Afaan Oromo instead Oromo’s were encouraged to write in Ethiopic script.

It was after 1991 when the main Oromo political parties participated in the formation of the current federal government that Roman alphabet officially accepted by Oromo intellectuals as an alphabet for Affan Oromo. This Alphabet is known as Qubee Affan Oromo (Qubee).

Affan Oromo is a phonetic language, which means that is spoken in the way it is written. Therefore, Qubee has 29 letters to cover all words exist in Affan Oromo. The following are Qubee’s 29 letters in uppercase and lower case: Affan Oromo Alphabets (Qubee Affan Oromo)[1] The following five letters (a,e,o,u and i) represent also Qubee vowels called Dubifttu. Affan Oromo vowels are pronounced in sharp and clear fashion which means each and every word is pronounced strongly. Example:

A: Ar'bba, Fardda, Haadha

E: Gannale, Waabee, Noole, Roobale, colle

I: Arsii, laali, Rafi, Lakki, Sirbbi

O: Oromo, Cilaalo, Haro, caancco, Danbidoollo

U: Ulfaadhu, Gudadhu, dubadhuu, arbba guugu, Ituu

CONSONANTS = SAGALEEWWAN

Affan Oromo consonants are similar with Italian, except few special combinations. For example: The consonant ‘g’ has a hard sound like in Gaari, Gadi, gargaari. The combinations of NY and DH have a hard sound like Nyaadhu, Dhugi.

Double consonants = SAGALEWWAN DACHAA

All Affan Oromo consonants have double consonant combinations if the syllable is stressed except the combinations of consonants ny, dh, ph, and sh. For example:

• Bilisumma = Independence

Walqixumma = equality

Walabumma = freedom

Fardda = horse

Lolttu = fighter (soldier) STRESS = JABAATA

Some words of Affan Oromo are pronounced with the stress on the last syllable.

Example: fanno, harre, gaarre.

There are also few words stressed on the first syllable. These are words which have always a combination consonant. Examples are; nyaadhu, dhayi, nyaara and nyaapha.[9]

2. How to localize software On Affan Oromo In the previous part of this paper we have looked at the brief history of Oromo people and character of its language Affan Oromo. In this part we will look at the challenges in localizing software on Affan Oromo. What, why and how to localize software on Affan Oromo will be discussed.

2.1 What? To answer this question it is necessary to investigate the need for localizing software on Affan Oromo. Localization of software on Affan Oromo could be done only if enough time and expertise are put on introducing Information comunication Technology in Affan Oromo. Doing this need to identify the need (locale) which is needed for Localizing Software on Affan Oromo and its challenges. In any localization of software involves the following activities which are also necessary for Affan Oromo.

• 2.1.1 Displaying character in Affan Oromo

Character encoding is to represent human languages in computers which understand just zeros and ones. Affan Oromo is one of languages which has its own language code supported by different standards. The following table shows some some Affan Oromo identifing attributes in ISO standards ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2. [6]

Oromo (Afaan Oromo)

Spoken in:

• Ethiopia, Kenya

Region:

• Africa

Total speakers:

• 30 million

Ranking:

• 91

Genetic classification:

• Afro-Asiatic Cushitic
  • East
    • Oromo

Language codes

ISO 639-1:

• om

ISO 639-2:

• orm

ISO/DIS 639-3:

• to be added

Source: Wikopedia

As explained above Affan Oromo has very short period of time in using the preferred Roman alphabet. Therefore, it is very important to use this newely introduced alpahabet called Qubee in software strings, manuals, documentation, help text and error messages during developing softwares in Affan Oromo. During the beginning of localizing software on Affan Oromo challenges are expected at certain degree. For example during the translation a programming and graphic design skills are needed because changes on text sizes, dialog boxes and button names may need the change of source codes. In some cases there are many candidate words for a single English word when translated from English. For example the following english words can have different words in Affan Oromo.

• Enter = seeni, galchi. Mouse = Hantutta, qabddoo. Yes = ee, eeyyee

There might be also the need for creating new words when there is no Affan Oromo word which can fit words in the software. A good example for this is the english word “mouse”. Does it take the the word “Hantuta” which means Rat or find new words for it? For example the following two form is identical guest book in english and Affan Oromo. However it was not easy to translate directly the words such as “Guest Book”, “ E-post Address” ….etc

Translation could take different approaches such as considering loanword, transliteration, semantic expansion, metaphors…. etc. Which way is better is to be determined by Oromo scholars participating in the localizing project. It is my hope that Afaan Oromo intellectuals in Oromiya and abroad play big role in this regard. Apart from translating and creating new words to confirm that the new words are adopted by people is additional challenge. The adoption of new words depends entirely on how much they are used by Afaan Oromo speakers verbally or written.

2.1.2 Cultural localization

In displaying characters in Affan Oromo attention to text color is important as culturally Oromos prefer or appreciate strong red, blue, green, yellow and blue colors or the combination. The meaning of different colors in Oromo culture must be also studied and specified in the future work.

The other point in cultural localization is calander. Oromos have their own clander for a long time. However, even if it is cultural asset which makes Oromo different from other ethenic groups the usage of this calander is not much.

Cuurently Oromos or Oromiya as a federal region use two type of calenders. The first one is the European calander which is taken as official Calander of Oromiya and the Ethiopian language for communication with the central government of Ethiopia, however, the name of days and months are in afaan Oromo. Therefore, the consideration of string sizes when codeing inputs and outputs to text boxes, comboboxes and graphic represantattion of applications is necessary. Example : Name of days In afaan Oromo:

Monday = WiiXata

Tuesday = Kibxata

Wednesday = Roobii

Thursday = Kamisa

Friday = Jimaata

Saturday = Sambata

Sunday = Dilbata

The following are the name of 12 months from january to december respectively.

1. Amaji 2. Guraandhala 3. Bitootessa 4. Caamsa 5. Ebla 6. Waxabajii

7. Adoolessa 8. Hagayya 9. Fulbaana 10. Onkoloolessa 11. Sadaasa 12. Mudde

NB. Look at the length of string (text) “Onkoloolessa” which is october month.

2.1.3 Inputting Character in Afaan Oromo Inputting character is about aspects of entering text to the computer screen such as typing key, speaking or writing using a pen device to generate text input. These activities are directly related to the nature of keyboard and mapping characters to keys or combinations of keys.

As Afaan Oromo is using the Latin alphabets it seems the typesetting problem is already solved as the encoding schema is represented by one key in the keyboard, mapping is one to one.[3]

However, as seen in the introduction of Qubee Affan Oromo there are alphabets with double letters which need to type two keys which give one alphabet such as DH and NY. Is it necessary decide whether to re-encode these two letters to only one key enter or continue with the current situation? The answers for such questions remain to future works on localizing software on Afaan Oromo. 2.1.4 Creating spell checker and affixes ( Big challenge) To write text on applications where text creation is necessary in any language the existence of a spell checker is important for sucessfull usage of an application.

For Affan Oromo spell checker is very important because users can learn more from their mistakes as Affan Oromo is not developed as script language. Therefore, the creation of dictionary file (.dic) and affixes (.aff) is one of the challenges which needs expertise from different fields.. As writting this paper i have no information if there is Affan Oromo dictionary in digital form. However, there are few dictionary books from Afaan Oromo to English and few online dictionary with limited words.

How to make Afaan Oromo spell checker?

To create spell checker combined of dictionary and affixes for languages such as Affan Oromo which is rich as spoken language and new as script language is a big challenge.

1. Create Affan Oromo dictionary: This includes the following activities

Collect many correct Affan Oromo words from all parts of Oromiya. Sort the roots o words and remove the rest Apply affix rules to each word 2. Creating the affix based on the Afaan oromo grammer- needs expertise in Affan Oromo grammer

3. Create the installation packs of Myspell

4. Submit the results to the FOSS responsible for Myspell or to any other interested software developer.

Therefore the process of creating spell cheker may need priorities. For example to create the spell checker based on only dictionary for the first time

. How to collect words to make dictionary and affixes?

One of methods in solving the colection of words to create Affan Oromo dictionary is to turn to institutions, especially Bible plays huge role in this case as it is the first book (one of) written in Affan Oromo. Collecting words from web sites by entering keywords in Affan Oromo on Search Engines is another solution. For example i found many documents containing many words in affan Oromo when i entered the keyword “Guyyaa” which means “day or the day”.

3. The role of FOSS in localizing Software on Affan Oromo Free Open Source Software (FOSS) is the availability of open source code. It gives the advantage of modification and redistribution of software code for any purpose.[2] For localizing software on Affan oromo the affordability and accessibility of FOSS is extreme advantage. To mention few of advatages that Affan Oromo get from Free Open Source Softwares are: Economical as FOSS is available free or with reduced prices Accessabilty- the right of accessing the code and change it to Affan Oromo Improving education in Affan Oromo Shows that Computers understand also Afaan Oromo The following is the Wikiepedia Afaan oromo page as an example for the advantage of FOSS.[6] 4. Conclussion As seen in this short introduction I have tried to explain the need for software localization on Affan Oromo with a limited time and resource. During this paper i found some basic grounds for software localization in Affan Oromo such as the usage of latin alphabets, European calander and the existence of locale for Affan Oromo (om, orm) known to diiferent international standards.

However, there are still big challenges to use the locale efficiently and to create dictinarys for spell checker based on Affan Oromo grammer. This needs different expertise with in software engennering and lingustic to make real the developing of software in Afaan Oromo.

In this regard the role of Oromo intellectualls and participation of political parties representing Oromo people including the Oromiya federal government is needed.

The participation of software companies , open source organization and projects such as Information Communication Technology for Developing (ICT4D) is also highly expected to bring Afaan Oromo to the digital world.

• The webmaster of Finfinne.net