ACCENTS OR NOT? A STANDARD?...
ACCENTS OR NOT? A STANDARD?...
Well, as you know in Spanish many words have accents, for example "televisión" is not "television". The trouble is that many people don't use them always, maybe only in their homework... So, when people search for a program is not common to write "televisión" but "television" without "ó"...
From my point of view it's better to translate using accents, but the Search script of Free Download Manager Library must recognize "o" as "o" or "ó" without distinction in order to make easier to use this feature. For example, if you are looking for "television" but in our keywords is written with accent "televisión" the result will be False, so the user won't find the software is looking for.
I'm translating the keywords without accents and the text of the description with accents, but it would be good to have an standard about this. I suggest all with accents, but search engine must not distinguish between a vowel with accent than vowel within it: "a" and "á" must be the same for search engine.
What do you think about this?
From my point of view it's better to translate using accents, but the Search script of Free Download Manager Library must recognize "o" as "o" or "ó" without distinction in order to make easier to use this feature. For example, if you are looking for "television" but in our keywords is written with accent "televisión" the result will be False, so the user won't find the software is looking for.
I'm translating the keywords without accents and the text of the description with accents, but it would be good to have an standard about this. I suggest all with accents, but search engine must not distinguish between a vowel with accent than vowel within it: "a" and "á" must be the same for search engine.
What do you think about this?
I totally agree. True Spanish (as opposed to raggedy-ass anglicized Spanish) must include accented vowels, obviously the "ñ", as well as inverted exclamation and question marks.
Besides, it's simply more professional looking.
A standard is indeed necessary.
captorx' suggestions make perfect sense to me:
Besides, it's simply more professional looking.
A standard is indeed necessary.
captorx' suggestions make perfect sense to me:
- 1.Standard: Everything accented (incl. keywords)
2.Accent-tolerant search engine
“Yes. Shrubberies are my trade. I am a shrubber. My name is Rogerthe Shrubber. I arrange, design, and sell shrubberies.”
-
mack06
So, who makes the decision?
I suppose that us, as users of the Spanish language, have the right to do what we must to avoid its bastardization.
However, I think someone from FDM should come out and say something about it. After all, it's their software library.
It's important because there are some purists, like myself, captorx, and mack, who agree a language is to be written the way its supposed to be written.
There are others, however, who don't care about accents and special punctuation marks as long a translation is understandable and its meaning is true to the original text.
Strictly speaking, an accent or the lack of one usually gives a different meaning to a word or makes a word non-existent. But a more tolerant view would be to say that the meaning of such words is usually clear or is made clear by its context.
Even mack and captorx might disagree with me as far as the need to use inverted question and exclamation marks (¿,¡). I think they should be used, but they might not think its necessary.
So, FDM people, we need an official standard we should all follow.
Maybe you think it's not a terribly important issue, but I think it should be. Here's why:
To me, a perfect translation is one that not only conveys the meaning of the original English text but also has perfect spelling (which includes the appropriate use of accents) and punctuation (which includes the use of inverted exclamation and question marks).
Thus, my standard gives a lower approval rating to a translation that does not use the appropriate accents and punctuation marks. But that's my standard. Somebody else might be more lenient and say "Oh, this translation uses no inverted punctuation marks, but is otherwise perfect. It gets a 5 approval rating." While I would give such a translation a 4.
In other words, if approval ratings are important to FDM, they should care about setting a standard for how Spanish should be written in their software library. Otherwise such approval ratings will be less reliable.
I'm sure FDM trusts our opinion, and that's great. But, based on the opinions of those of us involved in this project, somebody should come out and officially set the standard.
I suppose that us, as users of the Spanish language, have the right to do what we must to avoid its bastardization.
However, I think someone from FDM should come out and say something about it. After all, it's their software library.
It's important because there are some purists, like myself, captorx, and mack, who agree a language is to be written the way its supposed to be written.
There are others, however, who don't care about accents and special punctuation marks as long a translation is understandable and its meaning is true to the original text.
Strictly speaking, an accent or the lack of one usually gives a different meaning to a word or makes a word non-existent. But a more tolerant view would be to say that the meaning of such words is usually clear or is made clear by its context.
Even mack and captorx might disagree with me as far as the need to use inverted question and exclamation marks (¿,¡). I think they should be used, but they might not think its necessary.
So, FDM people, we need an official standard we should all follow.
Maybe you think it's not a terribly important issue, but I think it should be. Here's why:
To me, a perfect translation is one that not only conveys the meaning of the original English text but also has perfect spelling (which includes the appropriate use of accents) and punctuation (which includes the use of inverted exclamation and question marks).
Thus, my standard gives a lower approval rating to a translation that does not use the appropriate accents and punctuation marks. But that's my standard. Somebody else might be more lenient and say "Oh, this translation uses no inverted punctuation marks, but is otherwise perfect. It gets a 5 approval rating." While I would give such a translation a 4.
In other words, if approval ratings are important to FDM, they should care about setting a standard for how Spanish should be written in their software library. Otherwise such approval ratings will be less reliable.
I'm sure FDM trusts our opinion, and that's great. But, based on the opinions of those of us involved in this project, somebody should come out and officially set the standard.
“Yes. Shrubberies are my trade. I am a shrubber. My name is Rogerthe Shrubber. I arrange, design, and sell shrubberies.”
Dear Managers and Translators!
Thank you for having raised such an urgent question.
We see you are interested in the 'official opinion'. Here it goes:
We suggest you translated the descriptions PRESERVING ALL THE NECESSARY ACCENTS.
We will take care to set the search engine so that it does not distinguish between characters with and without accents.
Thank you very much for your ideas and support.
Thank you for having raised such an urgent question.
We see you are interested in the 'official opinion'. Here it goes:
We suggest you translated the descriptions PRESERVING ALL THE NECESSARY ACCENTS.
We will take care to set the search engine so that it does not distinguish between characters with and without accents.
Thank you very much for your ideas and support.
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