Re: Q: Can you please assist me with translation?

[Paul Eggert]

> From: Hrvoje Niksic <address@hidden>
> Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 22:10:37 +0200

> > In your translation, can you please make it clear which
> > dialect you're using?
>
> If nothing is said, it is safe to assume that the standard Croatian
> language is used, which has been Stokavian for more than 150 years.

Yes, but even so it's more polite to identify the dialects being used.
The GNU project is trying to encourage cooperation, and this is more
likely to occur when people don't overgeneralize.

There is precedent here.  Norwegian has two main dialects, Bokmaal and
Nynorsk.  A comment in tar's no.po file says that it is using the
Bokmaal dialect, even though it's safe to assume that Bokmaal is used
if nothing is said.  Bokmaal is more common overall, and it is
especially common in urban areas and in written use, so the default
computer translations are invariably Bokmaal.

Similarly, it would be a matter of politeness to state the dialect
used in the Croatian translation.  Yes, every literate Croatian knows
the situation, just as every literate Norwegian knows the
Bokmaal/Nynorsk situation; but it doesn't hurt to be polite.  Also,
it's conceivable that the translation is also valid for Ikavian, and
if so that information would be useful to record.

The translation already says that it is Latinic instead of Cyrillic,
even though that is far more obvious; it is obvious even to
non-Croatians like me.  So why not have it also say which dialects it
is compatible with?  That's less obvious, so it's even more worth
recording, and it should take very little effort to record it.


> If someone doesn't know what "Croatian" means, he probably has no
> use for the translation anyway.

That's not the point.  The point is that we're trying to be polite and
inclusive, and to encourage sharing and cooperation, even in parts of
the world where this is difficult.