[Gambas-user] Translation issue, English (common)

[RICHARD WALKER]

Hmm. OK, I'll bite.

In general, though with many subtle exceptions, all forks of English
sound pretty much like English. When it is being spoken it is not
always important (or even polite?) to notice the differences - just be
aware of them and make whatever allowances for grammar or translations
for vocabulary might be necessary for a good understanding. The spoken
language is abstract and temporary and disappears on the wind once the
words have been uttered and understood.

The written form of the language as used in computer programming
languages is almost exclusively American. The user interfaces found in
most programs are also in American because they have been written by
Americans, or because a decision was taken to use American as the
interface language. The language used in the user interface is not
often wordy enough for the grammar differences to be obvious and to a
large extent they may be ignored in the labelling and pop-ups of the
program.

More extensive text, such as help files and the like, may well be
large enough to stray into areas where grammar differences are more
obvious. Vocabulary differences are also likely but the most obvious
differences are likely to be those in the spelling of words. English
spelling has evolved over many centuries and follows all sorts of
rules, often depending on the original donor language. Most of the
current differences between American and English spelling were created
in the 19th century and have been decided by committee.

To the native English speaker, especially those who learned how to
spell and use prepositions in school, printed American can be jarring
to the eye and the internal ear. Computer programs translated into
English are MUCH more pleasant to use than those written by/for
Americans.

I cannot speak for other English-speaking communities but I would
imagine that Australian, New Zealand, South African and, to a certain
extent Indian English are all closer to English in terms of grammar
and spelling than they are to American.

Having said that, the differences are not sufficient to impede mutual
understanding, though I suspect the rest of the world is more familiar
with American than Americans are familiar with English.

Given the choice I would never use a program with an American
interface. I just feel more comfortable using my own language, and it
makes me feel the programmer, or somebody, cares about making me feel
at home.

As for the large number of English versions you mentioned, there are
other more practical considerations beyond the linguistic details.
Because English is used as a native language in many parts of the
world there are many detailed differences in the Locale settings.
Language is a part of it but en_gb uses miles and metres and sterling
pounds, en_ie uses kilometres and euros and en_us uses miles ,
feet/yards and US dollars, and don't get me started on the unique
method used in the US to express dates!

>From my experiences I find that when non-English speakers use the term
English, they usually mean either American or what is often called
"international English" which I think is also American. As the
Internet continues to promote ever wider use of American the day will
probably come when English is replaced, even for native speakers, but
until then, for maximum user satisfaction, we still need en_US for
those who don't care and English for the rest of us:-)

Richard