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OpenOffice.org In Swahili 299

Posted by timothy from the beatcha dept.
linhux writes "A reported on Gnuheter (in Swedish) and elsewhere, OpenOffice.org has been translated to Swahili in a joint collaboration effort of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and a company called IT+46, and funded by the university and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Neither Microsoft Office nor Windows supports Swahili. Currently, only the Tanzanian dialect has been completed, but Kenyan, Congo and Ugandan dialects are on their way. It's called Jambo OpenOffice and is part of the Kilinux Open Swahili Localization Project."
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OpenOffice.org In Swahili More

OpenOffice.org In Swahili

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  • OpenOffice.org has been translated to Swahili
    Accoona [accoona.com] matata. I didn't find news of this in the Google rival's results; no worries.

  • Its not profitable (Score:3, Insightful)

    by FortKnox ( 169099 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:29AM (#11032839) Homepage Journal
    Neither Microsoft Office nor Windows supports Swahili.

    How much profit do you think MS is losing by not translating to Swahili? I'm guessing you don't see a Swahili version because they wouldn't get enough profit to support it.

    Granted, I don't want to take away from OO's success here. Open source finding its ways into (technologically) underdeveloped countries will go a long way to making it more standard worldwide.

    • Open source finding its ways into (technologically) underdeveloped countries

      It's not just devloping countries that benefit from Linux+i18n - IIRC, MS products aren't available in Welsh yet, either, and Wales has bilingual laws: this should mean that OOo will more easily make inroads in Wales than MS Office, which in turn should lead to improved adoption throughout the UK. I'd also guess that Scotland, say, would prefer applications that meet local language needs: my local council, Glasgow, already nee

    • How much profit do you think MS is losing by not translating to Swahili? I'm guessing you don't see a Swahili version because they wouldn't get enough profit to support it.

      Yup, and this is a nice thing with open source software, as software or translations like these may be developed even if there's not much of a profit to be made, since it's not a sole company that have to do the job.

    • Re:Its not profitable (Score:3, Insightful)

      by elgaard ( 81259 )
      Why should we care if MS could have made a profit or not? OO is not developed or translated just to take profit away from MS (except for Sun maybe).

      Selling swahili office programs may not be very lucrative, even though more people speak swahili than danish, and MS did translate its software to danish.

      But hopefully OO will get a lot of Swahili speaking users, some of which will contribute back to OO.
    • Oh, it's only a matter of time. Whatever MS' other faults may be, you really have to give it to them on their i18n efforts; they are pretty aggressive about it. Particularly given that Swahili is written in the Roman script; they dont have to make any new technical effort in rendering a new script.

  • Opensource shines in small markets (Score:5, Insightful)

    by o1d5ch001 ( 648087 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:30AM (#11032853) Journal

    Opensource shines in small under-served markets. Its allows small communities and organizations to bring effective computing power to everyone, not just the rich first world. I have been using Openoffice for over a year and it is a 95% replacement for Microsoft Word.

    Well done Openoffice team!!

  • Jambo! (Score:5, Informative)

    by CptSkydrop ( 577286 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:30AM (#11032854) Homepage
    Jambo is swahili for hello (AFAIK).
    • Nime farahi sana kukutana na we-we.

      • Re:Jambo! (Score:5, Funny)

        by Sponge Bath ( 413667 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:44AM (#11033031)
        Nime farahi sana kukutana na we-we.

        My mother is a hamster?

    • O Sifuni Mungu! [amazon.com]

      I think it's in Swahili. It's kinda scary to not be sure of the language that something's in, but to know the words and what they mean....

  • This is... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Nosf3ratu ( 702029 )
    where Open Source really shines. You have some interested part[y|ies] that have a desire to translate software package(s) to a desired lanuage(s), and with some helpful cooperation, it can be accomplished. Whereas in a commercial environment, such a decision to translate the closed source software is overlooked because the percentage of users is too small to justify the cost of paying translators and developers.
  • Maybe because it would cost Microsoft more money to translate it than they would get back from selling it?

    When openoffice is used more than MS office, we'll have a story. This is cool, but minor, news :)

    • I don't think it is minor news that one of the world's most important languages is now finally available in a professional office suit. Personally, I think this is an important step for making computers a more useful tool for people on this planet, and should not be measured in possible short-term profit. Isn't it Bill Gates that like to talk about bridging the digital divide?
  • Now that it supports Swahili, OOo is ready for prime-time!

  • Think for a second (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ctrl+Alt+De1337 ( 837964 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:36AM (#11032928) Homepage
    How is this a bad thing or a waste or time? It's one more developing place of the world that has a chace to use good, quality software. It's not like this venture is a going to make them charge you more for the OpenOffice.org suite, now is it?

  • Great... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ckwop ( 707653 ) * on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:39AM (#11032963) Homepage
    Now only Kilingon and Yiddish remain..

    Simon.

    • Re:Great... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by StrawberryFrog ( 67065 )
      Swahili [wikipedia.org] is a regional trade language (a lingua franca [wikipedia.org]), spoken as a first or second language by around 100 million people. It's the most important language in east Africa.

      I don't think you can say anything like that for Klingon. But if you're looking for obscure languages, hey, there are around 100 languages spoken in Nigeria alone.
      • But if you're looking for obscure languages, hey, there are around 100 languages spoken in Nigeria alone.


        And do they all have their own way of asking you to help export funds that no longer have owners? :-P

        Oh, sorry, culturally insensitive of me probably.

    • Now only Kilingon and Yiddish remain..

      Er, Swahilli is quite a significant language. It's the common second language for quite a slice of East Africa. 10s of millions of speakers IIRC.

      Since much of that area is relatively poor, it has much less attraction commercially than the number of spekers would normally create, so it's a perfect target for a development project.

    • I know that was meant to be funny, but I often wondered about how difficult it would be to modify a distrobution so that the word processor, email client, web browser, and mp3 player would all be in my native [yale.edu] Tribal [okstate.edu] Language [muscogeenation-nsn.gov].

      This would serve a dual purpose:

      1. A little Language immersion and preservation

      2. A somewhat-encrypted desktop. ;)
      • Since you weren't mentioning specific packages, I'll answer in a generic sense:- I'd say it's easy in technical terms, that is, there wouldnt be too much of an effort as far as coding goes (zilch). The difficulty here is that you're not just translating words, but an entire sub-culture's lingo; 'save' in 'normal' English is different from 'save' in computer-ified English. In essence, you will have to port the entire sub-culture to your language. This, in most cases, would need a community effort because ide
    • Actually, if you do Hebrew, I think that you'd almost get Yiddish as a freebie.

      Yiddish uses the Hebrew letters - and I don't know of any distinction in their use that would make for a difference in typing Hebrew vs. Yiddish. On the other hand, the grammar rules and dictionary would be different.

      • Yiddish is actually a Germanic language. I know German, and I've found myself understanding some bits Yiddish the few times I've heard it. From what I hear, it's mostly Germanic with a good portion of Hebrew thrown in.

        Wikipedia has an interesting article [wikipedia.org] on Yiddish.

      • Re:Great... (Score:3, Informative)

        by trb ( 8509 )
        Actually, if you do Hebrew, I think that you'd almost get Yiddish as a freebie.

        Well, sort of. You can write Yiddish given Hebrew the same way that you can write French given English. There are minor differences that might not hinder understanding, but they change style.

        There are some two-letter ligatures that are treated in Yiddish as single characters, see for example this virtual Yiddish Keyboard [ibiblio.org]. Note the line above the "feh" glyph, and the patach-yod-yod, which are distinctly Yiddish.

        For info

    • And Elvish. We can't forget Sindarin [www.uib.no].
  • Who needs Swahili? I'm waiting for them to release the Khoisan language pack for Openoffice.

    Click..Click---click..click^%#$%click=!~@$CLICK

  • Seriously, well done : ) (Score:3, Funny)

    by CGP314 ( 672613 ) <CGP@NOSpAM.ColinGregoryPalmer.net> on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:41AM (#11032990) Homepage
    Yawn. I'll be impressed when it's available in esperanto.


    -Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]
  • In Korea only old people speak Swahili...

  • Useful for NGO's (Score:2, Insightful)

    by niconorsk ( 787297 )
    I think some NGO's would find this very interesting as it would make it easier to use local staff and train them in computer use. Also, you can't ignore that, allthough having software in English is probably not a significant barrier for most African computer users, being able to use it in your native tongue will definitely make you more inclined to use that particular software.

  • Be informed please (Score:4, Informative)

    by bogaboga ( 793279 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:43AM (#11033011)
    Be informed that though Swahili is widely used in that part of the continent, it is not as widely used in Uganda save for the north (where there is very little commerce), and the army. For Uganda's case, Luganda, a Bantu language is more dominant. This language is used where trade, politics and commerce matter. In fact, every politician tries to learn Luganda in order to be relevant, and not Swahili.

    The Baganda (a tribe) whose native language is Luganda and from who the country name Uganda was coined, are very proud people. To this end there is a Mozilla project that was completed in Luganda. http://www.mail-archive.com/lug@linux.or.ug/msg015 66.html [mail-archive.com]

    I wish them success, but doubt there will be any impact in that country called Uganda.

  • So, they localized software, a feat that would not be possible using closed-source software, but is very common in Linux and a lot of other *nixes.

    where's the news?

  • Just at the right time... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by wnknisely ( 51017 ) <wnknisely@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:43AM (#11033018) Homepage Journal
    This is a big deal - and is part of the reason that I'm starting to commit to really learning to use the Linux desktop environments.

    I'm involved with a number of groups that are doing relief work in Africa. The problem that we're particularly involved with is the growing population of orphan children being created by the devastation of the AIDS virus. There is an immense amount of basic education that needs to happen so that these children will be able to begin rebuilding the society they are going to inherit.

    Part of that education needs to be computer based - and involves simply skills like typing, using the mouse, writing reports, etc. Having a version of an office suite that is going to be available in the children's native tongue removes one significant obstacle from this process.

    A group of us are in the process now of getting ready to travel to southern Africa to do a needs assessment. We need to find out what sorts of tech might work and how to get it set up and running. Linux is a pretty obvious answer - since we can install it on older hardware, and one reasonably beefy computer can serve a number of thin clients in a classroom.

    Yay for group that is doing this particular localization.
    • In case you're not already familiar with this -- the South African free software translation project [translate.org.za]. They do a number of translations (KDE, OpenOffice) to languages that will be much more applicable to where you're going.

      There's a lot already in place in South Africa, so make sure you're not reinventing the wheel. But congratulations to you all for taking on this project! Have a great trip!

    • Foreign aid packages to developing countries is often far far less helpful than the dollar value would suggest.
      • They often come with political agendas tying the country to destructive policies.
      • They are often in the form of "low interest loans", ostensibly to provide additional leverage. Unfortunately the real effect is the loan terms are in first world currencies, so when the destructive policies destruct and the developing countries economy collapses, the loan repayments are an impossible burden.
      • The
  • How many people who are able and prefer to use Swahili actually going to use a computer to do it or is this yet another vanity computer project like Google in Klingon? Why is it progress to do something to insure that more people are isolated from one another?
    • "Why is it progress to do something to insure that more people are isolated from one another?" Is being able to localize software so that those who don't speak english can have a lower barrier to scale in order to acquaint themselves with technology a process of isolation? Or are you so blinded by the dominance of the english language to imagine that other languages (in this case spoken by at least 40 million people) don't matter or are not necessary due to the superior nature of english. What you don't re
      • That's wonderful. I lived in the Ivory Coast and there are 700 different dialects of languages spoken. I imagine that reinforcing that is not only a good use of scarce resources but time well spent as well.

        The languages of technology are English, Chinese, Japanese, French. And everything else is a distant last place.
    • Well, I realize that you have experienced Klingon being spoken on TV, but the truth is that there really isn't anyone speaking Klingon in the real world. That is called fiction, and you see a lot of it on TV.

      Swahili, on the other hand, is an actual language, spoken by actual people. Just not people on your TV. That may be what is confusing you.

      Not even sure where to start on your second question...........

  • Open source software very important in Africa... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:45AM (#11033041)
    In a move IBM offices are hailing as a major step in the company's ongoing worldwide telecommunications revolution, M'wana Ndeti, a member of Zaire's Bantu tribe, used an IBM notebook computer yesterday to crush a nut.

    Ndeti, who spent 20 minutes trying to open the nut by hand, easily cracked it open by smashing it repeatedly with the powerful computer.

    "I could not crush the nut by myself," said the 47-year-old Ndeti, who added the savory nut to a thick, peanut-based soup minutes later. "With IBM's help, I was able to break it." Ndeti discovered the nut-breaking, ThinkPad R51 yesterday, when IBM was shooting a commercial in his southwestern Zaire village. During a break in shooting, which shows African villagers eagerly teleconferencing via computer with Japanese schoolchildren, Ndeti snuck onto the set and took the notebook computer, which he believed would serve well as a "smashing" utensil.

    IBM officials were not surprised the longtime computer giant was able to provide Ndeti with practical solutions to his everyday problems. "Our consulting services offer people all over the world solutions that fit their specific needs," said Herbert Ross, IBM's director of marketing. "Whether you're a nun cloistered in an Italian abbey or an Aborigine in Australia's Great Sandy Desert, IBM has the ideas to get you where you want to go today."

    According to Ndeti, of the Thinkpad's many powerful features, most impressive was its hard plastic casing, which easily sustained several minutes of vigorous pounding against a large stone. "I put the nut on a rock, and I hit it with the computer," Ndeti said. "The computer did not break. It is a good computer."

    Ndeti was so impressed with the ThinkPad that he purchased a new, state-of-the-art IBM OpenPower (TM) Linux server, complete with a 1.5 GHz POWER5 (TM) microprocessor, an internal DVD-ROM drive and two 10/100/1000 ethernet adapters. The tribesman has already made good use of the computer system, fashioning a gazelle trap out of its wires, a boat anchor out of the monitor and a crude but effective weapon from its mouse.

    "This is a good computer," said Ndeti, carving up a just-captured gazelle with the computer's flat, sharp internal processing device. "I am using every part of it. I will cook this gazelle on the keyboard." Hours later, Ndeti capped off his delicious gazelle dinner by smoking the computer's 200-page owner's manual.

    IBM spokespeople praised Ndeti's choice of computers. "We are pleased that the Bantu people are turning to IBM for their business needs," said company CEO William Allaire. "From Kansas City to Kinshasa, IBM is bringing the world closer together. Our cutting-edge technology is truly creating a global village."
  • is it done as a one-off project? each word in language A is converted to language B is translated-- and then recompiled

    or is a database created- with pointers to a 'use this word' list, so that the 3rd and further languages can be added by merely updating the list of available translations?



    the second, while far more work, makes additional translations something any native speaker of english+desired language can assemble

  • Microsoft's Achilles Heel (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RealProgrammer ( 723725 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:51AM (#11033096) Homepage Journal

    Microsoft has gotten into trouble internationally with cultural problems [bytelevel.com]. Free software has a natural immunity from that.

    Because FOSS developers rely on the people closest to the problem to solve the problem, such cultural difficulties are minimized. It's a built-in advantage: rather than translating the program for a language, people who live in a different culture will, without thinking about it, translate the program into that culture.

    As this story shows, markets for which commercial software companies can't find an adequate profit potential are ripe for introduction of FOSS. All you need is one user, one willing programmer, and one native translator - and in fact, those can all be the same person.

  • Uhm... folks? (Score:5, Informative)

    by greenman42 ( 838542 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:52AM (#11033109) Homepage
    Why the joking about the Swahili translation? Yes, it seens to be a small market. But please remember that Swahili is something like the 7th most commonly spoken language in the world. It's a well-known trade language in East- and Central Africa, and in a hugely polyglot culture, the trade languages are very important. Swahili is an official language in Kenya, and Tanzania, and probably in Rwanda and Uganda as well. Think about this: it could be that the proliferation of high-tech tools in underdeveloped areas is hindered by the lack of working software in local languages. Would you like to learn Swahili just to read the help files in Gnumeric? This is a big deal - most especially because it was done by Swahili speaking techs at a Swahili speaking school (Okay, so Tanzanian colleges teach in English mostly - all the students speak Kiswahili.) The fact that a local community took sofware and adapted it to their needs is the very essence of open source. Nafurahi Chuoo Kikuu Cha Dar Es Salaam cha kufasiri OO.O! (I love the University of Dar for translating Open Office.)

  • Christ, liberals are going to go apeshit (Score:3, Funny)

    by Nine Tenths of The W ( 829559 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2004 @11:53AM (#11033122)
    Expect long lectures about how Western intellectual imperialism is destroying the nascent African software development industry

  • OS X (Score:2)

    by Nexum ( 516661 )
    The one thing I think needs much much more attention is the OS X (Cocoa/native interface) port for OOo2.

    It is apparently in a dire state at the moment (Ooo Mac Homepage [openoffice.org]), I have some Cocoa experience but am only a student so I lack enough experience to help at the moment, but I find it very depressing to hear again and again how the native Mac port is slowing down, or is *way* behind the X11 port.

    If anyone wants to help, I know they need you.

  • Ok, so they translated OpenOffice to Swahili, but now can anyone use it? I'm sure the English word "File" in Swahili is, indeed, "Faili" (see the picture in the article), but will any Swahili speakers understand what that means?

    I'm not trying to rag on Swahili speakers here - the problem exists in every country. Many Germans find it difficult to talk about computers because the technical language developed around it is so strange ("Datei" is the translation they've chosen for "File"). Even in the US, w

    • Ok, so they translated OpenOffice to Swahili, but now can anyone use it? I'm sure the English word "File" in Swahili is, indeed, "Faili" (see the picture in the article), but will any Swahili speakers understand what that means?

      It's possible that it's a Swahili technical neologism based on the English word, either during colonial times or after. After all I imagine that many Swahili speakers have been creating and managing files for quite a while now, and they did need a word for them even if the languag
  • The entity conspicuously absent in the press release is the OpenOffice.org team. The real news is that a Swahili translation of the software was created without taking any resources away from the development of the project. This was a separate effort, done by a group of consultants and academics and funded by an organization that funds this sort of thing. OpenOffice.org software development couldn't have gotten that funding, nor would the people who worked on this been particularly useful working on the pro
  • The reason that Microsoft hasn't ventured into a similar pursuit is that it probably wouldn't be a major boon to its arsenal and wouldn't be a prime strategic maneuver. No matter what you say about Microsoft's corporate ethics and insecure programming model they are shrewd businesspeople.
  • What wonderful news! Let me just say to the developers that made this happen:

    Click click pop click click pop click pop click click pop click pop click click pop pop click pop pop pop click pop click click pop pop click pop pop click pop click click pop pop click pop pop click click pop click pop click click pop click pop click click pop pop click pop pop pop click click pop click pop click pop click click pop pop click pop click click pop pop click pop pop click pop

    Pop pop click!!!
  • ... that onetz. >_> ^.^
  • The BBC was reporting in June that Microsoft was expanding it's localization program to include Kiswahili,100 million speakers, Hausa and Yoruba in West Africa, Amharic and Somali in the Horn of Africa. Microsoft to launch in Kiswahili [bbc.co.uk], Microsoft's Kiswahili Edition: An Advance for African Language [blogs.com], Programming Africans' linguistic needs [iht.com]
  • I learned this years ago while waiting tables:
    "Habba ka habba hu jabba kibaba."
    Which translates to:
    "Little by little we fill the kibaba measure,"
    or the cultural equivalent to "one rung at a time" or "baby steps" (if you're a fan of What About Bob).
    Seems fitting, as this is how all OSS will eventually "win;" one box at a time.
    (I can't believe I actually got to use Swahili in context:)
  • Microsoft has to pay big bucks for translations and go through all sorts of QA whereas free software can find universities to do it for them.

    That's a big advantage IMHO.
  • penofficeoay asway ranslatedtay ntoiay igpay atinlay odaytay. ..

    Inallyfay..
  • Joyous day! Finally I can get rid of Word! Isn't zwahili the language we all have been waiting on?

    On a more serious note... Good job, any new language is welcome, more potential users!

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