Translation of technical terms was the topic for the first community consultant meeting organized by the Language Diversity Hub. This is a service the LDH intends to offer for communities that are experiencing challenges related to being new in the Wikiverse. The idea was born out of something that was shared with me by Amir Aharoni, a member of both the WMF Language Team and the Language Committee. I think we were discussing how he could help even more communities with their challenges, and he said something along the lines of “in order to scale this work, I have to be cloned.” For years, these words have been coming back to me, because I believe it is true for many skills and competences in the movement, certain things are just too complex for many people to learn, and we end up relying on a (too) small group of key persons to solve the same or similar problems again and again.
With the community consultations we attempt a bleak version of cloning: we record the sessions, document what has been discussed, and then look for ways to disseminate the knowledge. Through this we hope to achieve two things: the first is that we get a panel of expert mentors together, with a mix of skills that complement eachother. This can be more efficient for the community, but we also believe it is rewarding for the experts. After all, most Wikimedians enjoy spending time and learning from each other. So we hope that these calls are enjoyable and useful both for the community and for the mentors.
The second benefit is that the LDH takes responsibility for organizing and documenting the meeting. This means that we take the job of finding times and coordinating between all participants, as well as recording the meeting, taking notes and finding ways to disseminate the knowledge. The interest of the LDH is to curate the shared knowledge in a way that it can be of use for many more people. Maybe cloning our mentors would be more efficient, but at least this approach is both doable and ethical.
The very first community consultation was with the Dagbani community, a creative and ambitious community. Did you know they have been creating a TV-show to teach people about Wikipedia? It is called Saha Wikipedia and have 30 minutes segments aired in primetime on Saturday afternoons on a local TV-channel.
However, currently the Dagbani community is in the process of implementing Wikifunctions on their Wikipedia. This is a complex technical process, but it also provides linguistic challenges when it comes to translating the technical terms. The advice provided by the mentors Amir, Jon Harald and Kimberli all came back to the importance of understanding what the terms really means, what is the word’s, or the function that the word describes, role on the site? Only when you can fully understand the function of the term, will you be able to connect it with possible existing terms, or create a good term for the future.
Translating MediaWiki is something all new language communities have to go through and here are some general advice provided by the mentors:
- You need to fully understand the word you are translating.
This means you have to understand the function that the word describes in all the different settings it is being used. Sometimes this means you have to dive deep into why the word was used in English the first place. For example, think about the term “edit source”. When the visual editor was added, there were many editors that preferred to stay with wikitext, so the meaning of “edit source” is to edit in wikitext instead of editing with the visual editor. The Dagbani community shared that their translation of “Edit source” was more a direct translation of the word “source”.
The advice from Amir is to discuss the meaning of the words in the community language, to build a solid understanding of it and maybe then the words will appear in the discussions. In several Sámi languages they use an adapted version of the word “wikitext” instead of “source” for that particular translation.
- Think of the users when you create a translation.
Will this word make sense for a grandmother? A teenager? A person with little technical skills? The better words you are able to coin, the easier it will be for new users to learn and get comfortable on the platform.
- Look for similar words in your culture.
While the technology is new to the culture, there might be terms that covered similar functions in the real world that can be reused. One of my favorite examples is again from the Sámi translations, where they are using the word for “earmark” of the reindeers to translate the english word “tag”.
- Transliteration is OK!
It is OK to use loanwords from English, and adapt them to your language. Sometimes that is the best option, and it certainly does not ruin a language. The most important point of translating is that the users or readers can understand and navigate their way around the platform.
To dive more into this topic i recommend reading Amir’s excellent blog post on this topic. you can also watch the recorded call on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QOPSHGm0tW8
Mistakes will be made, all the mentors shared experiences of translating words that they later did not fully understand themselves. The good news it that the translations are not set in stone! just like all the other Wikimedia-projects this is work that continues to grow and improve through the continuous dedication of us all.
Would you like a community consultation?
It does not need to be about translations, but can be anything you and your community would like to have some mentorship. Request a meeting here, and we will follow up.
Would you like to mentor someone? You can E-mail us at: wikimedialanguagediversityhub@gmail.com
Feel free to sign up to the Language Diversity Hub mailinglist too.
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