Despite the growth in the number of people in the Middle East using social media such as Twitter and Facebook there is a problem. Arabic does not have words for many technology terms, so volunteers are creating a glossary.
“The glossary will break a big barrier because many users resort to combining English terminology with the Arabic text, so we want to change that and introduce the first Arabic technology and social media glossary,” said Sami Mubarak, co-founder of Taghreedat, who emphasised that the Arabic language constitutes only two per cent of online content.
With the support of [Abu Dhabi media investment group] twofour54 ibtikar, Taghreedat is set to introduce the first Arabic Tech/Web 2.0 Dictionary and forge a standard list that can be used among Arab speakers worldwide, irrespective of their local dialect.
The project has reportedly involved about 2,500 volunteers from 28 countries. The aim is to make the glossary available as a free download.
|
May 4, 2012
Volunteers compile Arabic E-dictionary
Source: The Wall Street Journal Blog
Story flagged by:
RominaZ
| Translation news Stay informed on what is happening in the industry, by sharing and discussing translation industry news stories. |
Share an article »
ProZ.com blog »
France
Local time: 20:49
Member (2010)
English to Arabic
+ ...
The strange story is when they are creating technology terms they ask for volunteers!
Why should translators and terminologists work as volunteers?
"No Peanuts! for Translators!": @ http://nopeanuts.wordpress.com/
United States
Local time: 11:49
English to Arabic
+ ...
Interesting post.
Ref the comment: "Arabic does not have words for many technology terms,..."
May one observe that the writer of that article is poorly misinformed or did not do basic fact-checking, as the writer seems unaware of the long-time existence of the highly-reputed firm called Arabic Scientific Publishers (ASP) in Lebanon, which has been producing Arabic-language translations of Microsoft manuals, MS product user's guides, and related glossar... See more
Interesting post.
Ref the comment: "Arabic does not have words for many technology terms,..."
May one observe that the writer of that article is poorly misinformed or did not do basic fact-checking, as the writer seems unaware of the long-time existence of the highly-reputed firm called Arabic Scientific Publishers (ASP) in Lebanon, which has been producing Arabic-language translations of Microsoft manuals, MS product user's guides, and related glossaries of IT-related terminologies since the early 1990s.
The translations by ASP are so good that they have merited Microsoft's corporate approval and can display the MS logo on the covers of ASP publications.
Those publication are readily for sale at bookstores in the UAE and other GCC countries (I bought my copies at outlets in Riyadh of the Jarir bookstore chain).
------------------------------------------------
For that matter, the College of Languages & Translation (COLT) at King Saud University also develops and maintains such databases for course offerings to Saudi undergraduate students who are majoring in technical translation & interpreting.
The IT support division of UAE University at al-Ain, Abu Dhabi used to develop similar databases. The IT tech-heavy Zayed University or the emirates-wide network of Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) system may also do that. Both institutions use English and Arabic as their languages of instruction, including programs on ICT.
One might hope that the sponsor in Abu Dhabi [[a media investment group] twofour54 ibtikar] of that project in UAE engages soon with ASP or even these local UAE resources and makes some arrangements to avoid [ahem] "re-inventing the wheel" and to capitalize on extensive existing database of IT-related terms.
I share TargamatT's astonishment and disbelief -- as well as surprise at the dubious and intuitively counter-business practice -- concerning the utility or reliability of that reported use of Emirati "volunteers" to churn out such a complex and nuanced glossary. [Based in the ramifications of that article, my own response would be "yaa saatir ustur."]
Khair, in shaa' Allah.
Regards and respects,
Stephen H. Franke
San Pedro, California, USA
[Edited at 2012-05-06 00:55 GMT]
[Edited at 2012-05-06 00:57 GMT]
[Edited at 2012-05-06 23:46 GMT] ▲ Collapse
To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:
You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »
This discussion can also be accessed via the ProZ.com forum pages.