Microsoft expands local language programs
Microsoft has launched a program to allow speakers of rare language to help customize its products into local dialect. The company is billing it as a way to save dying languages.
The firm is taking three separate steps to assist speakers of the languages. The first is add an extra 59 Language Interface Packs for Windows 7 and Office 2010. Rather than having a separate edition for each language (as is done for almost 40 of the most common languages), the packs are add-ons which automatically translate around 400,000 terms from the menus and help screens into the local language. There are also four new language packs for Visual Studio 2010.
Microsoft says that with these updates to the scheme, it now provides language packs for languages spoken by a total of more than a billion people.
The second change is the introduction of Caption Language Interface Packs. These allow the software to appear in its base language by default, but to reveal the local language in the form of a tool tip. For example, software could be released in an English edition with Inuktitut (spoken in some Canadian areas such as Nunavut) displayed in tool tip form. The idea is that this will make it easier for users to work out the intended meaning where a translation into a local dialect isn’t as smooth or accurate as might be desired.
The final change is for Microsoft to share more of the database it uses of local terminology. The aim there is to get more involvement from local dialect speaker to make the translations as accurate as possible.
The scheme is announced to tie in with the UNESCO International Mother Language Day. Microsoft notes that though around 7,000 languages are spoken worldwide, on average 26 languages die out completely each year.
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April 8th, 2010
i am a programmer here in Eritrea and i want to help my people tigrina speaker to have a system on our local language what can u help me .