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Locale to Rhatid!
Dec. 30th, 2013 05:23 pmTo move further along with my translation project for Debian. I have to provide a locale file. This is something i have never heard of before. According to Wikipedia.
"In computing, a locale is a set of parameters that defines the user's language, country and any special variant preferences that the user wants to see in their user interface. Usually a locale identifier consists of at least a language identifier and a region identifier."
Given an example to look at these are some of the definitions that a locale file requires.
category "en_US:2000";LC_IDENTIFICATION
category "en_US:2000";LC_CTYPE
category "en_US:2000";LC_COLLATE
category "en_US:2000";LC_TIME
category "en_US:2000";LC_NUMERIC
category "en_US:2000";LC_MONETARY
category "en_US:2000";LC_MESSAGES
category "en_US:2000";LC_PAPER
category "en_US:2000";LC_NAME
category "en_US:2000";LC_ADDRESS
category "en_US:2000";LC_TELEPHONE
In patois or Jamaican English Non of these things have been discussed as things that define our language. All the conversation previous has been about how words are spelt. Sure there are things that define Jamaica, but these are borrowed from either American or British Societies.
I shared with a friend the difficulty i was having at this point. I told him the stage i was at with the translation and the idea of the locale. He was so interested because he too realized that while we were advocates for our own language that perhaps the linguists in our country had led us a stray by not wanting to more fuller and broadly look at the culture of our language.
Could we think about paper size in patois or Jamaican English? where would that come from? what explorations would lead us to a patois specification for paper size. I use Patois and Jamaican English interchangeably but i am really interested in the "native tongue spoken in Jamaica, the language that you naturally speak without being taught".
Something as simple as time. How is that written in Patois? or Jamaica English?
How much more exploration do we need to do to give our language life?
Jamaican English
di next assignment weh mi hav fi dun innah di debian project is fi finish something name one locale file. mi never hear bout locale file so naturally mi haffi go look fi it innah google. As cording to Wikipedia Locale file gi u some information weh u a go need people understand ur language when it show up innah the software. a like di thing dem weh mek ur langauge different from oda people language.
bu mi fine miself innah problem cause dem a ask mi fi things like paper size, time, date and currency, and address. mi really a wonda a weh dem thing deh innah a fi wi langauge. Mi know seh you have dem thing deh fi Jamaica yes but dem ting deh come from Britain and America. like how write di data a British style we use and mi find out seh paper size a american standard we a use. di ting really just a puzzle mi cause mi nuh undastand how all di talk weh we a talk dem ting yah never innah di conversation pon language. so mi a reason wid mi fren Zanj bout it and him a seh a serious ting fi true and it is a very interesting ting weh a gwaan. is like mi a ask mi self den how we tink bout time innah patois? how we measure money? mi nuh waan ask America and Britian how dem do it mi waan we fi figure out how we waan do it. An u know di ting bout it mi a go haffi do some serious work pon dah ting yah, cause mi feel seh we ago haffi understand some tings bout Africa an african thinking bout time an space an life. mi really waan go deep innah it.
"In computing, a locale is a set of parameters that defines the user's language, country and any special variant preferences that the user wants to see in their user interface. Usually a locale identifier consists of at least a language identifier and a region identifier."
Given an example to look at these are some of the definitions that a locale file requires.
category "en_US:2000";LC_IDENTIFICATION
category "en_US:2000";LC_CTYPE
category "en_US:2000";LC_COLLATE
category "en_US:2000";LC_TIME
category "en_US:2000";LC_NUMERIC
category "en_US:2000";LC_MONETARY
category "en_US:2000";LC_MESSAGES
category "en_US:2000";LC_PAPER
category "en_US:2000";LC_NAME
category "en_US:2000";LC_ADDRESS
category "en_US:2000";LC_TELEPHONE
In patois or Jamaican English Non of these things have been discussed as things that define our language. All the conversation previous has been about how words are spelt. Sure there are things that define Jamaica, but these are borrowed from either American or British Societies.
I shared with a friend the difficulty i was having at this point. I told him the stage i was at with the translation and the idea of the locale. He was so interested because he too realized that while we were advocates for our own language that perhaps the linguists in our country had led us a stray by not wanting to more fuller and broadly look at the culture of our language.
Could we think about paper size in patois or Jamaican English? where would that come from? what explorations would lead us to a patois specification for paper size. I use Patois and Jamaican English interchangeably but i am really interested in the "native tongue spoken in Jamaica, the language that you naturally speak without being taught".
Something as simple as time. How is that written in Patois? or Jamaica English?
How much more exploration do we need to do to give our language life?
Jamaican English
di next assignment weh mi hav fi dun innah di debian project is fi finish something name one locale file. mi never hear bout locale file so naturally mi haffi go look fi it innah google. As cording to Wikipedia Locale file gi u some information weh u a go need people understand ur language when it show up innah the software. a like di thing dem weh mek ur langauge different from oda people language.
bu mi fine miself innah problem cause dem a ask mi fi things like paper size, time, date and currency, and address. mi really a wonda a weh dem thing deh innah a fi wi langauge. Mi know seh you have dem thing deh fi Jamaica yes but dem ting deh come from Britain and America. like how write di data a British style we use and mi find out seh paper size a american standard we a use. di ting really just a puzzle mi cause mi nuh undastand how all di talk weh we a talk dem ting yah never innah di conversation pon language. so mi a reason wid mi fren Zanj bout it and him a seh a serious ting fi true and it is a very interesting ting weh a gwaan. is like mi a ask mi self den how we tink bout time innah patois? how we measure money? mi nuh waan ask America and Britian how dem do it mi waan we fi figure out how we waan do it. An u know di ting bout it mi a go haffi do some serious work pon dah ting yah, cause mi feel seh we ago haffi understand some tings bout Africa an african thinking bout time an space an life. mi really waan go deep innah it.
