Computers are learning Maltese fast
Last Monday closed a public call for the provision of translation services to complete the localisation of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system and the latest generation of the Microsoft Office software suite."The Maltese packages are expected...
Last Monday closed a public call for the provision of translation services to complete the localisation of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system and the latest generation of the Microsoft Office software suite.
"The Maltese packages are expected to be available by the end of this year," reassured a spokesman from the Ministry of Industry, Investment and IT (MIIIT). Windows Vista and Office 2007 were launched world-wide earlier this year and the promise made last year that Vista will be available in a Maltese version and Office 2007 will contain a Maltese spell-checker is still fresh in users' minds.
The first taste of the Maltese language used in an operating system was given last year when Windows XP bil-Malti was launched in April last year.
Since then, efforts to make the use of the Maltese language in ICT-dependent environments, an easier task have continued and are coming to fruition.
The ministry spokesman explained that MIIIT has completed two important stages required for the development of Maltese versions of Microsoft software. The first stage, completed a few months ago, was the development of a glossary of ICT terms that was developed by a team of translators and linguists at Fenlex Linguistic Services Ltd.
The glossary was developed on a framework of models of equivalent glossaries in English, French, Italian and Arabic. The glossary defines standard translations for terms that are repeated in various Microsoft packages especially its operating systems and its Office packages. The glossary ensures consistency in the translation and is inputted in specialised software that will supervise the translations of various elements of these packages to ensure that the same term is translated in the same manner by different translators.
The second major stage was the delivery, a couple of months ago, of a style guide for Microsoft packages which essentially develops guidelines for translators on proper use of the language. Apart from governing matters of style, such as how should the Maltese translation of "your computer is not working" should be communicated to the user without sounding too abrasive, the style guide also develops regional guidelines for the software packages themselves.
These include standard abbreviations of days of the week or calendar months, for example, for software that use calendars. It also covers issues such as Maltese equivalents of arithmetical symbols (and the words for them), punctuation marks, etc.
The ministry has also completed the third and final stage of preparation for the "localisation" of the Vista generation of software where a team of language experts developed a "policheck" of objectionable terms a computer should not use. This information will be fed into another specialised software packages that will recognise Maltese rude or offensive words as correctly spelt but still not include them in the vocabulary of Microsoft packages. This has been handed over to Microsoft.
Initiatives that promote the use of the Maltese language in the ICT field are also forthcoming from private individuals who would like to see a wider and better use of the national language on computers.
The website www.maltadictionary.com is the brainchild of Ian Vella and provides a simple translation service from English into Maltese.
"This project started years ago when I started a translation course, and I created a simple spreadsheet for difficult words in English along with their translation in Maltese. The file kept growing until last year I decided to publish the results as a website," explained Mr Vella who has a tertiary education background and runs the service single-handed. The Maltese language authorities have not yet endorsed the service.
"The feedback received was tremendous, in fact the dictionary doubled the amount of words since then. Most users are very happy about the dictionary and try to give a helping hand by pointing out words that they could not find on the dictionary." When asked whether the Maltese language has a good presence online, he gave a negative reply.
"However, the presence of the Maltese language in the last two or three years is increasing exponentially on the web."
The complexity of using the Maltese language on computers is illustrated by the fact that this English-Maltese dictionary does not support Maltese characters like "?" and "?". So, the translation for "carry" is returned as "garr" (to grumble) rather than "?arr".
Dr Ray Fabri, a lecturer in linguistics at the University of Malta and the head of the technical committee for Maltese in ICT in the National Council for the Maltese Language, thus gives a mixed assessment of this online dictionary.
"First of all, of course, it is always a good thing to have people enriching the net with Maltese language resources, and this should be encouraged, as long as it is done well. The first thing I would criticise in Ian's dictionary is the fact that he does not use Maltese characters for c, g, and h. That is something I find very irritating. One of the things that my committee, and, indeed, the Kunsill, has been trying to do is to persuade people to use the Maltese fonts.
"So, I, personally, would not have launched a system that still contains so many, sometimes rather serious, deficiencies." Technology itself also comes to the rescue of those whose job depends on the correct use of the Maltese and English languages for translation purposes.
It has just been announced that a new glossary of Maltese terminology has been created and this will assist students in the Centre for Terminology at the University of Malta that is due for launch soon. The same glossary will be used by translators in Luxembourg and Brussels and the National Council for the Maltese Language. Funds were obtained through the Transition Facility Schemes of the European Commission. The final product covers 24,000 terms based on the structure of the InterActive Terminology for Europe (IATE) database of the EU. These are available on Trados Multiterm, a Computer Aided-Translation Software which makes the search for terms very easy and efficient.
"The Maltese packages are expected to be available by the end of this year," reassured a spokesman from the Ministry of Industry, Investment and IT (MIIIT). Windows Vista and Office 2007 were launched world-wide earlier this year and the promise made last year that Vista will be available in a Maltese version and Office 2007 will contain a Maltese spell-checker is still fresh in users' minds.
The first taste of the Maltese language used in an operating system was given last year when Windows XP bil-Malti was launched in April last year.
Since then, efforts to make the use of the Maltese language in ICT-dependent environments, an easier task have continued and are coming to fruition.
The ministry spokesman explained that MIIIT has completed two important stages required for the development of Maltese versions of Microsoft software. The first stage, completed a few months ago, was the development of a glossary of ICT terms that was developed by a team of translators and linguists at Fenlex Linguistic Services Ltd.
The glossary was developed on a framework of models of equivalent glossaries in English, French, Italian and Arabic. The glossary defines standard translations for terms that are repeated in various Microsoft packages especially its operating systems and its Office packages. The glossary ensures consistency in the translation and is inputted in specialised software that will supervise the translations of various elements of these packages to ensure that the same term is translated in the same manner by different translators.
The second major stage was the delivery, a couple of months ago, of a style guide for Microsoft packages which essentially develops guidelines for translators on proper use of the language. Apart from governing matters of style, such as how should the Maltese translation of "your computer is not working" should be communicated to the user without sounding too abrasive, the style guide also develops regional guidelines for the software packages themselves.
These include standard abbreviations of days of the week or calendar months, for example, for software that use calendars. It also covers issues such as Maltese equivalents of arithmetical symbols (and the words for them), punctuation marks, etc.
The ministry has also completed the third and final stage of preparation for the "localisation" of the Vista generation of software where a team of language experts developed a "policheck" of objectionable terms a computer should not use. This information will be fed into another specialised software packages that will recognise Maltese rude or offensive words as correctly spelt but still not include them in the vocabulary of Microsoft packages. This has been handed over to Microsoft.
Initiatives that promote the use of the Maltese language in the ICT field are also forthcoming from private individuals who would like to see a wider and better use of the national language on computers.
The website www.maltadictionary.com is the brainchild of Ian Vella and provides a simple translation service from English into Maltese.
"This project started years ago when I started a translation course, and I created a simple spreadsheet for difficult words in English along with their translation in Maltese. The file kept growing until last year I decided to publish the results as a website," explained Mr Vella who has a tertiary education background and runs the service single-handed. The Maltese language authorities have not yet endorsed the service.
"The feedback received was tremendous, in fact the dictionary doubled the amount of words since then. Most users are very happy about the dictionary and try to give a helping hand by pointing out words that they could not find on the dictionary." When asked whether the Maltese language has a good presence online, he gave a negative reply.
"However, the presence of the Maltese language in the last two or three years is increasing exponentially on the web."
The complexity of using the Maltese language on computers is illustrated by the fact that this English-Maltese dictionary does not support Maltese characters like "?" and "?". So, the translation for "carry" is returned as "garr" (to grumble) rather than "?arr".
Dr Ray Fabri, a lecturer in linguistics at the University of Malta and the head of the technical committee for Maltese in ICT in the National Council for the Maltese Language, thus gives a mixed assessment of this online dictionary.
"First of all, of course, it is always a good thing to have people enriching the net with Maltese language resources, and this should be encouraged, as long as it is done well. The first thing I would criticise in Ian's dictionary is the fact that he does not use Maltese characters for c, g, and h. That is something I find very irritating. One of the things that my committee, and, indeed, the Kunsill, has been trying to do is to persuade people to use the Maltese fonts.
"So, I, personally, would not have launched a system that still contains so many, sometimes rather serious, deficiencies." Technology itself also comes to the rescue of those whose job depends on the correct use of the Maltese and English languages for translation purposes.
It has just been announced that a new glossary of Maltese terminology has been created and this will assist students in the Centre for Terminology at the University of Malta that is due for launch soon. The same glossary will be used by translators in Luxembourg and Brussels and the National Council for the Maltese Language. Funds were obtained through the Transition Facility Schemes of the European Commission. The final product covers 24,000 terms based on the structure of the InterActive Terminology for Europe (IATE) database of the EU. These are available on Trados Multiterm, a Computer Aided-Translation Software which makes the search for terms very easy and efficient.