Difficult, yes. Impossible, no. Part of the problem can be that some Wikipedias are somewhat fussy about the language you use. There are users who object to anyone using a word not approved by some authority, but cannot suggest what to do when there is no such word. Cheers, Peter
-----Original Message----- From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Amir E. Aharoni Sent: 04 March 2018 15:59 To: Wikimedia Mailing List Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Paid translation Yes, I mentioned something like this in one of my emails in this thread. Every language goes through a period of creating terminology. Some languages successfully create native words (Icelandic is a famous example), some languages are fine with taking foreign words (um, English took a lot from Latin, Greek and other languages), some are a mix (Russian). You can never say "it's *impossible* to write about science in this language"; you can, at most, say "it's *difficult* to write about science in this language *today". People who speak a language that had already overcome this problem must remember that their language didn't always have this terminology. That's one of the reasons why the resolution "just learn our language instead of investing in your own" may be practical, but isn't very fair. People who speak a language that hadn't yet overcome this must remember that it's a challenge, but not a blocker. A translator who cares about their language can overcome this with some ingenuity and resourcefulness. (Teaser: I'm about to publish a blog post soon that talks about one language that is doing it now with considerable success.) -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore 2018-03-04 15:22 GMT+02:00 Peter Southwood <peter.southw...@telkomsa.net>: > Part of the problem may be that the vocabulary is lacking. It is very > difficult to explain a concept in one language when you know the words > only in another language, and it would be considered original research > by some Wikipedias to make up words for the job. I have struggled with > translations into Afrikaans, which has a reasonably extensive > technical vocabulary, and good electronic dictionary systems,, but > many concepts familiar to me in my fields of interest just do not have > Afrikaans words (yet). > Cheers, > Peter > > -----Original Message----- > From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On > Behalf Of WereSpielChequers > Sent: 04 March 2018 11:54 > To: Wikimedia Mailing List > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Paid translation > > Pine, there is one possible way to fund such translation in the > future; The Foundation is building up an endowment. When that > endowment has grown to the point where the annual return is sufficient > to fund the Foundation, then you could re-purpose the annual > fundraiser from collecting money to host Wikipedia, to collecting > money to make Wikipedia available in other languages. > > If I'm correct in thinking that part of the problem for many of our > widely spoken languages with weak wikipedias is that the more educated > people who speak those languages are more likely to contribute edits > in what is to them a higher status or more language or one more > useful to their career, then maybe we should test using fundraiser > type advertising to ask our English readers in places like India to > translate articles from English to Indic languages. > > In some parts of the world where incomes are generally very low and > financial donations reflect that perhaps we have little to lose by > shifting now from asking for funds to asking for content donations, > especially in the language of that area. > > WereSpielChequers > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > Message: 2 > > Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2018 18:13:38 -0800 > > From: Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> > > To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> > > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Paid translation > > Message-ID: > > <CAF=dyJhxBXyhmMPvDYWA4oPGuj3mOTjQ1bP5QQKhGE3U2tDFcA@mail. > > gmail.com> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > > > On the subject of paid translation, I could imagine this being > > included in the scope of work for a "Wiki Community Foundation" or > > "Wiki Content Foundation" that would do work that WMF doesn't do > > and/or shouldn't do. I have a number of activities in mind for this > > kind > of organization. > > Unfortunately, I do not know how to fund it. I think that this > > organization should get most of its funding from non-WMF sources, > > and WMF has such strong fundraising capabilities that I think that > > competing with WMF for funding from readers and grant-making > > organizations would be very difficult. If WMF would like to have > > conversations about how the community could raise funds directly > > from readers and non-WMF foundations, I for one would be very > > interested in > having that conversation. > > > > Pine > > ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. > http://www.avg.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
