Re: Debian needs Welsh and Irish l10n help

On Thu, 2006-11-16 at 12:56 +0000, Kevin Donnelly wrote:
> On Thursday 16 November 2006 11:44, MJ Ray wrote:
> > I just noticed that the Welsh and Irish languages have been deactivated
> > from the debian-installer.
> 
> I can't speak for Irish, but for Welsh I'm surprised, since Dafydd Harries 
> (the main GNOME translator) is (or was) a Debian user.  Does Gareth have any 
> light to shed on this?

Not really, no :) I know Daf changed jobs a while ago, but other than
that, I don't know. I've CC'ed Daf in, so maybe he can shed some
light...

> > I don't know whether these can be rescued in time for the next release
> > and given how infrequent releases seem to be these days, that's sad.
> > Debian is the ancestor of a number of others, including gNewSense
> > through Ubuntu, and Cymrux through Knoppix, so I hope that improving
> > debian localisation will help those too.
> 
> Indeed.  Having said that, though, Welsh KDE has been stalled for the last 18 
> months while I work on developing a GPLed dictionary (Eurfa), spelling 
> checker and grammar checker (to be released shortly).  GPL tools were not 
> available, and the translations needed checking.  So it may be that Dafydd 
> (if he was ever involved!) has had other competing demands on *his* time.  

Cheers,

Gareth

Re: Debian needs Welsh and Irish l10n help

On Thu, 2006-11-16 at 13:44 +0000, Jon Grant wrote:

> Without wanting to cause a stir with any cultural imperialism, perhaps
> there are more important things than Welsh and Irish i18n..
> 
> Welsh was almost dead before the revival in the last 10 years as I
> understand it. Many of those people taught in Welsh will be stuck with
> difficulty speaking English when they want to consider wider range of
> job options in their life. So it could be a blessing for them to have
> English as their first language, and a European or Asian language as
> second ;)

Um, are you being serious?

If so, I'll just point out that you're quite wrong in your assertions.
I'll happily fill in the details off-list, but the statements about
Welsh being almost dead or the part about having difficulty speaking
English is so absurd I don't even know where to begin!

Cheers,

Gareth

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Re: Debian needs Welsh and Irish l10n help

Jon Grant wrote:
> Without wanting to cause a stir with any cultural imperialism, perhaps
> there are more important things than Welsh and Irish i18n..
> Welsh was almost dead before the revival in the last 10 years as I
> understand it. Many of those people taught in Welsh will be stuck with
> difficulty speaking English when they want to consider wider range of
> job options in their life. So it could be a blessing for them to have
> English as their first language, and a European or Asian language as
> second ;)

Um, no.  I don't agree.  A culture is inherently connected with its
language.  We should not depreciate support for languages merely based
on considerations of financial gain or job opportunities.

I am Irish, and one of my regrets is that - as a child - I did not learn
more about the language.  I'm glad there is support for my language in
GNU/Linux and I would appreciate if it were maintained.  I do plan to
study Irish again when I have time.

Happy to discuss this off-list :)

Shane