FROM DWAYNE ....
We've been having a
wonderful month with
lots of press as we
officially released the
keyboard and a great
Software Freedom Day
where we translated Tux
Paint, a fun computer
game for the under 95's
into Xhosa and Venda. We
also pay tribute in this
edition to Lesego, our
dearest translator who
lived the year of
African languages. And
lastly, I shoot my mouth
off, again, this time
about Afrikaans:
SOFTWARE FREEDOM DAY
The annual celebration
of Open Source Software
took place on 16
September at the
Department of Science
and Technology in
Pretoria and
Translate.org.za played
an active role. Free
software was distributed
and there were
demonstrations,
presentations and
workshops to educate and
inform the public and
bring OSS to the surface
of the sometimes muddy
software pool. Dwayne
Bailey, Director of
Translate.org.za,
presented on the need
for localisation of
software to an
auditorium of
approximately 150
people. “A highlight for
me was the amazing
response from the
students of Tshwane
University of
Technology,” says
Dwayne, “They asked such
intelligent questions
and showed that they
fully grasped the
implications of what we
are about. It was
inspiring to hear these
young people so eager to
know more about it all
and passionate about
language.”
Translate.org also
hosted a Translate at thon
on their stand with two
professional translators
working hard to
translate Tux Paint, an
award winning programme
for children between the
ages of 3 and 12, into
Xhosa and Venda during
the day. The
Translate.org.za team
also showed off the
finalised version of the
Keyboard software and
received a great
response. Friedel
presented the Sotho
version of
OpenOffice.org to whoops
of joy as he navigated
the Sotho desktop
effortlessly and people
could see the software
in their mother tongue.
It was a highly
successful day and
Translate.org.za shone
in word and deed, with
Dwayne and Friedel's
presentations being well
received and the
translators actually
translating on site.
SOUTH AFRICAN KEYBOARD
GETS NOTICED
“I love what you are
doing. I don't think
that we take this
[language issue]
seriously enough,” was
Glenn Lewington's
comment while chatting
to Dwayne after an
interview for SABC's The
World Today early in
October. Dwayne was also
on E-TV's Morning
Edition show in the same
week, introducing the
keyboard to the public.
Interest in the South
African keyboard has
risen as this time
consuming project has
reached completion.
After years of the
Translate.org.za team
working on the keyboard,
it is finally official –
it's ready for sale and
can be purchased online
or can be downloaded
free from the site. This
is a significant
achievement. The
keyboard software makes
it possible, for
example, for a Venda
speaker to type the five
characters that are
completely specific to
Venda and not used in
any other language in
the world. Most people
simply ignore those
characters, reinforcing
Dwayne's mantra of
“Localise or be
localised”. It has been
created in such a way
that if a user wants to
use it, they can find
the keys easily, but
other users would not
even know the
functionality is there.
The keyboard works for
all South African
languages, making using
characters unique to
South African languages
a possibility for the
first time in many
cases. If you would like
to buy it go to
http://translate.org.za/content/view/24/41/
GETTING TO KNOW ...
Lesego Mosethlanyane
“We have an instant
messaging system here
called Jabber, so you
can chat to anyone. So I
was chatting to Dwayne.
I like mixing up
Afrikaans and English
together and he liked
the way I mixed
languages. He told me
about this language
thing, what he's doing,
what my home language
is, and if I'd be
interested in doing this
project with him, so I
said, yeah, why not?”
This is how Lesego
described her initial
involvement in
Translate.org.za on a
television series called
Go-Open in February
2005. Lesego tragically
passed away soon after
the recording of this
programme, but the
memory of her commitment
and service still lives
on.
Working as the
receptionist for
Obsidian Systems, a
Linux company based in
Johannesburg, Lesego
translated on a
voluntary basis in her
spare time for months.
She finished the Tswana
version of
OpenOffice.org at the
end of 2004, taking her
six months. It was an
extremely time-consuming
process, but she just
kept on at it until the
project was complete.
“We want to honour her
for her commitment to
making software
available in her mother
tongue and the
contribution she made to
this in her last few
months,” says Dwayne.
Human Resource Manager,
Obsidian Systems,
Catherine Lesser
remembers Lesego fondly:
“Lesego will never be
forgotten. She touched
my heart in such a short
time and it will be
forever imprinted with
my memory of her. It
must have been her
beautiful smile or her
gentle nature. It could
have been her infectious
laugh and love of
stories. Her
appreciation of life and
trusting nature come to
mind, as well as the
wonderful emphasis she
had on her son, her
family and good values.
It was definitely her
generosity, her positive
attitude, her love of
living. A life to live
by.”
LOOSE CANNON – Is
Afrikaans an African
Language? (Dwayne
Bailey)
My guess is that it
depends what statement
you want to make and how
far back you are
prepared to draw the
line. Afrikaans is a
West Germanic language
falling under the very
high level group called
Indo-European languages.
These evolved from the
Indus Valley in India
and from Europe. West
Germanic language
include English and some
of Afrikaans' closer
relatives, Dutch and
Flemish. Considering the
languages that it
relates closely to are
European, then it is not
an African language. But
is it then an Indian
language because it is
related to the Indus
Valley?
Afrikaans is a very new
language, it was created
by the confluence of
cultures around the
Cape. The earliest
written Afrikaans is
written in Arabic script
and is an Islamic text,
most probably written by
an Imam from Malaysia.
So does that mean it is
European or African or
Malaysian? In the latest
census Afrikaans is
ranked 3rd in terms of
the number of mother
tongue speakers, over 6
million. More than half
of these are black.
Afrikaans is also often
a lingua franca for many
people. So if the
majority of speakers of
a language are black
does that make it an
African language? When a
poster at Johannesburg
International Airport
says “9 indigenous
languages and no word
for stranger”, does the
exclusion of Afrikaans
mean it is not an
African language? Over
98% of Afrikaans
speakers live in South
Africa, others in
Namibia, the others are
probably serving beer in
London. Does that make
it a European language?
For us at
Translate.org.za we
believe in the
empowering of all South
African languages.
PARTING SHOT – Quote of
the month
“I'm proud of it.
Knowing that I'm leaving
a legacy behind [by
translating software
into my mother tongue].”
Lesego Mosethlanyane
Dwayne Bailey
(012) 460 1095
info at translate.org.za
www.translate.org.za
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