经济学人465:小众语言 终端数据缓存奶牛

 　　Minority languages

　　小众语言

　　Cookies, caches and cows

　　终端数据，缓存，奶牛

　　Translating technological¹ terms throws up some peculiar² challenges

　　科学术语翻译中的难题

　　Speaking the customer's language

　　让手机语言本土化

　　OUSMANE sweats under a tin roof as he thumbs through a Chinese smartphone that he is selling at the technology market in Bamako, Mali. Words in French, Mali's official language, scroll³ down the screen. “A ka nyi?” (Is it good?) a customer asks him in Bambara, Mali's most widely used tongue.

　　巴马科马里的科技市场里，炽热的锡皮屋檐下的奥斯曼手中拿着销售的中国制造的智能手机。马里的官方语言是法语，手机屏幕上也是满满的法文。一个顾客用马里大部分人使用的曼丁哥语问“手机怎么样？”

　　小众语言.jpg

　　Mozilla, the foundation behind Firefox, an open-source web browser⁴, wants Ousmane's customers to have the option of a device that speaks their language. Smartphones with its operating system (OS) are already on sale in 24 countries, including Bangladesh, India and Mexico, for as little as 33. Other countries will be added as it makes more deals with handset manufacturers. And Bambara is one of dozens of languages into which volunteer “localisers” are translating the OS.

　　火狐（开源网络浏览器）制造商谋智公司致力于让奥斯曼的顾客中的手机显示本土语言。现在已经有24个国家在销售该公司开发的操作系统，包括孟加拉国，印度，墨西哥。与更多手机制造商达成协议后，更多国家会销售其操作系统。致力于“本土化”的志愿者正在把该系统翻译成各种语言，曼丁哥语也在其中。

　　Mozilla has 230 localisation teams, says Jeff Beatty, who co-ordinates some from his office in Utah. Their work takes both time and ingenuity⁵. Firefox for a computer uses about 40,000 words; for the phone OS, 16,000. Translators must express technological terms in languages shaped by livestock⁶, farming and fishing, and choose alternatives for culture-specific words such as “cookie”, “file” and “mouse”.

　　Jeff Beatty说谋智公司在各地有230个队伍。他们与犹他州的办公室的一些人员进行协作。这项工作既消耗时间又耗脑力。电脑版的火狐浏览器包含四万用词；手机客户端包含一万六千词。翻译人员需要表达农林业，畜牧业，捕鱼业产出的技术词汇。并且在遇到具体文化相关用词如“密码缓存”，“文件”和“鼠标”选择同义词。

　　Ibrahima Sarr, a Senegalese coder, led the translation of Firefox into Fulah, which is spoken by 20m people from Senegal to Nigeria. “Crash” became hookii (a cow falling over but not dying); “timeout” became a honaama (your fish has got away). “Aspect ratio” became jeendondiral, a rebuke⁷ from elders when a fishing net is wrongly woven. In Malawi's Chichewa language, which has 10m speakers, “cached pages” became mfutso wa tsamba, or bits of leftover⁸ food. The windowless houses of the 440,000 speakers of Zapotec, a family of indigenous⁹ languages in Mexico, meant that computer “windows” became “eyes”.

　　Ibrahima Sarr，塞内加尔程序员，领导火狐富拉语翻译项目。从塞内加尔到尼日利亚，有2千万人使用富拉语。翻译中，“碰撞”变成了“绊倒的牛，但是没有死”。“超时”变成“你的鱼逃走了”。“长宽比”是指因为织错了捕鱼网而受到的老人的责备。马维拉共和国的齐切瓦语，有1000万人使用。其中“缓存页面”翻译成了“剩余的少量食物”。墨西哥本土语种巴萨特克语有44万人使用，由于他们的房屋没有窗户，因此电脑“界面”译成了“眼睛”。

　　The world speaks nearly 7,000 languages. Mali, with a population of 15m, has 13 national languages and 40-60 smaller ones, depending on where the border between language and dialect is drawn¹⁰. Firefox is available in 90 languages, which serve almost all of the 40% of the global population already online. Apple's most recent computer OS offers 33 languages out of the box, and the new iPhone, 35. Google offers 150, including dialects (and some spurious ones such as “Pirate”). But some languages spoken by millions are excluded, including Tibetan (3m-4m speakers) and Bambara (10m, including those for whom it is a second tongue). Bringing the rest of the world online is not just a technical challenge, but a linguistic¹¹ one.

　　全球总共有近7种语言。马里是一个人口1500万的国家，却有13种民族语言，40-60种小语言，此语言的数量取决于语言和方言的界限是如何划分的。火狐浏览器有90个语言版本，供近全球40%网民使用。苹果最新的电脑系统开发了33种新语言。新的苹果手机是35种语言。谷歌提供了包括方言在内的150种语言（还有一些虚构的语言比如海盗语言）。然而像藏语（300万到400万人使用），曼丁哥语（1千万人使用）被百万人口使用的一些语言却不在其中。让世界的每一个人都使用网络技术并不是唯一的难题，语言也是一个挑战。

　　As a non-profit, Mozilla can put effort into languages that offer no prospect¹² of a quick return. Songhai and Fulah, recently made available in Firefox, are spoken mainly by poor, illiterate¹³ herders and farmers in the Sahel, who do not have smartphones. But when such people eventually get online, they will benefit more if they can do so in their own tongues.

　　谋智公司在语言上的努力是公益的，眼下并不能马上获得收益。火狐上增添了撒哈拉语和富拉赫语。这两种语言的使用者大部分是赛赫勒地区没有受过教育的农夫和牧民，他们没有智能手机。但是，当这些人有一天能上网时，发现可以使用本土语言，必然会从中受益匪浅。

　　As more languages are added, the Firefox OS will create a sort of global Rosetta stone. It uses all parts of speech, and older, colourful words are pressed into service. Mozilla has created a statistical¹⁴ tool for linguistic analyses. And though 40,000 words is not a whole vocabulary, it is a significant part. As well as bringing the linguistically¹⁵ excluded online, localisation may keep small languages alive.

　　随着语言的增加，火狐系统会成为一种“如师通”语言软件。它把各种词语，悠久的，丰富多彩的语言应用于一种服务中。谋智公司开发了数据工具来分析语言。虽然4万词只是语言中的一角，但是是极其重要的。这不仅为网络增加了新的语言版本，本土化也使一些小语种存活下来。

1 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

2 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

3 scroll   

n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡

参考例句：

• As I opened the scroll,a panorama of the Yellow River unfolded.我打开卷轴时，黄河的景象展现在眼前。
• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements.他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。

4 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

5 ingenuity   

n.别出心裁；善于发明创造

参考例句：

• The boy showed ingenuity in making toys.那个小男孩做玩具很有创造力。
• I admire your ingenuity and perseverance.我钦佩你的别出心裁和毅力。

6 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

7 rebuke   

v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise

参考例句：

• He had to put up with a smart rebuke from the teacher.他不得不忍受老师的严厉指责。
• Even one minute's lateness would earn a stern rebuke.哪怕迟到一分钟也将受到严厉的斥责。

8 leftover   

n.剩货，残留物，剩饭；adj.残余的

参考例句：

• These narrow roads are a leftover from the days of horse-drawn carriages.这些小道是从马车时代沿用下来的。
• Wonder if that bakery lets us take leftover home.不知道那家糕饼店会不会让我们把卖剩的带回家。

9 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

10 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

11 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

12 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

13 illiterate   

adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲

参考例句：

• There are still many illiterate people in our country.在我国还有许多文盲。
• I was an illiterate in the old society,but now I can read.我这个旧社会的文盲，今天也认字了。

14 statistical   

adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• He showed the price fluctuations in a statistical table.他用统计表显示价格的波动。
• They're making detailed statistical analysis.他们正在做具体的统计分析。

15 linguistically   

adv. 语言的, 语言学的

参考例句：

• But this group is linguistically, culturally, and even genetically diverse. 但这个人群在语言上，文化上，甚至在遗传上都是多样化的。
• Like the EU, Belgium is linguistically and culturally divided. 与欧盟一样，比利时是个多语言、多文化的地区。