Writing

Localization is the term used to describe the complete customization of a product and its documentation for a different language. It involves more than just the translation of textual content into the another language. It includes consideration of the cultural differences and the appropriate technical meaning of the subject being discussed.

When writing documentation which will be localised for international markets, a number of additional considerations must be made to minimize any confusion.

• The source English language documentation must be converted to the non-English (foreign) language. See Language Conversions.
• Even between English speaking countries, different spelling conventions can cause confusion. See Spelling Conventions.

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Language Conversions

Documentation can be created in such a way as to make conversion to other languages more convenient (less difficult) for the people responsible.

Possible languages are listed below with the English and local name of each language:

#	English language name	Local language name	Countries speaking language
1	Albanian	Shqip
2	Alemannic	Alemannisch
3	Arabic	ا„عربŠpx;ة
4	Aragonese	Aragons
5	Armenian	”այե”են
6	Asturian	Asturianu
7	Basque	Euskara
8	Belarusian	‘ела”ƒская
9	Bengali	Bānglā / বা‚লা
10	Bosnian	Bosanski
11	Breton	Brezhoneg
12	Bulgarian	‘Šлга”скиpx;
13	Catalan	Catal
14	Chinese	中–‡
15	Chuvash	Чƒваˆ ‡›л…иpx;
16	Cornish	Kernewek / Karnuack
17	Corsican	Corsu
18	Croatian	Hrvatski
19	Czech	Œesk
20	Danish	Dansk
21	Dutch	Nederlands	Aruba, Belgium, Indonesia, Netherlands, South Africa, Suriname
22	English	English	America, Antigua, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Barbuda, Belize, Bermuda, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, England, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Nevis, New Zealand, Saint Vincent, Singapore, South Africa, St Kitts, St Lucia, Tobago, Trinidad
23	Estonian	Eesti
24	Faroese	Froyskt
25	Finnish	Suomi
26	French	Franais	Belgium, Canada, Congo, Cameroon, France, Haiti, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Switzerland
27	Frisian	Frysk
28	Galician	Galego
29	Georgian	ƒƒƒpx;ƒ—ƒƒšƒ˜ / Kartuli
30	German	Deutsch	Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland
31	Greek	•λληνικάpx;
32	Gujarati	—ુœરાpx;ત”
33	Hebrew	ע‘ר™ת
34	Hindi	हिन्द”
35	Hungarian	Magyar
36	Icelandic	slenska
37	Indonesian	Bahasa Indonesia
38	Italian	Italiano
39	Japanese	Nihongo (—œž)	Guam, Japan, Marshall Islands, Palau
40	Javanese	Basa Jawi
41	Kannada	•ನpx;್ನpx;ಡ
42	Kashmiri	•श्मpx;”र” / ƒش…Špx;رŠpx;
43	Kashubian	Kaszbsczi
44	Korean	•œpx;국–
45	Kurdish	Kurd / ƒˆردŒpx;
46	Latin	Latine
47	Latvian	Latvieu
48	Limburgish	Limburgs
49	Lithuanian	Lietuvių
50	Luxembourgish	Ltzebuergesch
51	Macedonian	œакедонскиpx;
52	Malay	Bahasa Melayu
53	Malayalam	മലയാpx;ള‚px;
54	Maori	Māori
55	Marathi	मpx;राठ”
56	Min Nan	Bn-lm-g
57	Northern Sami	Smegiella
58	Norwegian Bokml	Norsk bokml
59	Norwegian Nynorsk	Norsk nynorsk
60	Occitan	Langue d'Oc
61	Ossetian	˜”он взаг
62	Persian	فارسŒpx;
63	Polish	Polski	America, Belarus, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine
64	Portuguese	Portugus	Angola, Andorra, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Luxembourg, Macau, Mozambique, Namibia, Paraguay, Portugal, So Tom and Prncipe
65	Romanian	Romnƒ
66	Russian	Рƒсскиpx;й
67	Sanskrit	सpx;‚सpx;्•ƒतpx;मpx;्
68	Serbian	С”пскиpx;
69	Sicilian	Sicilianu
70	Slovenian	Slovenčina
71	Spanish	Espaol	America, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, New Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Porto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela, Western Sahara
72	Sundanese	Basa Sunda
73	Swedish	Svenska	Finland, Sweden
74	Tamil	தpx;மpx;ிழ்
75	Tatar	Tatara
76	Telugu	త†లు—ు
77	Thai	„—ย
78	Turkish	Trke
79	Ukrainian	Ук”а—нсŒpx;ка
80	Urdu	اردˆ
81	Vietnamese	Tiếng Vi‡t
82	Walloon	Walon
83	Welsh	Cymraeg

 

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Spelling Conventions

Generally, Americans spell words that end in "ise" with "ize", or "our" as plain "or".

The suffix -ize is the usual spelling in American English. In Britain there is some variety: some publishers standardise on -ize, but others use -ise. Attempts to distinguish -ize in words based on Greek (idolize, monopolize) from -ise in words that have come to English from or through French (realise, moralise) founder on the difficulties of knowing the precise history of many words. Current Australian usage clearly favours consistent use of -ise, a practice which has the advantage of being easy to remember.

Note

Some words that end in -ise can never be spelt with -ize. Examples include compromise, exercise and revise. This is because the -ise is not a suffix in these cases.

Many words ending in -our, such as colour, honour and vigour, can also be spelt with -or. This variation arose in England in the seventeenth century, when some theorists believed words ought to be spelt according to their origins. The words from French were supposed, in this case, to be spelt with -our and those directly from Latin with -or. As people were not always sure from which language a word came, there was some confusion, and more and more people felt it best to use -or for all of them. The trend ran its full course in the US where -or is always used. However, it was halted in England by Samuel Johnson's dictionary of 1755. He allowed some of these words, such as error, horror and terror, to go to -or, but the rest were fixed with -our. The most common spelling of these words outside American English is with -our, although the variant is also found.

Americans also do not double the final consonant when adding a suffix "ed" or "ing". They spell labelled as labeled, and labelling as labeling.

The forms dependant, dependance, dependancy are from the French; the forms dependent, etc., are from the Latin. Some authorities give preference to the form dependant when the word is a noun, thus distinguishing it from the adjective, usually written dependent.

The following is a list of words most commonly spelled differently between American and Non-American:

American spelling	Non-American spelling
customize	customise
standardize	standardise
analog	analogue
behavior	behaviour
color	colour
honor	honour
vigor	vigour
marshaling	marshalling
labeled	labelled
defense	defence
dependance	dependence

As our greatest market is primarily American, the Marketing Department has decided that all our user interface and documentation (including the online help) should be Americanised, that is, we should always use American spelling in the help. There is no "U" in Honor.

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See Also

Lotech Solutions' Tips, Tricks, and Procedures

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