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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:
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 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@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
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Dwayne Bailey
 (012) 460 1095
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www.translate.org.za
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