bunitranslates

[bunitranslates]

Update

translating is very hard, which I knew prior to doing this! but now I what makes it hard.

when your presented with the English sentence it's very hard to think about how to say it other than that. As I mentioned in a previous post, this results in the Scots translations being more-or-less Scots-ified versions of the English strings which isn't ideal.

Another problem is dialects. I'm trying to be dialect agnostic but really what does that mean? there's no formal standard so it feels like I'm making stuff up.

More people would remedy this so i should start actively trying to recruit people into doing this.

[bunitranslates]

Translation Problems

I've started translating elementary OS!

One issue I'm finding is that when I see the English sentence I cam't think of any way to say it other than that way.

Currently the Scots translations are just direct Scots equivalents of the English sentences. I think this is okay for the initial translations but it's definitely important to go back over at some point and improve the translations with more Scots minded phrasing

[bunitranslates]

(Overly) Concise Style Guide Version 1

the spelling is to be regiolect agnostic

Diacritics used to indicate sound changes in letters should be avoided .i. {ä}{è}{ï}

General Spelling Rules

A word that is not in the genitive or plural should not end in a single sibilant.

‘Z’ is used for the voiced sibilant in all instances except the plural

A word should not end in an ‘I’

Two ‘I’ cannot follow each other

Digraph [au] when initial and medial and [aw] when terminal

Digraph [ou] when initial and medial and [ow] when terminal

Digraph [oi] when initial and medial and [oy] when terminal

Digraph [ei] when initial and Medial and [ey] when terminal

Digraph [ai] when initial and medial and [ay] when terminal

Digraph [ey] when initial and medial yet trigraph [eye] when terminal

Digraph [ui] when initial and medial and [uy] when terminal

Preference for digraph [ee] over [ei] in monosyllabic words

Preference for [ck] over [kk]

do not use "glided" spellings as is ane -> yin un- -> wan- etc.

Harmonisation with English

Concerning the use of digraphs verses silent-E, where a digraph is used in English so too should it be in Scots and silent-E likewise.

So,

English Dream, Soon, Please, Week, Weak, Great Scots Dreem, Suin, Pleeze*, Week, Week**, Greet NOT Dreme, Slepe, Plize, Weke, Weke, Grete

*see General Spelling Rule 2. & see **3.

And,

English Home, Bone, Phone, Prune Scots Hame, Bane, Fone, Prune NOT Haim, Bain, Foan

Declension

Declension does not alter terminal ends of words (hence day -> days dais). Nouns are declined for Number (Single & Plural) and Case (Nominative & Genitive).

Conjugation

conjugation does alter terminal ends of words (hence say -> said, sain)