[Fontforge: Translation request]

[Αλέξανδρος Διαμαντίδης]

Γεια σας,

Δείτε την παρακάτω συζήτηση... Το FontForge είναι ένα πρόγραμμα
σχεδιασμού γραμματοσειρών (το οποίο παρεμπιπτόντως είναι ήδη πολύ καλό
και διαρκώς βελτιώνεται). Ο George Williams, ο δημιουργός του, ήθελε να
τυπώσει κάρτες που να αναφέρει το όνομα του προγράμματος σε διάφορες
γλώσσες. Αν έχετε κάποια πρόταση, μπορείτε να του γράψετε κατευθείαν ή
πείτε μου να την προωθήσω εγώ. Παρεμπιπτόντως, το σκέφτηκα λιγάκι να
εξελλήνιζα το πρόγραμμα αλλά μου φάνηκε πολύ δύσκολο γιατί έχει αρκετή
εξειδικευμένη ορολογία...

----- Forwarded message from George Williams <gww at silcom.com> -----

From: George Williams <gww at silcom.com>
Subject: [Fontforge-devel] Translation request
Date: 21 Apr 2004 10:14:06 -0700

I'm making up some fontforge business cards and would like to have
"fontforge" translated into many different languages, particularly
non-latin scripts.

So if anyone has time, could you translate "font" and "forge" into
something other than English?

Thanks
George

----- Forwarded message from Alexandros Diamantidis <adia at hellug.gr> -----

In Greek, "font" is "γραμματοσειρά" and "forge" is "σιδηρουργείο"
(meaning "blacksmith's workshop"). So, as a phrase, "Σιδηρουργείο
γραμματοσειρών". Although it sounds a bit funny, maybe because it's so
long.

----- Forwarded message from George Williams <gww at silcom.com> -----

Thanks for doing that.

I guess it is a little long, not quite sure how to format it now...

----- Forwarded message from Alexandros Diamantidis <adia at hellug.gr> -----

Now that I think it over a little, you could always go for a less exact
translation. In Greek, "letter" is "γράμμα". The Greek translation of
"font" is "γραμματοσειρά", which literally means "letter series". As for
"σιδηρουργείο", which I proposed for "forge", its literal meaning is
"ironworks, place where iron is wrought". You could combine "γράμμα"
with the "-ουργείο" ending giving "γραμματουργείο", meaning "a place
where people work on letters". That's a made-up word, of course - I just
checked Google, no hits - but I think anyone who knows Greek would
understand it. It's pronounced grama-tour-GHEE-oh.

By the way, I don't know if you should trust someone off the net creating
new words in a language you don't speek (or do you?) ;-)

----- Forwarded message from George Williams <gww at silcom.com> -----

Well at one point I did look up letter in greek and recognize "grama" so
I can make a tiny validity check...

(This was back when I was trying to come up with a new name for PfaEdit,
and I thought that if MS can call a program "Word" perhaps I could call
a program "letter", only that seemed dull, so I thought "grama" might be
more interesting. Since English still has that as the root of
"grammatical" it makes some connection...)

Do you think I should track down someone who can verify "forge" for me
:-)

----- Forwarded message from Alexandros Diamantidis <adia at hellug.gr> -----

Well, there is an online dictionary at www.in.gr - see for instance:

http://www.in.gr/dictionary/lookup.asp?Word=forge

In that page above there's another translation for "blacksmith's forge",
"καμίνι" or "κάμινος" (the latter is an older and more formal word).
So another possibility is "Κάμινος γραμματοσειρών". Translated back to
English, this gives "font kiln" rather than "forge".

I asked some workmates for their opinion on my last suggestion
("γραμματουργείο") and reactions were not very favourable...

If you don't mind, I can forward our whole e-mail exchange to the Greek
localization mailing list, i18ngr at lists.hellug.gr.

----- Forwarded message from George Williams <gww at silcom.com> -----

If you want to put that much effort into it, by all means do so. I must
admit that I was looking more for a visual effect (multiple scripts on a
business card) rather than a real localized name for the program.

It would be nice to have the latter, but only if you enjoy working on
the process.

----- End forwarded message -----