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Translating names to Esperanto
ca, kivuye
Ubutumwa 102
ururimi: English
darkweasel (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 12 Kigarama 2009 17:42:04
It says that you're free to use either the original pronunciation or an Esperanto-like pronunciation (that is, maybe "víndoz" or "ŭíndoŭz") with a word like Windows.
Naturally if you speak English, feel free to pronounce "Esperanto" however you wish as long as people understand you. The same applies to saying "Windows" in Esperanto.
"esperantistoj" isn't a proper name. "-ist" is a suffix even in English, so you just add -ist to "Esperanto" to make the completely English word "Esperantist", plural "Esperantists". (Indeed I have once stumbled upon a German-language book that consistently uses "Esperantistoj" instead of the logical German plural "Esperantisten".)
I prefer to be consistent with such names. I don't want to have to think about whether this product is well-known enough every time I use a product name. If I always use the original product name, people are most likely to understand me.
Vorsik (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 12 Kigarama 2009 20:00:23
erinja:FajrovulpoIt took me a second to figure out what you meant by Fajrovulpo. Is that how it's done in other languages, they translate the words 'fire' and 'fox'?
qwertz (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Kigarama 2009 02:05:56
Vorsik:Using the language switch down to the right at www.mozilla-europe.org "Firefox" is used for most european languages. Hhm, why there is no Esperanto switch? There excist a Esperanto Firefox version.erinja:FajrovulpoIt took me a second to figure out what you meant by Fajrovulpo. Is that how it's done in other languages, they translate the words 'fire' and 'fox'?
ceigered (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Kigarama 2009 03:43:32
qwertz:Probably because they had the same discussion as us and just called it "Firefox" in the endVorsik:Using the language switch down to the right at www.mozilla-europe.org "Firefox" is used for most european languages. Hhm, why there is no Esperanto switch? There excist a Esperanto Firefox version.erinja:FajrovulpoIt took me a second to figure out what you meant by Fajrovulpo. Is that how it's done in other languages, they translate the words 'fire' and 'fox'?
![okulumo.gif](/images/smileys/okulumo.gif)
I am against calling "Firefox" "fajrovulpo" because "Firefox" is generally "Firefox" in other Latin-based languages - even in Japanese and Chinese (that had me surprised! I was expecting something like 火狐 (ka/ko/hi/ho-kitsune or húhuǒ or something like that).
So as a result I'm guessing everywhere "firefox" is more or less pronounced "faj(a/r)foks" or something like that, therefore "fajrfokso" makes more sense to me than "fajrvulpo".
For Vindozo/Windows, in Esperanto "Vindozo" seems the preferred term by majority usage. Google searches using esperanto sentences followed by "windows" or "vindozo" seems to show that "vindozo" is used at least twice as much with EO speech than "windows" (of couse, there is the possibility that "windows'" 25% popularity is because of people having to explain what "vindozo" means).
(some other things to note: Makintosxo aux Windows gets about 70 hits, Makintosxo aux Vindozo gets about 400, La tuta mondo uzas vindozo gets ~25,000, ...... uzas windows gets ~6,000. esperantistoj windows gets 16k, .... vindozo 47k and so forth.)
darkweasel (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Kigarama 2009 12:33:45
@ceigered: Somehow, pronouncing "fajrfokso" seems to me quite difficult. How about "fajafokso" if you really want to Esperantize this (which I'm still against) ...
And yes, in German we pronounce "Firefox" /fájafoks/ - with a clear "a" sound, not some strange English R ...
Rogir (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Kigarama 2009 14:16:18
qwertz (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Kigarama 2009 14:53:16
darkweasel:The German language version of Firefox never translates this name. Only in humorous/satirical use you might hear "Feuerfuchs". I'm uploading a screenshot ...in my opinion that rolling "R" doesn't appear in US-English only. Patrik (singer, frontman of Dolchamar) uses a long-rolling "R", too. And he is from Finland. I believe it could be a german issue not to pronounce the "R" quite strongly. Okej, some german areas doing that. (i.e. Franconia/Franken)
@ceigered: Somehow, pronouncing "fajrfokso" seems to me quite difficult. How about "fajafokso" if you really want to Esperantize this (which I'm still against) ...
And yes, in German we pronounce "Firefox" /fájafoks/ - with a clear "a" sound, not some strange English R ...
what about "Fajarfoks"?
LyzTyphone (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Kigarama 2009 16:33:12
We do call it 火狐 in conversation. But obviously Mozilla wants it in English form officially.
ceigered (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 14 Kigarama 2009 07:06:33
darkweasel:@ceigered: Somehow, pronouncing "fajrfokso" seems to me quite difficult. How about "fajafokso" if you really want to Esperantize this (which I'm still against) ...Well /fájafoks/ is roughly how a non-rhotic English speaker would say it too (e.g. Received pronunciation (proper UK), Australian English etc) (although the second 'a' is more of a schwa sound). I just wasn't sure how the Americans (particularly Californians) would feel about "fajafokso" as "fajarfokso" might better represent the way they say it. So I made a bad compromise
And yes, in German we pronounce "Firefox" /fájafoks/ - with a clear "a" sound, not some strange English R ...
![lango.gif](/images/smileys/lango.gif)
qwertz: I believe it could be a german issue not to pronounce the "R" quite strongly.Many British, almost all Australians and more rarely some Swedes, Danes and Dutch and to an even lesser extent Afrikaans do this too to my understanding (skipping the R or not pronouncing it strongly). It seems to be a primarily Germanic thing, although Brazilian Portuguese sometimes does it too (I think French does it too but only when spoken fast and casually, don't know though). I think Taiwanese Mandarin can do this too but never heard it before (e.g. 女儿).
It's an interesting phenomenon IMHO.
@LyzTyphone: Cheers for that info!
qwertz (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 14 Kigarama 2009 09:05:37
ceigered:I my opinion somebody (I can just say that from my position as an german native) can not "skip" or make the "r" weak (means makeing a rolling "r" a nearly unhearable "a") if the "Firefox" translation contains a "a" before the "r": "fajarfoks". I'm not that linguistic professional, but for me "fajarfoks" sounds similiar to the original english "Firefox". Yesterday I talk to somebody regarding that issue. Seems to be that most non-germans can not hear the "R" in the beginning if a german native says i.e. the name Ruth (sounds in English like "rude". But most "Ruths" are not "rude". Hopefullydarkweasel:@ceigered: Somehow, pronouncing "fajrfokso" seems to me quite difficult. How about "fajafokso" if you really want to Esperantize this ......
And yes, in German we pronounce "Firefox" /fájafoks/ - with a clear "a" sound, not some strange English R ...
qwertz: I believe it could be a german issue not to pronounce the "R" quite strongly.Many British, almost all Australians and more rarely some Swedes, Danes and Dutch and to an even lesser extent Afrikaans do this too to my understanding (skipping the R or not pronouncing it strongly). It seems to be a primarily Germanic thing, ...
![okulumo.gif](/images/smileys/okulumo.gif)
darkweasel:I'm uploading a screenshot ...Hej, hej, one of these Ubuntu folks walked through the door
![sal.gif](/images/smileys/sal.gif)