@AndyChiu just requested Chinese (Taiwan) as a translation language for Collect and I wanted to talk about the best option. There are other Chinese language users who will likely be interested in this discussion so I wanted to bring it up here.
In general, we try to limit the number of language variants where possible. For example, my first language is French and I'm from Canada. My French is different from @mathieubossaert's in France or @dickoah's in Senegal so we work together in Transifex with other French speakers to come up with neutral wording. We also only have one English variant.
I realize that the level of standardization across regions varies a lot by language and I'm not very familiar with Chinese specifically. I believe that the current Chinese translation uses Simplified Chinese (https://app.transifex.com/getodk/collect/language/zh/, you need to be logged into Transifex). Is Traditional Chinese used in Taiwan and is that why it's important to have a different variant? Thank you!
Hi, @LN ,Yes, Taiwan uses Traditional Chinese, as does Hong Kong, and other regions is use Simplified Chinese.
Currently, Collect has Simplified Chinese, but Central does not have any Chinese.
I use Traditional Chinese, but my colleagues use both. So I will not exclude the use of Simplified Chinese, but some words may be different, and there are also differences in fonts. It would be best if Traditional Chinese is available. If not, at least the Central part must also establish a Chinese interface.
This makes a lot of sense. Would you say that in most cases using the words from the Simplified Chinese translation but with a Traditional Chinese font would work? Or not really? I ask because I know these translations take a lot of effort and I'd love to be able to collaborate and reuse work where possible.
I see that Transifex has a Chinese Traditional (zh-Hant) variant. Would that be appropriate for both Taiwan and Hong Kong?
Users of Traditional Chinese can generally understand the content of Simplified Chinese. However, due to the simplification of fonts and the differences in the usage of some words, it may be better if the two kinds of Chinese can be distinguished.
differences in the usage of some words example:
Eng CT CS
information 資訊 信息
quality 品質 质量
ballpoint pen 原子筆 圆珠笔
calculator 計算機 计算器
hard drive 硬碟 硬盘
video 影片 视频
software 軟體 软件
optical disc 光碟 光盘
Chinese Traditional (zh-Hant)
used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau
Chinese Simplified (zh-Hans)
used in People's Republic of China, Singapore, Malaysia
Thanks so much for the explanation and resources. I have added zh-Hant to both Collect and Central and set you as a reviewer. Feel free to bring up questions about translations here on the forum or as comments within Transifex. Don't hesitate to ask if any source string is unclear.
We have a Collect release coming up likely the first week of July and will pull in any translations available then. We don't have a Central release coming up for at least a month. We usually only publish translations in Central if they are close to complete (but can likely make an exception if someone requests it). @Matthew_White, feel free to add anything I forgot about the process!
@AndyChiu You've been very busy with Chinese translations, thank you!
Android doesn't have a generic Chinese Traditional option so we went with Chinese (Taiwan) there.
We have just published a Collect beta that includes your translations. You may want to take a moment to try them out in context and make updates as needed.
