Month names

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Month names

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1sanxiyn
Dec 16, 2007, 4:57 am

Okay, I started Korean translation.

What's up with translating month names? Doesn't system locale know how to print dates? Translating "May" in "May 1, 2000" doesn't make any sense to me, given that all Koreans write dates in year-month-day order.

2AnnaOok
Dec 16, 2007, 9:06 am

Yes, that is a problem with other languages too. Italian (like most European languages) uses the order day-month-year.

Maybe the code will be changed, but for the moment all we can do is translate the month names -- the result is weird but comprehensible in Italian, and probably the same in Korean?

3GirlFromIpanema
Dec 17, 2007, 5:42 pm

sanxiyn, that is interesting! I thought the y/m/d notation was only used in informatics/computers. Do you know whether there are more asian countries using that order? There is a check-box for "European order" for the "bought", "start reading", etc., fields right now, maybe there can be a check-box for these languages too (if n>1 sanxiyn: :-) ).

4dreamlikecheese
Jan 5, 2008, 1:50 am

Japanese (and, I believe, Chinese as well) uses the yyyy/mm/dd format, so there will be similar problems to the Korean translation.

5Paal
Jan 9, 2008, 6:31 pm

I agree with AnnaOok when she talks about the order day-month-year.
It is common also in several countries in Europe to write yyyy.mm.dd, but it means that we writing only the digits. Is this a solution?

Our Gregorian calender is indeed the most common in the world. I just wonder what meaning it might have for some Jews and Muslims (in Asia) that use other calenders.

Maybe it is better to see the context. It is often the biggest problem as I have noticed in these translations. Especially with words that I are not that frequent as several words we are translating.