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Spanish Lang. Choice for s/w localization | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5839 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes  Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 8 09 March 2012 at 1:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello,
Just a question for Spanish speakers. Would you expect software to have multiple versions of Spanish, based on location? For example Spanish (ES)? What about users in Mexico? Is there a special Mexican Spanish, or Latin American Spanish. What would you be expecting in this situation - i.e. a company that wanted to respect the native language preferences of its employees. Should we differentiate between different versions of Spanish, if so, to what degree? How big are the actual differences? I am getting varying feedback from co workers, but none of the people with an opinion are actual South Americans or even Spanish speakers. --- I have experiences from the European markets that the differences between countries that share the same languages are exaggerated. Swiss users are not bothered about CH German, but are happy with regular German etc, etc. After going to a lot of trouble, it turned out the effort was wasted. However I do not know what the situation is with Spanish. Edited by cordelia0507 on 09 March 2012 at 1:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5335 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 8 09 March 2012 at 2:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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I know you wanted answers from Spanish speakers, but I would find it no more logical to have different versions of Spanish software, than different versions of English software. It is the same language, just with minor differences, which should not really appear in the software. (Just stay away from the word "coger", if you need to use the verb "take" for anything)
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| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5346 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 3 of 8 09 March 2012 at 3:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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My experience is, Latin Americans expect neutral Latin American Spanish when dealing with things like TV and movie dubbing, and are disappointed and sometimes upset when they encounter Iberian Spanish instead. I would guess the opposite is true for Spaniards.
My suggestion thus would be to offer those two alternatives, neutral Latin American and Iberian Spanish. If you're targeting a country specifically, use its own version of Spanish; otherwise you may sound foreign, odd or out of place. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5839 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 4 of 8 09 March 2012 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the input both of you.
How common would you say it is to provide: 1) No option at all, just "Spanish". 2) Spanish (Castellano), Spanish (Latin American) - Are these the normal names?! 3) One version for each country, i.e. Uruguay Spanish, Philipino Spanish, or whatever... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fiziwig Senior Member United States Joined 4866 days ago 297 posts - 618 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 8 09 March 2012 at 6:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Are you talking about printed Spanish in the software or recorded spoken Spanish?
I've done some research in that area and I've come to the conclusion that the differences are of two kinds: 1) Words used regionally rather than universally, or used as slang in some regions. 2) Pronunciation and intonation. For printed Spanish, just stay away from regional words, and troublesome words like "coger", and you're good to go. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6553 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 6 of 8 09 March 2012 at 6:34pm | IP Logged | ||
For general software, don't bother, do have the manuals read by someone in Mexico and someone in Spain for alignment. This is my 'Mexican' point of view. It is extremely rare to offer different software unless you are using specific keyboards (Euro in Spain for example). It really depends on the type of software. Swiss are certainly bothered about spoken German but not written German. BTW -- it is common to lump Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries of North America into South America but it is an annoying mistake. Edited by zenmonkey on 09 March 2012 at 6:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5839 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 7 of 8 19 March 2012 at 9:41am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks Juan and ZenMonkey for the feedback. All this was news to me.
The choice landed on Latin American Spanish for all of Latin America and Spanish (ES) for Spain. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Javi Senior Member Spain Joined 5982 days ago 419 posts - 548 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 8 of 8 19 March 2012 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | ||
There are actually different "versions" of the "English" software: Locale Internationaliz ation Ubuntu Firefox Edited by Javi on 19 March 2012 at 2:04pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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