OS RISC yn Cymraeg?

I got a reply from MEU, relevant section below:

I well remember campagning for separate language files for localisation and recall that Apple and Acorn were very co-operative in that respect.
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Unfortunately, I don’t think that any copies of the Acorn translation exist any longer. If you can find any, then I am very happy to allow copyright free access to it.
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I would be happy to translate an English file of OS commands and messages for the Raspberry Pi if you could supply me with a master in the form of a simple text file, since there is little chance that I might find a copy of the original.

Considering the amount of text-snippets that @Sprow counted, I am very reluctant to take him up on his offer of translating it, but nice to see that he’s interested! I have no idea how feasible it would be to extract and detokenize the text from a localised install, if one were to be found, but perhaps that could be an option?

Considering the amount of text-snippets that @Sprow counted, I am very reluctant to take him up on his offer of translating it, but nice to see that he’s interested!

Don’t close that door too quickly. In my experience, native Welsh-speakers (especially those involved in education) are extraordinarily enthusiastic about any opportunity to promote increased use of the language. If you were to send back an email along the lines of “it is very generous of you to offer to help, but we estimate that it is a solid month’s worth of work and it wouldn’t be right to ask you to do something so labour-intensive”, you might be pleasantly surprised with what comes back.

If there were a Welsh translation of RISC OS, I might switch my installation to it – if nothing else, it would help to dislodge a few cobwebs. Unfortunately, I’m not even close to being fluent enough to do the actual translation.

extraordinarily enthusiastic

Indeed, there is a Welsh translation of LibreOffice, which has a hell of a lot of text to translate

If there were a Welsh translation of RISC OS, I might switch my installation to it – if nothing else, it would help to dislodge a few cobwebs. Unfortunately, I’m not even close to being fluent enough to do the actual translation.

Dw i’n meddwl bydd y Territory Manager yn allow you to switch back and forth, provided bod y Territory yn cael ei diffiniad.

Dw i’n meddwl bydd y Territory Manager yn allow you to switch back and forth, provided bod y Territory yn cael ei diffiniad.

Gwych, diolch! Mwy gyfle i gael gamddeall.

Ahem.

I have a friend in Cardiff, a Welsh teacher¹, retiring this summer before (hopefully) going in for a major operation. He said he might be inclined to have a go at doing some translation while he is convalescing. No promises, but if MEU are unable to help, or aren’t able to do all of it, then that might be another avenue to explore. I did caution him that this would benefit – at most – about three people, but that “extraordinary enthusiasm” is not so easily dampened. :)

¹ And a Welsh teacher, too.

RISC DISC 2 – “MEU Cyrmu (Welsh versions of Paint Draw , Edit and Alarm)”

Considering the amount of text-snippets that @Sprow counted, I am very reluctant to take him up on his offer of translating it, but nice to see that he’s interested! I have no idea how feasible it would be to extract and detokenize the text from a localised install,

As Sprow pointed out there is an easy set of messages available for translation on each of the different ROM download pages.
The Raspberry Pi messages are here

Since we’re having a spot of Welsh… I was in Wales a long time ago, when I was about 8. So maybe 1981? A place called Pontyprid?
All these years later, I remember the one Welsh phrase they tried to teach me – yacky da. But what does it actually mean?

Hmm, I don’t remember the girl’s name. Just that it had loads of Fs and Ws in inexplicable places.

Welsh names, they’re basically like Irish names with the vowels missing, aren’t they? ☺

Oh… And holy shit. Places so beautiful it almost hurt to look at them. I guess a little bit of Wales rubbed off on me, look where I am now. It’s like endless amounts of quite similar scenery. And apparently Breton is sort of semi-comprehensible with Welsh, so… Devezh vat deoc’h! ¹ ;-)

¹ Have a nice day.

I remember the one Welsh phrase they tried to teach me – yacky da. But what does it actually mean?

iechyd da: good health (lit. health good)

I’ve said before, Welsh loves its vowels, and when it doesn’t think it has enough, it invites some consonants to get in on the act as well¹.

I’ve been thrown out of pubs all over the British Isles, and we are fortunate indeed to have some magnificent countryside which hasn’t been built on yet. I do agree that there is something particularly breathtaking about the Welsh mountains. I haven’t been to Wales for nearly two years, but when we eventually return to some semblance of normality I think I will spend a week hiking through some of the nicer spots. Maybe this summer if’n the weather and the lurgy be with us.

In Wales you would say joia dy ddiwrnod (enjoy your day), or if you are down wid’ da yoof, just joia.

I think I’ve used more Welsh in the last two days on this forum than I have in the previous twelve months.

¹ Y and W, and I once heard a clever person argue seriously that LL is also a vowel – but he was very drunk at the time.

I was initially surprised when out walking in Wales how many footpaths went to “llwybr cyhoeddus”. Very popular destination.

I created a GitHub ⁰ repository for the translations, with a branch for Swedish that I will work on, and another for Welsh, if I find that. I will document my progress (for Swedish) in this issue: https://github.com/skymandr/BCM2835-Translate/issues/1 (there is a corresponding issue for Cymraeg). Don’t hold your breath though! As @Richard suggested, I have also replied to MEU, explaining the extent of the work. We’ll see if anything comes out of it.

On another note, if we get native speakers that are willing to translate the text to some of the lesser known languages, especially the ones that are little supported by other systems, then we could at least add some exposure.

“Digital obsolescence” is a real threat to minority languages, so taking an active stance on this would be commendable. It would require active participation by native speakers though.

⁰ I picked GitHub over the ROOL GitLab server since I hope that it will be a little easier for others to contribute and it might give an iota of more exposure, but this might have been strategically wrong of me…