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By Peter Westwood

Getting started

Update 2015-11-09: Note that since this was published four years ago, the technical aspects of translations have changed. Projects in GlotPress do need to be 95+% translated for language packs to be deployed with core, plugins and themes. This post is kept for posterity.

I thought it was time we got started on a “proper” English translation of WordPress so here we are.

The plan for the first version of the translation is to go through GlotPress and remove any translations which don’t change the text and just focus on fixing up the pesky z’s and color’s so that everything is spelt correctly.

en-gb is probably the only translation that will never appear in GlotPress as 100% complete because most of the strings don’t need translation and therefore shouldn’t be translated so I am going through and rejecting any translations which don’t change the string as these will just fill up the translation file unnecessarily and increase the memory usage of WordPress when running the en-gb locale.

If you want to help out then please head over to GlotPress and search for strings which need translating –

12 responses to “Getting started”

  1. WordPress yn ‘Saesneg go iawn’ | Hacio'r Iaith

    […] https://en-gb.wordpress.org/2011/08/22/getting-started/   […]

  2. Carl Morris avatar
    Carl Morris

    Pesky ‘z’s? Maybe you’re thinking of something specific but I know that ‘ise’ and ‘ize’ are both valid English English. It’s largely a matter of taste.
    http://oxforddictionaries.com/page/spellingizeiseyse?view=uk

    1. Peter Westwood avatar
      Peter Westwood

      Yes in some case both are valid UK English but in general most people use the ‘ise’ versions over the ‘ize’ versions in my experience

  3. Jonny avatar
    Jonny

    This is excellent work!! Had a quick look through en-gb GlotPress – seems like you have already got the obvious ones;)

  4. Mark Allen avatar
    Mark Allen

    Excellent work – looking forward to the first version of this being launched.

    CSS has already ruined my spelling of colo(u)r for ever…

  5. Caesar Schinas avatar
    Caesar Schinas

    Great work Westi; it’s nice to see someone finally getting a British localisation going. I’d been going to volunteer to do so myself, and would be happy to help out (though it’s obviously a pretty simple localisation and shouldn’t need much work…)
    You mention rejecting any translations which don’t change the string, but I see there are quite a lot of those approved still.
    I’m not sure about “Good day” as a replacement for “Howdy” – it sounds a bit funny. No more so than Howdy, but still… what about “Welcome”, or even “Hello”? I’d welcome some discussion among the British WordPress community about how we would like this translated.
    When do you expect to have a localised download available?

  6. Joe Wakeling avatar
    Joe Wakeling

    In fact, you need TWO versions for British English — en-GB and en-GB-oed 🙂 The latter keeps many of the z’s 🙂

    See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_spelling

    1. Peter Westwood avatar
      Peter Westwood

      😀

  7. John Sulman avatar
    John Sulman

    Having only just now come across WordPress, I was dismayed to find no authoritative answer was ever given to the claim by Carl Morris that the spelling -ize was a matter of taste. It was a matter of derivation and 70 years ago Oxford insisted on a classical education whatever you were reading. The suffix -ise came through the French, but certain verbs, directly from the Greek fourth conjugation ending of -izein. These were mainly contrived portmanteau words, the only one that now comes to mind, appropriately, is Graeicize.
    US spelling betrays little knowledge of French but just a smattering of Greek usage. May I add that I am no language freak. I read Maths & Physics.

  8. Simon avatar
    Simon

    Well Done and Thanks. I hate publishing stuff written in what is in fact a foreign language!
    You might need to check the rules for apostrophes though 😉 as in,
    “…focus on fixing up the pesky z’s and color’s so that everything is spelt correctly.” Where the zs and the colours are simply in the plural, no apostrophes are needed. Difficult little blighters to get right, in my humble view.

  9. David T avatar
    David T

    Further to Simon’s comments on the use of apostrophes, I disagree about zs although I fully support colours (or colors, if you insist)

    Carl Morris was not in error.

    Oxford Dictionaries says this: (NOT say this!)

    ~~

    There are one or two cases in which it is acceptable to use an apostrophe to form a plural, purely for the sake of clarity:

    you can use an apostrophe to show the plurals of single letters:

    I’ve dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s.

    Find all the p’s in appear.

    you can use an apostrophe to show the plurals of single numbers:

    Find all the number 7’s.

    These are the only cases in which it is generally considered acceptable to use an apostrophe to form plurals: remember that an apostrophe should never be used to form the plural of ordinary nouns, names, abbreviations, or numerical dates.

    You can read more rules and guidelines about apostrophes on the Oxford Dictionaries blog. Here you will find further examples of correct and incorrect use of apostrophes.

    ~~

    Now, please pass the potato’s !

  10. Ulla avatar
    Ulla

    English is a dynamic language. It develops and changes all the time. While different versions will persist, the mainstream is the American version. Trying to preserve what will not last may have the terrible consequence of turning you into a Frenchman

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