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OpenOffice.org In Swahili

Posted by timothy on from the beatcha dept.

linhux writes "A reported on Gnuheter (in Swedish) and elsewhere, OpenOffice.org has been translated to Swahili in a joint collaboration effort of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and a company called IT+46, and funded by the university and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Neither Microsoft Office nor Windows supports Swahili. Currently, only the Tanzanian dialect has been completed, but Kenyan, Congo and Ugandan dialects are on their way. It's called Jambo OpenOffice and is part of the Kilinux Open Swahili Localization Project."

3 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Jambo! by CptSkydrop · · Score: 5, Informative

    Jambo is swahili for hello (AFAIK).

  2. Uhm... folks? by greenman42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why the joking about the Swahili translation? Yes, it seens to be a small market. But please remember that Swahili is something like the 7th most commonly spoken language in the world. It's a well-known trade language in East- and Central Africa, and in a hugely polyglot culture, the trade languages are very important. Swahili is an official language in Kenya, and Tanzania, and probably in Rwanda and Uganda as well. Think about this: it could be that the proliferation of high-tech tools in underdeveloped areas is hindered by the lack of working software in local languages. Would you like to learn Swahili just to read the help files in Gnumeric? This is a big deal - most especially because it was done by Swahili speaking techs at a Swahili speaking school (Okay, so Tanzanian colleges teach in English mostly - all the students speak Kiswahili.) The fact that a local community took sofware and adapted it to their needs is the very essence of open source. Nafurahi Chuoo Kikuu Cha Dar Es Salaam cha kufasiri OO.O! (I love the University of Dar for translating Open Office.)

    --
    Yup.
  3. Re:African Market? by mdiep · · Score: 5, Informative
    How much of an emerging market is Africa? Is Swahili a real barrier to entry for a potential African Consumer? Really what I ma asking is is there a market that MS is missing out on in Africa by not having Swahili? If so this is a major blow to them, if not, then I'm not sure this makes much difference at all.
    There isn't much of one. All Tanzanians and Kenyans speak English. Kids are required to use it in school starting around age 10. If you can get over their pronunciation, communication isn't a problem.

    The official language in Tanzania is Swahili, so a translation there makes some sense. But the official language in Kenya is English, so it seems a bit silly. It's also considered cool to speak English (and uncool to speak Swahili) in Kenya, unlike Tanzania.

    As an additional note, the signs BP gas stations in Kenya say "welcome" in English, while the ones in Tanzania say "welcome" in Swahili.