around 422 million people speak Arabic, across 22 countries, with different accents. When it comes to localization, different Arab countries use different terms, in different domains. For example, in Syria, in accounting context, a product is called “مادة” while in countries such as Egypt or KSA it’s called “منتج”
I’m suggesting to have multiple Arabic translations, differentiated by countries, while keeping the general Arabic translation. I would start with Arabic (Syria) and then we can add more languages.
Many large software product support multiple Arabic translations, such as Microsoft Windows.
I’m new to Frappe/ERPNext, so if this suggestion is accepted, I would need some guidance on the steps needed to add this language to Frappe and ERPNext as a beginning
When i click on “Request New Language” I can’t find Arabic (Syria) in the list of provided languages, so i wrote it in the comment section and sent a request.
It didnt give back any response, so I’m not sure if my request was sent.
This is such a fine detail — I like it. Thank you for your input.
The support for the Arabic language is still lagging behind, and in my opinion, there are several significant improvements that would make a real difference, especially around DocTypes names and definitions. For example:
a) Singular and plural forms — قائمة المستخدم vs. قائمة المستخدمين
b) Masculine and feminine forms — إضافة مهمة جديدة vs. إضافة مستخدم جديد
Without these two features, no matter how complete the translation is, the system will never truly sound local or native.
The translation on Crowdin is about halfway complete, but these two points are more technical in nature. If anyone could shed some light on how to implement such features, it would be greatly appreciated.
Adding to what you said, some translations in Crowdin are just direct Google translations that lack context.
Public, for example was translated as جمهور, but its context implies that the correct translation is عام or عامة. It sometimes take too long for someone to review such minor translation fixes.
I do not agree that there should be different translations for Arabic based on country. There is the “العربية الفصحى” which should be sufficient to reach to a strong Arabic translation. After that, country or region based differences can be entertained.
If that is the case, then making the translation will be much better and easier.
The topic discuss certain differences that are inside the Modern Standard Arabic (العربية الفصحى الحديثة) - MSA, which is legitimate. This is not Dialect Arabic vs MSA, it is about MSA differences between the regions.
For example, August is called أغسطس in Egypt, and آب in Syria, and أوت in Algeria, and غشت in Morocco. All of these 4 translations are valid, but the selected translation depends on the region.
MSA differences have been acknowledged in the modern operating systems and keyboard languages (Arabic UAE, Arabic Syria, Arabic Egypt, Arabic Saudi Arabia, etc).
It is important to emphasizes these differences as part of providing localizations for the Arab region, as while achieving the 100% translation for the Arabic language is a great accomplishment, localization is key factor to popularize the framework across the Middle Eastern countries and enhancing accessibility.
The main MSA translation could be the blueprint all the other Arabic variation can take from and then alter as needed.
This would simplify the process of starting the new Arabic variations and facilitate the translations too.
I will try to work too,
You need to go to Translating Frappe to Arabic language - Crowdin
and translate the content for the desired frappe app (frappe and ERPNext should have the priority too.
Remember to check for the context of the translated string!!