Moroccan Arabic guidelines

[Tariq Daouda]

Hi all,

I just want to clarify some things. First of all even though both languages
share similar official names, Moroccan Arabic is so much influenced by it's
amazigh substrat that there's absolutely no inter-comprehension possible
between a speaker of Moroccan Arabic and a speaker of Arabic. The language
has it's own phonology, grammar, conjugation and vocabulary. This fact alone
justifies having a translation team. There's no way a Moroccan can
understand Arabic without very serious schooling, a dramatic fact if you
consider that Morocco has a literacy rate of only 50%.

The pan-arabism theory has no place in this discussion. The only way to be
apolitic here is to consider the fact that Arabic is de facto the mother
tongue of no one in the arab world, but is only a vehicular language used by
different people to communicate.

Best regards,

Tariq


2011/3/14 Khaled Hosny <khaledhosny at eglug.org>

> On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 06:38:19PM +0100, David Planella wrote:
> > El dl 14 de 03 de 2011 a les 18:58 +0200, en/na Khaled Hosny va
> > escriure:
> > > On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 05:37:13PM +0100, David Planella wrote:
> > > > El dl 14 de 03 de 2011 a les 18:22 +0200, en/na Khaled Hosny va
> > > > escriure:
> > > > > On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 05:09:08PM +0100, David Planella wrote:
> > > > > > El dg 13 de 03 de 2011 a les 23:16 -0400, en/na Tariq Daouda va
> > > > > > escriure:
> > > > > > > Hi all!
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > You can find our guidelines here :
> > > > > > > In french : Guidelines : (fr)
> > > > > > >
> http://www.ktbdarija.com/index.php?l=fr&p=02-R%C3%A9gles_d%quote%%C3%
> > > > > > > A9criture.php
> > > > > > > Moroccan Arabic : (arabic script) :
> > > > > > >
> http://www.ktbdarija.com/index.php?l=ary-ar&p=02-Qawanin%20l-k%E1%B9%
> > > > > > > ABaba.php, (latin script) :
> > > > > > >
> http://www.ktbdarija.com/index.php?l=ary&p=02-Qawanin%20l-k%E1%B9%
> > > > > > > ABaba.php
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Cheers,
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Tariq
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Hi Tariq,
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Thanks a lot for the great work in creating guidelines for your
> > > > > > translation team.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I've now added a link to the ones in Arabic script to
> > > > > > https://translations.launchpad.net/+groups/ubuntu-translators -
> let me
> > > > > > know if that looks good to you.
> > > > >
> > > > > I'm a bit confused, we already have Arabic translation team(s), so
> what
> > > > > is the Moroccan Arabic thing?
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > Hi Khaled,
> > > >
> > > > It is a result from this request:
> > > >
> > > > https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-translations/+question/117801
> > > >
> > > > If there is any area in which the teams overlap, I'd suggest you guys
> to
> > > > discuss collaboration or a merger between the teams.
> > >
> > > There is no much overlap, well there is no such thing as "Moroccan
> > > Arabic" as a formal language, only standard Arabic is used in writing
> or
> > > formal communications (taught in schools, written in books, journals
> and
> > > so), so it is pretty odd to have software UI in a colloquial dialect.
> > >
> >
> > When adding new languages to Ubuntu we do a quick check for that, but
> > please understand that when there is an ISO code available for a
> > language or variant, and there seems to be a genuine interest from the
> > requester, it is difficult for someone not directly familiar with the
> > main language to be able to make a definitive call for non-inclusion.
>
> I know about the ISO code, the problem is that ISO 639-2 is full of
> funny language codes on arbitrary bases (Egypt got 2, but following that
> logic Egypt should have a dozen on language codes at least).
>
> > > I'm afraid it give wrong political message about Ubuntu (like what
> > > happened with the so called "Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia").
> > >
> >
> > There shouldn't be any political connotation to it if there is
> > communication, which so far has been very civil. I'd suggest you guys
> > talk about it off-list and let us know what you want us to do: if the
> > team should be kept or taken away from the ubuntu-translators group.
>
> I'm not saying there should be, I'm only fearing it would happen.
>
> I myself would have been pretty angry if this happened few months ago; I
> would have felt threatened, but now after the Arabic revolution starting
> in Tunisia and spreading through Egypt all over the Arabic world I feel
> more confident about the Arabic unity, Arabs showed they are still one
> community speaking one language and suffering the same pain.
>
> So, as far I'm concerned, there is no problem to solve and I wish every
> one luck with there effort, I'm just worried how Ubuntu's
> current/potential users will see it (and believe me people are very
> religious about this issue).
>
> Regards,
>  Khaled
>
> P.S. Sorry for the politics, but I couldn't resist the opportunity :)
>
> --
>  Khaled Hosny
>  Egyptian
>  Arab
>
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