Recent changes
Thank you for starting this discussion, Ibrahima!
My general recommendation is that in the user interface translation there should be uniformity of spelling and terminology. For example, the same word should always be used for things like "help", "template", "edit", "log in", "user", "page", etc. Please go over the page Translating:MediaWiki/Basic glossary, translate all the terms there by clicking "Translate this page" ("Traduire cette page") at the top, and consistently use these terms in all the interface translation.
You should also write a page that explains other rules for translating into Fula, which are not covered by the basic glossary. Here are examples of such pages for other languages:
There are several others. Cover things such as standard spelling (and link to external rules), style, register, syntax, etc. As much as possible, refer to external sources, such as dictionaries and standard spelling and style guides.
Currently, only one "global" variety of Fula is allowed, under the macro code "ff". It is technically possible to allow translation to other varieties if anyone thinks it is justified, but before it's enabled, it should be thoroughly discussed and explained.
When it comes to Wikipedia articles, you can perhaps be more lenient and allow different styles, but you should write a policy page about this in the Fula Wikipedia (not in translatewiki). For examples of how it's done in other languages, see these pages:
- English: w:en:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Spelling
- French: w:fr:Wikipédia:Conventions de style, w:fr:Wikipédia:Difficultés de la langue française
- Arabic: w:ar:ويكيبيديا:دليل الأسلوب/اللغة
- Catalan: w:ca:Viquipèdia:Llibre d'estil/Variants lingüístiques (I know Catalan quite well, and the Google translation of this page is good. I think that this policy is quite good, and you can copy it to Fula. But it's up to you to decide.)
- Examples in many more languages: m:Language guides
Thank you so much for your help. Regarding the gloss on the interface, I'm glad that Ibrahim is in touch here because that will help a lot to have a balance/neutral ground where the words will be in favor of all the dialects and will help us to explain to other editors in our region as to what they mean (when it happens that certain words are not from our dialects). Regarding the following words to be use as namespaces on the interface here is our suggestions as Nigerian Fulah:
- Annɗal cuɓɓangal, or Jefeere - Special
- Yeewtere, or Bolle - talk
- Hinɗinɗe, or kutirowoo - user
- Yeewtere kutirowoo - user talk
- Yeewtere Wikipediya - Wikipedia talk
- Kirowal - file
- bolle kirowal - file talk
- Habbaruji yeewtere wiki - media wiki talk (but I have seen somewhere Ibrahim have translated Media as Mejaaje which can also be okay for us)
- Deppe bolle - template talk
- Ballitinɗe or ballital - help
- Yeewtere ballital- help talk
- Huuɗeeji - category
- Deppe - template