Are you fluent in a modern language and would like to help the SuttaCentral project without knowing Pāli? Here’s how!
The SuttaCentral.net main website is designed to have the user interface translated into modern languages. Currently there are a few languages with the interface translated:
There are about 290 lines to be translated, some as short as one word. Altogether there are about 1400 words. Depending on your skill, it will probably take from 1 to 3 hrs.
How to get started
Post a comment to let us know what you want to work on.
Go to this web page and download the file using this button:
In a text editor (like Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac), replace the second part of each line with the translation into the target language. For example, in this line:
"dictionary:activateChineseLookup": "Activate Chinese word lookup",
Leave "dictionary:activateChineseLookup": and translate Activate Chinese word lookup
We can also give you a spreadsheet with the text, including an auto-translation by Google to get you started.
When you are done
Post a link to the finished file in this thread. We will work on getting it uploaded to the site and ready for the public to use.
There are, of course, other parts of the website that can be translated, including Bhante Sujato’s essays. Most of the files found here can be translated, although to do those you should probably be set up on the Bilara translation software.
If you are interested or just have questions, please comment below.
If you know someone on the forum who might like to help, please mention them using an @ before their user name in a comment below. If you know someone not on the forum who might like to help, please show them this thread.
What a coincidence early this morning, I messaged Bhante @sujato for my translation for Iti. 58 Taṇhāsutta on a free-translation based which usually kept for my own & friends use only.
I am ready to translate to Indonesian. However, it is based on the english version of the Bhante @sujato translation not based on the pali version.
I am also currently translated to Indonesian the Āgama from @cdpatton English version.
“Interface translation is the process in which every sentence, details, information, and guidelines on a website are translated. In computer language, every translatable content on a website is called a ‘string’. Identifying and translating a string is not something that just about everyone can do. Interface translation is a very complicated process and more often than not, it requires a third-party program. With the help of the program, people can access the strings and then translate them one by one. But even then, it is not something that someone unfamiliar with computer terms can handle.”
I would like to volunteer, but I’m totally low-tech, and have a project to translate some suttas into Thai after surviving Bhante Sujato’s Pali course. May I ask the amount of work needed (word count?)?
Oh, I don’t think the text you quoted represents well what needs to be done at all. Sorry I wasn’t more clear. Most of the work in that paragraph has to do with the setup that is already coded into the website. Also, there aren’t many specialty computer terms that need translating.
Go to this file. Ignore everything on the page except the text in this section:
Each line contains a bit of the interface to translate. They start with a key, e.g. "badge:aligned". Then it is followed by the part that needs to be translated, e.g. “aligned”. It’s a little hard to tell, but the part to be translated is what is in blue.
What might be tricky is that the text in the file is completely removed from its context. So, for example, those first three words appear on the SuttaPlex cards.
We can certainly work through those questions in this thread.
I should also mention that not every single item must be translated, although that is the eventual goal. I realize that some of the items might actually be more confusing for users in their local language than they would be in the English if they are completely unfamiliar terms.
Does that make sense?
To get started, you could download the text file by clicking here:
You would want to then edit it in a text editor like NotePad (not a word processor like MSWord)
I can also generate a spreadsheet with the English and an attempt by Google Translate to render it into your target language, like this for Thai.
The “interface” file itself has 313 strings of terms. This is a good start and will help people to navigate SuttaCentral in their own language. If someone likes, there’s of course always more that can be done, and some of the essays for example are really long!
Thank you to @Dheerayupa and @kora for considering. In the mean time, are there any other Thai speakers who might like to help?
There are a large number of Norwegian, Italian, Spanish and Bengali translations on the site. Does anyone know folks who might be able to translate the interface for those languages?
Dear @Snowbird (sadhu bhante)
Could I kindly ask you to confirm whether we have 100% of what is needed translated into Portuguese?
And, if not, point me where / how to find the missing bits not yet translated?
I am very keen to make sure we have the Portuguese rendering of SuttaCentral as complete as possible.
I can do the Hindi and Gujarati and with a bit of help Marathi (my Marathi is a bit rusty but I have family members who are native speakers).
The original post doesn’t say what to do after you download the file and make the translation changes. Could you please give a gist of the final step?
