Today's computer software in Latin?

Here’s a bit of a left field one. I was thinking of having a go at adding Latin as a language option in a program that is used in day to day computer life. A web browser like firefox sprung to mind. I rekon it would be cool, in a wierd sort of way. Do you guys have any other program suggestions that could be translated?

It could be a laugh, sure :smiley: but you’d face a major problem in coining terms fit for the computer age. I’ve seen “situs interretialis” for internet site, but still… a job for a rather creative mind finding Latin equivalents for terms like HTML, browser, spreadsheet, URL etc. But the feasibility of your project, naturally, depends on the program of your choice…

I think I have seen a WinAmp plugin for Latin. I agree that the coinage is a problem. Not only do you have to generate terms (or look them up in a NL dictionary), but the odds of the user understanding the terms, particularly at first glance, are often low.

Google has had a latin option for some time, which I have always found amusing.

Mozilla would be a good choice since it’s open source and they’d go for it. There’s a list of neo-latin computer terms somewhere… don’t have the url handy but check the “outside links of interest” forum.

a latin skin for trillian would be fun, if their skin system would allow for it. If you do that, make sure you do it for the latest version since the older skins don’t seem to work.

Couldn’t you simply borrow the words from English and decline them? Not that I’d understand them in English either.

The problem is when you try to translate words like “Volume”, “Bass”, “Pitch”, “Internet”, “Browser”, “Play”, “Rewind”, etc for which there is often no Latin equivalent, and for which the Latin equivalent will never carry the modern electronic meaning. For example, you could translate volume as vox, magnitudo, or such, but when somebody sees the word “vox”, they are not going to immediately recognize this as a volume control; it could be for speech input, or to make something talk to you. If you see magnitudo, you would probably be more inclined to think it were a control to adjust size than a volume control. The absence of standards (or ignorance of them) makes this a difficult job for the translator and a more difficult job for the user (but that may be part of the fun ). :laughing: