While they've been around for a while now, not many people (at least not in India) know about the various Language Packs available for Windows and Office.
While these aren't completely translated interfaces, they at least provide a partially translated user interfaces, including menus and dialogue boxes.
I've tried out the following -
Marathi and Hindi Language Packs for Windows XP
Marathi and Hindi Language Packs for Office 2003
Marathi Language Pack for Office 2007
Hindi Language Pack for Windows Vista
and they seem to be pretty good. Of course, there exist a lot of chinks in the armour yet to be ironed out, about which I'll elaborate a little later.
Here are the links from where the Language Interface Packs can be downloaded (the site is in German, but the links are pretty much self-explanatory):
Windows XP | Office 2003 | Windows Vista | Office 2007
Coming back to the translation itself, I've tried out the Marathi interfaces of Windows XP and Office 2003 extensively, and can't help feeling that the translation's a bit over-the-top. By that I mean, sarkārī Sanskritised language. With 'Start' becoming प्रारंभ /pra:rəmbʱ/ and 'default' becoming नित्यस्थिती /nit̪jəst̪ʰit̪i/, it's still too artificial for my liking and I can't help feeling, these will never become layman's terms.
At least 'Desktop' has simply been transliterated into डेस्कटॉप /ɖe:skʈɔp/.
In Office 2007, ‘default’ has been changed to simply डिफॉल्ट /ɖifɔlʈ/.
Unfortunately, ‘computer’ still remains संगणक /səŋɡəɳək/ in all versions so far.
One finds that very often, the English terms for certain objects or ideas are much more popular than their original Marathi terms. Some words that come to mind are (quite randomly) –
ऍडव्हान्स /æɖwʱa:ns/ advance (in the sense of payment made in advance)
पार्टी /pa:rʈi:/ party (a political or other grouping)
डेंजर /ɖe:nɟər/danger (also used as an adjective in place of ‘dangerous’)
and of course, कम्प्यूटर /kəmpju:ʈər/ or कॉम्प्यूटर /kɔmpju:ʈər/ computer
Somehow, the general Indian (and South Asian, I'm guessing) mindset is that using loanwords from English compromises the sanctity of the language and one must use 'pure' words as much as possible.
Now, this would have some meaning if the so-called alternative 'pure' words were actually derived from the base language, i.e., Hindi or Marathi as the case may be.
What it practically means, is that the alternative 'pure' word will be derived from Sanskrit, very often resulting in these words being more confusing than the already-popular English terminology.
Somehow, it doesn't seem to matter that these terms are not even remotely in popular use. They are still supposed to be the 'correct' terms, with the result that the lovely idea of enabling the common man to use computers in his native tongue actually becomes an advanced level Sanskrit lesson.
Users of the Urdu LIP may replace Sanskrit in the above context with Arabic or Persian, and may thus identify with the situation as well. I've yet to try out the Urdu LIP, but I have a gut feeling it's not going to be much different, with simple terms like 'change' بدلیں /bəd̪̪lẽ̃:/ becoming تبدیل کریں /t̪əbd̪̪i:l kərẽ̃:/.
All said and done, these LIP’s are at least a start for us to start computing in our native tongues. We can indulge in the luxury of nit-picking later, when their use actually becomes widespread.
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