🚀 go-pugleaf

Here's the consolidated answers for my original two questions:

     What are the five most popular languages for localization?  Why?

     What are the five most popular minor (your definition) languages
     for localization?  Why?

The answers are presented in four sections:

     1. Consolidated counts of the top five most popular languages
        for localization

     2. Consolidated counts of the top five most popular "minor"
        languages for localization

     3. The answers as originally submitted by the respondents

     4. Jeff's (gratuitous) questions about the results


Jeff
INSOFT-L List Manager

*========================================================================*
 Jeff Bowyer                         EMail:
 Computing Center		     jbowyer@cis.vutbr.cz
 Technical University of Brno
 Udolni 19, 602 00 BRNO
 Czech Republic
*========================================================================*


1. Here are the consolidated counts of the top five most popular languages
   for localization (8 respondents):

German                  7
French                  7
Spanish                 6
Italian                 6
Japanese                4
Swedish                 2
Arabic                  1
Dutch                   1
French-Canadian         1
Hebrew                  1
Korean                  1
Portuguese              1
Scandinavian            1


2. Here are the consolidated counts of the top five most popular "minor"
   languages for localization (4 respondents):

Japanese                2
Arabic                  1
Basque                  1
Brazilian               1
Breton                  1
Danish                  1
Estonian                1
Irish Gaelic            1
Latin-America Spanish   1
Latvian                 1
Lithuanian              1
Norwegian               1
Portuguese              1
Russian                 1
Samish                  1
Scandinavian            1
Scottish Gaelic         1
Swedish                 1
Welsh                   1


3. Here are the actual responses from which the consolidated counts were
   derived:

Sender: AppleMan <adelman@yu1.yu.edu>

For me, the most important language for localization is Hebrew because
1)due to the nature of some of the software I'm writing, having the Hebrew
script system available is essential for my software to run at all (names
of the months of the Jewish calendar don't exist in English, and people
who would care to run what I'm writing would probably want it to run in
Hebrew, not English), and 2)Hebrew is MY language.  I believe that
computers should cater to the tastes of their users, so if I want my
computer to operate in Hebrew, it better be doing everything in Hebrew.

I would also like to object to the term "minor language".  No language is
"minor" to anyone who believes that language to be important (e.g., native
speakers).


Sender: bptatro@trans2.b30.ingr.com (Brian Tatro)

That's easy. For us, it's the following in descending order:

German-French
Spanish
Japanese
Italian


Sender: daves@borland.com (David B. Schnepper)

>

French (Major market, not overly acceptive of English)
German (ditto)
Japanese (ditto)
Spanish (Several medium sized markets)
Italian

>
> What are the five most popular minor (your definition) languages for
> localization?  Why?

Latin-America Spanish
Brazilian
Swedish
Danish
Norwegian


Sender: "Kevin C. Gross" <0004056890@mcimail.com>

>What are the five most popular languages for localization?  Why?

In no particular order, French, French Canadian, German, Italian, and
Spanish.  Because we get a good ROI on them.  Which is because the
languages are single-byte, and the countries involved cover a fair
amount of the world and have good existing markets into which to
distribute, sell, and support products.

>What are the five most popular minor (your definition) languages for
>localization?  Why?

On the second tier would be Japanese and Scandanavian languages.


Sender: luism@sybase.com (Luis Miguel)

>
> What are the five most popular languages for localization?  Why?
>
Japanese
French
German
Are the top three as far as I know.

Reason: market size (in $$$$'s).

> What are the five most popular minor (your definition) languages for
> localization?  Why?
>
Don't know.....


Sender: Michael Bunney <mikebu@microsoft.com>

French and German are the biggest markets after English.
Then come Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Swedish (not
necessarily in that exact order).

The most popular languages for localization are the biggest
markets.  Localising a complex product is obviously very
expensive, and you have to consider whether you can sell
enough of a given product in a given language to justify the
expense.


Sender: Michael Everson <@earn.cvut.cz:EVERSON@IRLEARN.UCD.IE>

>What are the five most popular languages for localization?  Why?

Treating English as default, I'd say it's German, French, Spanish,
Japanese, and then probably DanoNorwegoSwedish/Dutch/Italian/Korean
/Arabic tie for fifth place. Why? There's so much money to be made.

>What are the five most popular minor (your definition) languages for
>localization?  Why?
Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Breton, Basque, Latvian,
Lithuanian, Estonian and Samish. Why? Because they deserve to be.

Just one minority-localizer's opinion.


Sender: Nadine Kano <nadinek@microsoft.com>

Major:  French, German, Swedish, Spanish, Italian  -- why? biggest markets
Minor:  Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Arabic -- growing markets

my 2 cents


4. Jeff's Questions about the Results

   Why didn't anyone answer Chinese as a most popular language for
   localization?

   Why did only one person answer Russian?

   Why did only two people answer Arabic?


   Aren't Chinese, Russian, and Arabic HUGE markets?


   Why didn't anyone answer Czech as a most popular minor language for
   localization?  The Czech Republic has over 8 million highly educated
   people, PCs practically everywhere I look (even in little used book
   stores!), and the most stable economy of any formerly Communist