Instant Messaging in Afrikaans

South Africa - Instant messaging (IM) is now available in Afrikaans, thanks to the efforts of the award-winning software translators, Translate.org.za. The Afrikaans version of the IM program Pidgin was released on its international web site this week.

The localized version of Pidgin gives users access to all of the program’s features, in their own language. Now South Africans can chat in Afrikaans without having to use the software in English. Efforts to localize the instant messenger into all of South Africa’s eleven official languages, are under way.

The translation is the brain child of Translate.org.za, winner of the 2006 ICT Achiever’s Award for the top NGO to bridge the digital divide. According to Dwayne Bailey, director of Translate.org.za, it is his company’s belief that computer programs are tools that should be adapted to its users - not the other way around. For this reason Pidgin has been updated to serve the needs of Afrikaans speaking users.

Instant messaging (IM) and related technologies like SMS play an increasingly important role in our modern world. The simple text messages enable friends and family across the globe to stay in touch, and many businesses are replacing old message notes with IM messages. Pidgin is a next-generation instant messenger.

The first generation of IM software allowed users to talk on a single network only, and only if they were using the same messenger client. The result was that it was difficult to stay in touch.

Pidgin can communicate over multiple networks, through multiple IM services, enabling its users to interact with others who do not have the same software installed on their computers. Thanks to Pidgin’s unified user interface, its users are not required to learn how to use several other chat programs. Pidgin can interact with Google Talk, MSN, Jabber, AIM, Yahoo!, and many other protocols.

Translate.org.za has been translating open-source computer software into South Africa’s eleven official languages since 2001. All of this work is released to the public for free. A patron programme allows companies and individuals who are passionate about language to support and increase the scope of this work.

With eleven official languages there is much work to be done. Pidgin needs to be translated into at least nine other languages. Translate.org.za welcomes volunteer translators to contribute online at pootle.translate.org.za. Passionate speakers of Afrikaans and other local languages who want to sponsor the development of software in their own languages, are invited to join the Translate.org.za patron programme.

Pidgin is free software and can be downloaded from: translate.org.za/pidgin.

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