Linguistic inferiority in software localization

Lahousseine Id-youss & Abied Alsulaiman

Software localization constitutes an important economic and cultural activity. It involves producing a version of a software product in a different language (the target language) than the language of the original version (the source language). The technical challenges associated with software localization seem to receive more attention from field specialists, while linguistic matters are considered secondary in importance. This article aims to highlight linguistic requirements in software localization through a study of the Arabic localized version of Skype. In particular, we will demonstrate that the linguistic approach adopted by the localizer is largely literal, and this has ramifications for product quality.

Table of contents

The software industry is considered one of the most rapidly growing economic sectors. This rapid growth can be attributed to increasing computational power and to innovative developments in programming languages. Every day new programs are being developed to perform a variety of tasks and to solve all kinds of problems. As a rule of thumb, the success of any software product depends on the number of users it attracts. The more it sells, the more successful it is.

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