New Year, New advertising campaign?

[Misha Shnurapet]

21.02.2011, 09:28, "María Leandro" <tatica at fedoraproject.org>;:

>  Now, What made me focus on this ones? They are worldwide known. Being a non_en speaker (you can know by my terrible english) We should be thinking in an _easy, short and consistent between languages_ slogan that defines Fedora.

I like that "consistent between languages" thing. As a member of L10N team and Russian translation team coordinator I remember the hard times we've had trying to translate the four foundations into Russian [1]. The result came as either words starting with F but with a slightly different meaning making the translation pointless or words not starting with an F at all (because of the absence of a close equivalent with F) [2]. We then decided to leave it in the original. As a result, there is no Fedora slogan for the Russian community.

A slogan may consist of words that sound similar across different languages, such as those with Latin or Greek origin. Many of them are used on a regular basis in English while being understandable in sound by foreigners without a translation. For instance, the following are very similar to Spanish, French and Russian equivalents in sound or transliteration:

progress - el progresso - progrès - прогресс
style - estilo - style - стиль
phenomenon - fenómeno - phénomène - феномен
evolution - la evolución - évolution - эволюция
element - elemento - élément - элемент
vision - la visión - vision - виденье
alternative - alternativa - alternative - альтернатива
variant - variante - variante - вариант
illustration - ilustración - illustration - иллюстрация
maximum - máximo - maximum - максимум
project - proyecto - projet - проект
real - real - réel - реальный
result - resultado de la - résultat - результат
structure - estructura - structure - структура
trend - tendencia - tendance - тренд
center - centro - centre - центр
form - forma - forme - форма
function - función - fonction - функция
planet - planeta - planète - планета
criteria - criterios - critères - критерий
reputation - reputación - réputation - репутация
aspect - aspecto - aspect - аспект
privilege - privilegio - privilège - привилегия
collection - colección - collection - коллекция
license - licencia - licence - лицензия
genius - genio - génie - гениально
triumph - triunfo - triomphe - триумф
manifest - manifiesto - manifeste - манифест

and many other. Being such, these are easily (and quite naturally) translated into the languages.

The linguistic criteria has a special value for an international project. It would be reasonable to organize a vote to find the universal terms first.

[1] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Foundations/ru
[2] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Talk:Foundations/ru

-- 
Best regards,
Misha Shnurapet, Fedora Project Contributor
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Shnurapet
shnurapet AT fedoraproject.org, GPG: 00217306