• cgtjsiwy@programming.dev
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    9 months ago

    As a Finnish speaker, I just can’t see generic localisation systems like Fluent working with agglutinative languages. For instance, consider the Polish example for Firefox Account from Fluent’s front page:

    -sync-brand-name = {$case ->
       *[nominative] Konto Firefox
        [genitive] Konta Firefox
        [accusative] Kontem Firefox
    }
    

    In Finnish, this would be called Firefox-tili. Tili means account and belongs to the Kotus type 5 words, which specifies how the word is inflected with various suffixes. Fluent doesn’t support agglutination, so you’d have to specify every form of the word separately:

    -sync-brand-name = {$case ->
        [nominative] Firefox-tili
        [partitive] Firefox-tiliä
        ... 10ish more inflections
        [nominative first person] Firefox-tilini
        [partitive first person] Firefox-tiliäni
        ... 10ish more inflections
        ... the above inflections but for 2nd and 3rd persons
        [nominative first person plural] Firefox-tilimme
        [partitive first person plural] Firefox-tiliämme
        ... 10ish more inflections
        ... the above inflections but for 2nd and 3rd persons plural
        [nominative first person questioning] Firefox-tilinikö
        [no idea what this is even called] Firefox-tilittömänäkin
        [no idea what this is even called 2] Firefox-tililleensäkään
        ... lots more
    }
    

    Ideally, you’d only specify that Firefox-tili is a type 5 word and the system generates all of that boilerplate.

    • morrowind
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      9 months ago

      I don’t know finnish, all of these are different ways to say “firefox account”? That’s wild

      • cgtjsiwy@programming.dev
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        9 months ago

        all of these are different ways to say “firefox account”?

        Basically yes. The idea is that each suffix represents something that’s typically a separate word in English, and you can mix and match suffixes just as you’d mix words.

        • my account -> tilini
        • to an account -> tilille
        • to my account -> tililleni
        • to my account too -> tilillenikin