04 · Many languages

The fruit is the same; those who name it speak differently.

Two different languages: the website's and the text's

In Baobáxia two things can be in different languages:

• the website's language — buttons, menus, notices. It is in the address (/pt-BR/, /en-US/…) and is changed in the ☰ menu;
• the text's language of each saber — title, description and body.

The same saber can have its text in several languages. When you change the website's language, the saberes that have a version in that language show up in it — in the Archive, on the Blog, on the saber's page, in books.

The Languages row

On the page of a saber in several languages there is a Languages row:

• each chip is a version of the text. Click to read it in that language without changing the website's language (the address gets ?idioma=pt, for example);
• the green chip is the one on screen;
• + translate into… (for people who can edit) opens the editor already in the chosen language.

If you ask for a language the saber doesn't have yet, a notice appears: "there is no Italian version — showing Portuguese", with a shortcut to translate it.

Translating in the editor

In Edit, the title, description and body have language tabs:

• the tab with ● is the saber's original language;
• + language adds a language; the × on a tab removes that version;
• under each field, in italics, the original appears, so you can translate while looking at it;
• saving stores all versions together. Changing one doesn't touch the others.
• the file captions follow the open tab: write each photo's or track's caption in each language. Readers see the one in their language (or the original, if there's none yet).

When creating a saber, the text's language is the one in Writing in, next to the title (chapter 02).

Automatic translation

The mucua may have an automatic translator that works without internet, for the main languages (Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, French). It makes a draft — the person translating reviews it and only then saves.

• If your mucua has the translator, the tab of a new language shows the button 🌐 Translate automatically from Português. Click, wait a few seconds per sentence, review, save.
• If your mucua doesn't, you see 🌐 Request automatic translation. The request travels through the network; a mucua with the translator does it, and the draft comes back with the sync. When it arrives, the editor shows: Automatic translation draft… — Use draft / Discard. Use draft fills the tab for you to review.

The translator makes mistakes — especially with names, community words and metaphors. Always read before saving. Indigenous languages are left out of automatic translation on purpose: in them the machine gets too much wrong, and a wrong text looks as if it were written by someone who speaks the language.

Which languages the mucua offers

Whoever looks after the mucua chooses the languages offered in the translation menus: on the mucua's page, Edit → Languages of this mucua. You can include indigenous languages (Guarani, Quechua, A'uwẽ, Yorùbá…) so people can write versions in them.

Another work, another language

Sometimes the version in another language is another work: the dubbed video, the translated and printed book, the re-recorded audio. Then it isn't a tab: it is another saber, linked to the first by the translation of relation (in Relations, on the saber's page). Translations like these appear in the Languages row with an arrow ↗.

To talk about in the circle

• In which languages does the community speak, sing, pray? Which of them are in the archive?
• Who can review automatic translations before publishing?