Re: [PATCH 0/1] Arabic scripts: More fixes after the recent import from CLDR-31

[Mike FABIAN <mfabian at redhat dot com>]

Zack Weinberg <zackw@panix.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 4, 2017 at 6:52 AM, Rafal Luzynski
> <digitalfreak@lingonborough.com> wrote:
>> 1.07.2017 03:19 Rafal Luzynski <digitalfreak@lingonborough.com> wrote:
>>> [...]
>>> ar_DZ, ar_MA, ar_TN: although CLDR does not provide abbreviated
>>> month names I tried to follow the convention which abbreviates the
>>> month names to their first 3 characters and here is the result:
>>> month names imported and abbreviated.
>>
>> OK, this idea turned out to be wrong and this makes whole patch
>> need a rework.  Probably we should drop the abbreviated forms
>> in Arabic scripts unless they come from CLDR or are verified
>> by a native speaker.
>
> Yes, I think that's the best plan.  I don't speak Arabic myself, but I
> know enough about the *script* to know that abbreviating words is
> going to be more complicated than in most languages.

Yes, just using the first 3 letters will cause the 3rd letter to be
rendered as a final form which will look wrong if before abbreviating
the 3rd letter was in the middle of the word and rendered as a medial
form.

In https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=17225 Muhammad Fawwaz Orabi writes:

"... would be OK as an abbreviated form (still not very much used)"

and:

"... should not be changed (this is the FULL form, but it should not be
changed because abrreviated forms are not familiar in Arabic)"

For the Arabic locales, CLDR has the same strings for the abbreviated
month names as for the full month names, probably because 3 letter
abbreviations are not commonly used in Arabic.

We should probably just follow CLDR here.

-- 
Mike FABIAN <mfabian@redhat.com>