Anglicisms, computing and Linux

I liked the article by El Tux Eléctrico entitled «Reasons to have our Linux in English«, Those who know me more closely know that I like it and I am quite heavy with spelling, I like the Spanish language and learning to use it, although my writing is not perfect (I'm wrong and I know it) I try to write well and I love it correcting details of others (yes, sometimes I am a spelling Taliban). It is part of my way of being.

Anglicisms have always bothered me, they do not seem reprehensible to me but they are often abused and on many occasions they are used arbitrarily, casting English words that already exist in the language.

What El Tux Eléctrico postulates it's the opposite, postulate that we can summarize (it is not a verbatim quote) in:

Computer science is linguistically English from the beginning, when translating its concepts the meaning is lost and therefore we should use Linux in English, it would make life easier for everyone.

The first is a concrete fact, from the functions of the programming languages ​​to the names of some of the keys are in English.

But then come the problems, if it is about Latin America even more, because the command of another language is the privilege of those who by profession were forced to study it, public education does not offer a level of learning that allows the majority to understand by omission a fully English operating system.

In my personal case I use (curiously) the browser in English and the email in the same language, all this however due to additional features (in the case of email) or location of the repositories and although it is not problematic for me to use them, I would happily use it in Chilean Spanish.

performant

By using a language other than their own, a novice user who does not speak the language can learn to operate a program by heart and completely ignore what "Save Link As" means in the browser, for example. With Linux it is exactly the same, I think about access to information and I think it is important to protect the use of the language and know how to use it to give access to new users and not give them more problems.

If the equivalences they are a problem, it is enough that we use a dictionary: file and file are different words to represent the same thing, what in English is called «fillet«. I do not think that a Spaniard is so confused with a program with translation for Mexico because instead of saying file, the word "file" appears, with a google search or, come on, in a thesaurus, that's it. The geolocation of the programs and systems does not make the systems indecipherable, at least in Spanish, it seems exaggerated to think so.

Easily 80% of computer concepts in English are translatable without inventing neologisms. And why does it seem so important to me? Because using descriptive words and in our language helps users understand how things work.

I give an example with a word that is always used in English but could perfectly be translated:

«Router» -> Router

"Router" sounds abstract, but with "router" you better understand what the device doing the work is for.

«Login» -> Authentication Authentication.

«Performance» -> Performance (: P)

And so. Not, I'm not saying that Linux console commands are translatedIt would be like asking for the personal names of an English to be translated, but it seems to me that the more Spanishized the system is, the better unless the word doesn't even stick as (in the case of LXA!) "bitacorero", we say "Blogger" or "blogger" which is an Anglicism adapted to Spanish morphology and we use it because there is no other alternative.

If people want to learn how to use Linux, let's not complicate it further. By using another language we alienate people from Linux.