A couple of days ago when I wrote about how In Vista, jackdaws appear to be somewhat endangered, I mentioned

...both strings are actually in Message Compiler resources which means they could actually be localized (though note that the above algorithm means that localization might make the situation worse here, not better. On top of that, what do you do when you have a font with no latins in it? By this algorithm, they will just get another Latin script string which will still have to use font linking to find the glyphs to display.

With the help of Claus Juhl (you my recall him from the Channel 9 video I posted about last August), I was able to look to see what the localizers for the various Windows language releases did to to both strings:

  • The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
  • Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz.

Here are some of the highlights....

First of all, Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz was not localized for any language. You can contemplate what this means for the algorithm I posted. :-)

Second of all, this is clearly a problem like the one from 'Cette phrase en français est difficile à traduire en anglais', since it clearly not intended that an actual translation of 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' be done. What is desired is a pangram covering the letters in the target language.

Let's see how it worked out with a bunch of those languages:

Arabic: ‏‏من طلب العلا سهر الليالي. 

Bulgarian: Вкъщи не яж сьомга с фиде без ракийка и хапка люта чушчица!

Chinese (PRC): The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog1.

Chinese (Taiwan): 微風迎客，軟語伴茶

Czech: Příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy!

Danish: Quizdeltagerne spiste jordbær med fløde, mens cirkusklovnen Walther spillede på xylofon.

Dutch: Pa's wijze lynx bezag vroom het fikse aquaduct.

Finnish: Tämä on malliteksti.

French: Voix ambiguë d'un cœur qui au zéphyr préfère les jattes de kiwis.

German: Franz jagt im komplett verwahrlosten Taxi quer durch Bayern.

Greek: Θέλει αρετή και τόλμη η ελευθερία (Ανδρέας Κάλβος).

Hebrew: ‏‏דג סקרן שט לו בים זך אך לפתע פגש חבורה נחמדה שצצה כך. 

Hindi: सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिंदोस्तां हमारा. 

Hungarian: Árvíztűrő tükörfúrógép ÁRVÍZTŰRŐ TÜKÖRFÚRÓGÉP

Italian: Cantami o Diva del pelide Achille l'ira funesta.

Japanese: Windows でコンピュータの世界が広がります。

Korean: 다람쥐 헌 쳇바퀴에 타고파.

Norwegian: En god stil må først og fremst være klar. Den må være passende. Aristoteles.

Polish: Zażółć gęślą jaźń.

Portuguese (Brazilian): abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.

Portuguese (Iberian): A rápida raposa castanha salta em cima do cão lento.

Russian: Съешь еще этих мягких французских булок, да выпей чаю.

Slovak: Kŕdeľ ďatľov učí koňa žrať kôru.

Slovenian: V kožuščku hudobnega fanta stopiclja mizar in kliče

Spanish: El veloz murciélago hindú comía feliz cardillo y kiwi. La cigüeña tocaba el saxofón detrás del palenque de paja.

Swedish: Flygande bäckasiner söka hwila på mjuka tuvor.

Turkish: abcçdefgğhıijklmnoöpqrsştuüvwxyz.

My favorites are Japanese and Iberian Portuguese.

How about yours? :-)

You may be wondering why I tagged this post with 'Unicode Lame List' -- just keep in mind how poor all of these sentences are at dealing with the issue of showing what makes a font unique to any user who might be curious. Just remember, it is not really the localizers who are lame here -- it is the implementation....


1 - When it doubt, don't translate? :-)

 

This post brought to you by ဆ (U+1006, a.k.a. MYANMAR LETTER CHA)