Replace asterisk with double colon for gender-neutral representation in German translation

Translation issues
1

Copy of Replace asterisk with double colon for gender-neutral representation in German translation since I seem to need to ask in a community forum to get feedback from the corporate developers.

As a German-speaking user of Passbolt, I propose to replace the use of the asterisk sign * with the double colon : for gender-neutral representation in German translation strings solely to improve the readability.

There are four popular ways to (more or less) write German with gender-neutrality in mind.

Each with an example:

  • Alex hat gerade ihr*sein Konto bei Passwort aktiviert!
  • Alex hat gerade ihr/sein Konto bei Passwort aktiviert!
  • Alex hat gerade ihr:sein Konto bei Passwort aktiviert!
  • Alex hat gerade ihr_sein Konto bei Passwort aktiviert!

Of these, the currently chosen asterisk is evidently the least readable one. It is recommended to use the double colon:

Der sogenannte Gender:Doppelpunkt ist die jĂĽngste Form der gendergerechten Schreibweise und gilt als leser:innenfreundlicher als Sternchen oder Unterstrich. Zudem ist er inklusiver, da er von Sprachausgabeprogrammen fĂĽr Blinde oder Menschen mit Sehbehinderung am besten wiedergegeben werden kann, indem fĂĽr den Doppelpunkt eine kurze Sprechpause eingefĂĽgt wird.

Which version would you prefer?

  • Alex hat gerade ihr*sein Konto bei Passwort aktiviert!
  • Alex hat gerade ihr/sein Konto bei Passwort aktiviert!
  • Alex hat gerade ihr:sein Konto bei Passwort aktiviert!
  • Alex hat gerade ihr_sein Konto bei Passwort aktiviert!
0 voters
2

Hey @ravage84 welcome to the forum!

The official policy is that it should be gender neutral, but we haven’t explicitly outlined how thing should look for every language. This is something generally best left up to the native speakers of the language. Since it looks like there are 4 ways to do this in German that you have highlighted I’ve added a poll to your post so we can see what others would prefer.

Since translations are community driven this seems like the best option, then it would be up to someone to make the changes in crowdin once we have an idea of what is preferred by most

2 Likes
3

nobody in our company wants to use this gender language. it must be possible to provide a language that is not gendered.
We have done a survey in our company to find out whether we want to use this language or not. We received 100% votes (from 43 people) not to use this language.

1 Like
4

hey @Wayne welcome to the forum!

Just to be clear are you saying you don’t like the gender neutral format we are using or you don’t want to use gender neutral language at all?

Using neutral language is part of our translation policy.

5

we don’t want to use gender neutral language at all

1 Like
6

We’ll review the german translation guidelines, see if we can tone down the inclusive forms to be more readable. Most of the people here are not native german speakers, so bear with us until we find a good compromise, that doesn’t require to ask everyone their gender on the platform.

7

What about a second Language?
The first one “German - gender neutral” and the second one “German”?
So everybody can decide individually?

I can provide the new file.

1 Like
8

Hello Wayne,

thank you for your proposal to contribute to the German translation. I am monitoring the German translation at Passbolt.

I agree with you that gender neutral notation can impair visibility, and indeed the use of gender neutrality in passbolt german is at places far-fetched.

I have reviewed the translation and removed them when avoidable. You will now see less of them.

Also, as voted above for better visibility, I have replaced the * notation with the : notation.

This will all be available in the coming v4.5 release. Stay tuned!

1 Like
9

I just registered here to also vote for a NON-GENDER version of german language.
This is NOT helpfull at all, makes it even more cluttered and unreadable, and changes NOTHING about the matters which people like this want to address.

So, as a native german speaker: please remove this gender-neutral stuff or give us the possibility to chose a non-gendered version.
(by the way, in a few years this will be completely gone :wink: )