I know there's a few Opera Mini users on here, so I thought I'd let you know that Opera Mini is available in Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa.  The translated versions have been available for a while but not well advertised.

To download: browse with your phone to mini.opera.com and click on "Download in another language".

At the moment downloading to a desktop computer won't work because they never updated the list of languages at operamini.com, but I've told the relevant people and it's going to be fixed.

This is sort of an advert, I work for Opera on the Mini team.  But before I worked for them I lived in Kaduna and I know how difficult mobile browsing can be on MTN.  We think we have quite a few users in Nigeria but it's difficult to tell because the traffic mostly seems to come from Portugal (the end of the SAT-3 cable) or various satellite earth stations.

Now I just need to find somewhere in Sweden where I can get amala and egusi

I gotta check!. .

@prof.Me too.I think i will need the Hausa opera.

@prof.I just downloaded the Hausa version of the opera mini.It replaces my english opera.E.g Darkata:wait. Shigar da rubutu.

@prof.I just downloaded the Hausa version of the opera mini.It replaces my english opera.E.g Dakata:wait. Shigar da rubutu.Etc

honsule:

@prof.I just downloaded the Hausa version of the opera mini.It replaces my english opera.E.g Dakata:wait. Shigar da rubutu.Etc

k, Shigar da rubutu meaning?

It means:enter what you want to write/type. Tarihi:history. Shigar da adireshi:enter address. Which language did you download?

my phone keeps opening the web page and not the wap page. then it tells me to open mini.opera.com on my mobile phone browser.

WTF?!

BTW, i use the N82

use the 'Services' browser*

I just downloaded nd installed the Yoruba Version.

Posting Screenshot soon!

hayprof:

use the 'Services' browser*

explain that one abeg. all i do to surf is open the web browser. plus anytime i browse nairaland's wap site, i get a message saying that it looks like i'm browsing from a desktop browser. i just ignore it anyway

hayprof:

I just downloaded nd installed the Yoruba Version.

Posting Screenshot soon!

that's exactly wat i wanted to check out

@ poster abeg give me the pigeon english version and the animal language version for my dog

Your dog get Phone?

And do u av a Phone[b] urself [/b]?

naijafan:

explain that one abeg. all i do to surf is open the web browser. plus anytime i browse nairaland's wap site, i get a message saying that it looks like i'm browsing from a desktop browser. i just ignore it anyway

that's exactly what i wanted to check out

There r two browsers on Nokia S60 phones

We have the 'Services' and the 'Web'

You need shots?

@ poster abeg give me the pigeon english version and the animal language version for my dog

I thought about suggesting a Nigerian Pidgin English version to our translation people but would it be worth it? Are there enough potential users who couldn't/wouldn't use the International English version?

owindies:

I thought about suggesting a Nigerian Pidgin English version to our translation people but would it be worth it? Are there enough potential users who couldn't/wouldn't use the International English version?

Anybody that understands spoken Yoruba can read basic English words due to the origin of its alphabets. If the Pidgin English version isnt worth it, then I guess the Yoruba version isnt as well.

BTW, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has a Pidgin English version. http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/pcm.htm

@ poster

jeez dats interestin, wuld get dat of yoruba now. thanks

@ceejay

u don bring ur mumu come here abi, i thot uve recovered, do u want to go bak dere?

naijafan:

Anybody that understands spoken Yoruba can read basic English words due to the origin of its alphabets. If the Pidgin English version isnt worth it, then I guess the Yoruba version isnt as well.

There's a difference between being able to read the words and understanding them.  I can read Albanian words (they use the same alphabet as English) but I don't understand what they mean!  Pidgin English is closely related to standard English so if you understand one you can usually understand bits of the other.

I don't think there are any statistics on the number of Pidgin speakers in Nigeria, you need information like that to persuade people that it's worth spending money on translations.  For Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba you can look at the census results and guess the number of speakers for each (I know, the census isn't very reliable).  Personally I'd like to see a Pidgin translation, because I like the language and I think it suffers a lot of snobbery from people who think they're educated.

owindies:

There's a difference between being able to read the words and understanding them.  I can read Albanian words (they use the same alphabet as English) but I don't understand what they mean!  Pidgin English is closely related to standard English so if you understand one you can usually understand bits of the other.

I don't think there are any statistics on the number of Pidgin speakers in Nigeria, you need information like that to persuade people that it's worth spending money on translations.  For Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba you can look at the census results and guess the number of speakers for each (I know, the census isn't very reliable).  Personally I'd like to see a Pidgin translation, because I like the language and I think it suffers a lot of snobbery from people who think they're educated.

I understand you well. But if the person didnt understand the basic English words, how did he/she turn on the phone and navigate to Opera successfully?

here's a quote from UN concerning the language

It is used in novels, plays, radio, poetry and becoming more and more important as a language.

Maybe you need to realise the fact that most people who would install the Yoruba/Ibo/Hausa versions actually have their phones speaking English. Which means they wouldve been comfortable with the English version as well.

Plus they would be browsing English sites.
Except Opera translates the entire site as well.

See:

Services



Web

@owind
i dont know,i dont just like other version than standard english.
i've downloaded it before but i have to un-instal it.
The same thing goes with the google(i used to have it in yoruba but i change it)

how is cold out there.take kia

Opera Yoruba

Screenshts:

@hayprof

Nothing like that on the N82. Its Web right from the home screen. Internet tel. appears under Tools/Connectivity While Download is also on the home screen. I think they eliminated the Services on devices running S60 3rd Ed Feature Pack 1.

naijafan:
Maybe you need to realise the fact that most people who would install the Yoruba/Ibo/Hausa versions actually have their phones speaking English. Which means they wouldve been comfortable with the English version as well.

That's true, but I think the idea is to have it available in people's preferred language. For example, I can use a phone with the language set to Swedish, but it's more difficult for me and I'm more likely to press the wrong button because I don't understand what it's telling me.

If you're happy with English use the English version. Translations are provided because somebody has decided that we can get more users if we have a version in their language. It's just not possible to provide versions in every language.

naijafan:

@hayprof

Nothing like that on the N82. Its Web right from the home screen. Internet tel. appears under Tools/Connectivity While Download is also on the home screen. I think they eliminated the Services on devices running S60 3rd Ed Feature Pack 1.

. . .Mm m mM. . . I c. . . N82

owindies:

That's true, but I think the idea is to have it available in people's preferred language. For example, I can use a phone with the language set to Swedish, but it's more difficult for me and I'm more likely to press the wrong button because I don't understand what it's telling me.

If you're happy with English use the English version. Translations are provided because somebody has decided that we can get more users if we have a version in their language. It's just not possible to provide versions in every language.

If you were talking about a social network or somethn, i'd have agreed 100% with the quote in boldface. Wen it comes to browsing, the browser interface is not important anymore. The website being visited is. Even if you have a browser speaking in tongues, as long as the website remains english, the end-user's experience would remain the same.

I'm telling you that you have to bring up a pidgin english version. Just trying to tell you that your argument against it was out of place and plain wrong.

naijafan:
Even if you have a browser speaking in tongues, as long as the website remains english, the end-user's experience would remain the same.

So you'd be quite happy using the Scottish Gaelic version (I'm assuming you don't speak Gaelic)? Because it doesn't matter at all what language the browser UI is in?

owindies:

So you'd be quite happy using the Scottish Gaelic version (I'm assuming you don't speak Gaelic)? Because it doesn't matter at all what language the browser UI is in?

Dawg, you are getting this twisted.

English is lingua franca. Stop mentioning such strange languages.