Greek localization and inflection: the case of short strings ambiguity

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First published as: Why contextual information is necessary for the localization into highly inflectional languages like Greek

There are many issues that affect localization which have been mentioned in some detail in a previous post.

Quite often, major companies or major localization service providers, deliver lists of English strings that need to be localized (or reviewed, edited, QAed) in highly inflectional languages, the case with Greek.

What do we mean by inflectional language or inflection?

In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case. Conjugation is the inflection of verbs; declension is the inflection of nouns, adjectives and pronouns.

Back to our case with Greek. The suffixes (and often the prefixes) of Greek nouns, Greek adjectives and Greek verbs (to mention but a few) change drastically depending on the above. Since Greek has three genders and English, well, none, there is no problem say, when we have a string like Custom—for the English language that is. In English it could refer to any setting (or settings) for any component (or components). In Greek however, the case is completely different. It could be any of the below, depending on the context:

Π�οσα�μοσμένος
Π�οσα�μοσμένη
Π�οσα�μοσμένο
Π�οσα�μοσμένοι
Π�οσα�μοσμένα
Π�οσα�μοσμένες
Π�οσα�μογή

For example, if we are talking about Settings (Ρυθμίσεις, in Greek, plural and feminine) it would be Î Ï�οσαÏ�μοσμένες. If we are talking about Setting (ΡÏ�θμιση, in Greek, singular and feminine) it would be Î Ï�οσαÏ�μοσμένη.

To get an idea of the variety, refer to Microsoft translations:

custom show -> π�οσα�μοσμένη π�οβολή
A presentation within a presentation in which you group slides in an existing presentation so that you can show that section of the presentation to a particular audience.

custom form -> π�οσα�μοσμένη φό�μα
A form that you customize to better fit your needs.

custom color -> Ï€Ï�οσαÏ�μοσμένο χÏ�ώμα    
A color in the Visio application that is stored with a shape as an RGB or HSL value rather than as an index to the document's color palette. A custom color is saved only with the shape to which it is applied.

custom table -> π�οσα�μοσμένος πίνακας
A type of filter that enables users to choose from a list and then drive dashboard content from multiple data sources.

custom order -> π�οσα�μοσμένη διάταξη
User-defined sort order. For example, you could define a custom sort order to display values in the EmployeeTitle column on the basis of the title's seniority.

custom price -> π�οσα�μοσμένη τιμή
The price calculated according to specific pricing rules that apply to products in a virtual catalog. There are three types of custom prices: percentage off, fixed amount off, and explicit price.

custom field -> π�οσα�μοσμένο πεδίο
A field you can create. A custom field can be a blank, combination, or formula field.

custom group -> π�οσα�μοσμένη ομάδα
An item of a custom group field. A custom group contains two or more items from a row or column field.

custom editor -> π�οσα�μοσμένο π�όγ�αμμα επεξε�γασίας
An editor that allows you to view, edit, compare, or merge content inside a SourceSafe database.

custom device -> π�οσα�μοσμένη συσκευή
A microphone and speaker combination configured by the user in Microsoft Office Communicator and Microsoft Lync.

custom phrase -> π�οσα�μοσμένη φ�άση
A word or phrase that the administrator sets for the Content Filter agent to evaluate the content of an e-mail message and apply appropriate filter processing.

Or even the single word hits:

Custom    Ï€Ï�οσαÏ�μoσμένο    .NET Framework 3.0
Custom    ΠÏ�οσαÏ�μoγή    Access 2007
Custom    ΠÏ�οσαÏ�μοσμένη    Access 2007
Custom    ΠÏ�οσαÏ�μοσμένο    Access 2007

Note how they change. And they change according to context.

Hence, there is no way for a localizer to localize correctly, or an editor to edit correctly, when presented with out-of-context strings like:

Custom
None
Time

The question is: "Custom" what? "None" of what? "Time" as "12.34am" or as "10 minutes"?
You catch the drift.

QA of terminology

A few more examples can be derived from automated QA systems which check the text against a list of terms. Sometimes a term can be a very general word, like "of" for example. See this QA report:

Photo of the Day   Î¦Ï‰Ï„ογÏ�αφία της ημέÏ�ας   Against Term|EN-US: of -> EL: από
Next photo   Î•Ï€ÏŒÎ¼ÎµÎ½Î· φωτογÏ�αφία   Against Term|EN-US: Next -> EL: Επόμενο
Most Popular Photos   Î Î¹Î¿ δημοφιλείς φωτογÏ�αφίες   Against Term|EN-US: Most POPULAR -> EL: Πιο ΔΗΜΟΦΙΛΗ
Enter Symbol   Î•Î¹ÏƒÎ±Î³Ï‰Î³Î® συμβόλου   Against Term|EN-US: Symbol -> EL: ΣÏ�μβολο
Enter search term   Î•Î¹ÏƒÎ±Î³Ï‰Î³Î® ÏŒÏ�ου αναζήτησης   Against Term|EN-US: search term -> EL: ÏŒÏ�ος αναζήτησης

What happens here is that it is taken for granted that the target language has no inflections whatsoever, which of course, is hardly the case.

100% matches and CAT pricing policies

Moreover, it is not fair to expect a translator not to be paid for 100% matches, or to be paid a lower rate, when these apparent "100% matches" need to be thorougly reviewed. Sometimes, the research that one has to do for single-word "100% matches" (i.e. searching in Help Files or running the non-localized version of the application) takes much more time than translating a full paragraph.

Kindly refer your clients to this post in order for them to gain an understanding of Greek localization and how they can help to improve quality.


Declension made easy—in English cat or cats. In Spanish:



Inflection of the Portuguese or Spanish lexeme for "cat".
Blue represents the masculine gender, pink represents the feminine
gender, grey represents the form used for mixed-gender, and
green represents the plural number; the singular is unmarked.