Style Guide Bambara (bm)

Introduction

This style guide is intended for translators working on Bambara Mozilla projects. It provides in-depth information about the quality standards expected by Mozilla for the translation of all product components. All translators should read this guide before commencing any translation work.

This guide addresses general translation issues and specifies certain rules of style and usage specific to your language. It should be used as a guideline to avoid common typographic errors, and to maintain consistent terminology and writing style across a project’s components and indeed a product range. The guide should be used in conjunction with the current and previous product-specific glossaries, glossaries of other products of a product range, and the industry standard platform-specific glossaries, such as those provided by Microsoft.

This document may be updated or completed in the course of translation. Where no specific instruction or recommendation is specified, translators should use the phrasing and style that comply with industry standards.

CONTENTS

  • General Style Considerations
    • Style guidelines
    • Style guidelines specific to Mozilla products
    • Persona
    • Reference terminology
    • Terminology not found in the glossary or style guide
  • Abbreviations, Acronyms, Articles, and Loan Words
    • Abbreviations
    • Common Abbreviations
    • Measurements and Numerals
    • Percentages
    • Digit Groups
    • Filename Extensions
    • Acronyms
    • Localized Acronyms
    • Unlocalized Acronyms
    • Articles
    • Product Names
    • Copyrights and Trademarks
  • Non-translated and Loan Words
    • Localized term vs. English term
    • Inflections
    • Singular & Plural
    • Verbs and Verb Forms
    • The use of French loans in the translation
  • Word-level Guidelines
    • Headings
    • Capitalization
    • Tonal diacritic
    • Word boundaries
    • Bambara spelling convention choice
    • Intervocalic velars
    • Hyphenation and Compound formation
    • General Hyphenation Rules
    • Compounds
    • In Bambara, compounds are derived from:
    • Applications, Products, and Features Compounds with Acronyms, Abbreviations or Numerals
    • Indexes
    • Prepositions and Articles
    • Key Names
  • Sentence-level Guidelines
    • Procedures and Syntax
    • Descriptors
    • Status Bar Messages
    • Punctuation
    • Commas and Other Common Punctuation Marks
    • In Lists and Tables
    • Comma vs. Period in Numerals
    • Special Characters
    • Typographic Conventions
  • Appendix
    • Guidelines for the Localization of Error Messages
    • Bambara Style in Error Messages
    • Standard Phrases in Error Messages
    • Error Messages Containing Placeholders