Calamares is a Linux installer used by dozens of distributions. It has translations in 80 languages and I regularly get new translation suggestions. One such recently was for es_AR, or Spanish (Argentina).

I tend to push back against new translations. Not if they’re an entirely new language, but I’m not keen on national variants. One reason for that reluctance is that it’s several thousand words, and it takes maintenance on the part of the translators to keep up with occasional string changes or new strings, it makes the drop-down for language choice longer. So I push back gently.

Please explain what this translation brings that the existing translation into YourLanguageHere does not have. If there are real differences of vocabulary that are relevant to Calamares, please let me know.

Something like that text, so that I don’t end up with 25 Spanish and 25 English and 25 Swahili national variants, for instance. No, I do not want en_Pirate. I’ve had translators reply that they’ll join the larger group, and I’ve had translators reply with a careful explanation of linguistics. It is absolutely an education.

Anyway, I wanted to highlight Argentinian Spanish, es_AR, which was recently added. Alejo Fernandez, the translator who proposed it, steamrolled all of the strings and produced a full translation in 3 months.

Calamares in Argentinian Spanish with the language drop-down open, showing 4 Spanish variants
Calamares in Argentinian Spanish with the language drop-down open, showing 4 Spanish variants

There’s a dumb joke in the Calamares source code – well, several – and I particularly appreciate that the dumb jokes got translated as well. The differences between Argentinian and other Spanish is hard for me to spot. diff tells me Soporte versus Ayuda, for one thing.

So, here’s hats off to Alejo, gracias por el soporte, and hats off to 79 other translation groups. Oh, make that 81, because ia and also ie are now on the list too.