Idea about support minor languages

[email protected]
Newsgroups gmane.linux.debian.internationalization.general
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hello,

I would like to discuss an idea. I assume people on that list using a 
wide range of different languages.

Just as an example the language "Faroese" (føroyskt): Based on my 
Wikipedia knowledge and some online discussions I learned that people 
using Faroese are living in a multilingual environment. The speak 
multiple languages (e.g. Faroese, Danish, English), using Faroese 
keyboard layout but English GUI language, etc pp.

So even if a language is there primary language they setup their 
operating system (e.g. Debian) to a different language. Faroese use 
Danish or English for example. Esperanto speaking people setup English 
or Spanish. Not all, but some.
My point is that people speaking and prefering Faroese would miss the 
Faroese support of a specific application if they setup there operating 
system with Danish or English.

To approach people like this I would propose to add kind of a 
welcome-dialog to an application to inform users about the multi 
language support of this specific application. If the application notice 
the system language is Danish the dialog could say that the application 
also do support Faroese and Islandic. "Just go to the setup language 
menu.".
I assume by default not all users check the language setup menu of their 
software. Such users would miss the opportunity to use that software 
with there preferred language.
The background of my question is that if my translators and me invest 
time in supporting "exotic" or "minor" languages the users should know 
about it and don't accidentally miss it.

Technically it is simple. Pseudocode:
If os_language == "Danish" then inform_about(['Faroese', 'Islandic'])
If os_language == "Chinese Simplified" then inform_about(['Chinese 
Traditional'])
If os_language == "Norwegian Nynorsk" then inform_about(['Norwegian 
Bokmål'])

What do you think? Stupid or useless idea?

More users of a specific language do increase the chance to approach 
them as translators.

Kind
Christian
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