The main language of Angola, beyond oil and diamonds, is... Portuguese?

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2013/04/24 07:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2013/04/24/10413613.aspx


Angola's ISO 3166 code is AO. And there are lots of languages in Angola:

But none of them are supported by Windows, thus no good way for people to spend their Kwanzas they may have earned from oil or diamonds.

Angola and most of it's languages are ignored by the CLDR, too. So it isn't just Microsoft's fault.

Though more and more it looks like it is Microsoft's, and Window's, problem to solve. If you know what I mean....

This is not a position that Microsoft finds particularly familiar -- we are used to covering the whole world, and all of the people in it.

It is a bit humbling, to tell you the truth.

So, what's next?

How to change all this is a tough thing to decide.

Portuguese is perhaps the best language choice, since although the other languages are nationally recognized, Portuguese is the only official language of the country.

Although the Kwanza has seen hard times (in the 90's it had the dubious honor of being the least valued currency in the world!), things are for the most part much better now.

It's past time to give those people in pt-AO a way to spend their Kwanzas!

Who's with me? :-)


Jan Kučera on 24 Apr 2013 7:16 AM:

Me! :)

Doug Ewell on 25 Apr 2013 7:52 AM:

Do they have a standard keyboard that covers all seven languages?

Joao on 28 Apr 2013 6:58 PM:

You sound surprised. Why wouldn't the main language be portuguese? They had a history concerning that; would expect people to be aware of that by now.


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