Richard Stallman said on Sun, Aug 31, 2003 at 10:23:06PM -0400,:
Before the FSF India was started, we thought of calling it the Swatantra Software Sabha.
Sabha translates to 'association', 'group' etc. At the best, a club.
"prathishtasn" would be a better word for 'Foundation'; once again, with sanskrit leanings and universal recognition. In malayalam, it is 'prathishtapanam'.
At least, that is what I used in the Malayalam translation of the GPL; and so far, no body has come up with alternatives.
"Free Software Foundation" is, in the translation, is
"Swatantra Software Prathishtapnam"
Or should it be 'prathishtaan'?
Pronouncing prathishtaan -
pra - like the pr in pride, stress is on the r. thi - like 'the', with 'e' pronounced as the 'i' in 'ink' sh - like 'sh' in 'should' and 'she' ta - stress is on 't', similar to 'ta' in 'tawny' and 'tan', but 't' should sound like an explosion and a long 'a'.