so purchased a book from the kindle store

Originally Posted by jhowell

If you read novels in English then probably not. However book containing certain content such as audio/video or in Arabic or Indic languages will probably not be available for delivery to your device.

Really? Glad I switched to Kobo then, the Hindi translation of the Jungle Book displays just fine on it. Also, what about Dravidian languages, like Tamizh, Kannada, Malayalam, etc? Are they in the same "no service" boat as the Indic family?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by stuartjmz

Really? Glad I switched to Kobo then, the Hindi translation of the Jungle Book displays just fine on it. Also, what about Dravidian languages, like Tamizh, Kannada, Malayalam, etc? Are they in the same "no service" boat as the Indic family?

There are five Indic languages that are only supported in KFX format which requires a Paperwhite 2 or newer with up-to-date firmware in e-ink Kindles: Hindi (हिंदी), Tamil(தமிழ்), Malayalam (മലയാളം), Marathi (मराठी), and Gujarati (ગુજારી). I don’t know about the other languages you mentioned.

Originally Posted by jhowell

There are five Indic languages that are only supported in KFX format which requires a Paperwhite 2 or newer with up-to-date firmware in e-ink Kindles: Hindi (हिंदी), Tamil(தமிழ்), Malayalam (മലയാളം), Marathi (मराठी), and Gujarati (ગુજારી). I don’t know about the other languages you mentioned.

Thanks. FWIW, Tamil and Malayalam are Indian languages, but not Indic languages. That is, they're not members of the Indic language family (part of the IE family). They're Dravidian. Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati are Indian and Indic.

[stumped]

what is the title of the book that is causing so much grief ?

if OP want to edit it... may be simpler buy the epub version from Kobo or some other epub book store, de-drm and work on that ?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by stuartjmz

Thanks. FWIW, Tamil and Malayalam are Indian languages, but not Indic languages. That is, they're not members of the Indic language family (part of the IE family). They're Dravidian. Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati are Indian and Indic.

Thanks for the correction. I didn't know that Indic languages were different from Indian languages.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by jhowell

If you read novels in English then probably not. However book containing certain content such as audio/video or in Arabic or Indic languages will probably not be available for delivery to your device.

Okay. Now I understand. I think I had that happen to me a couple times on my Nook when buying kid's books from B&N. But it's been a while.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Thanks for the correction. I didn't know that Indic languages were different from Indian languages.

In just the same way that not all European languages are members of the Indo-European language group.

[Quoth]

Language support has been pathetically slow on Kindle, considering it was a TOTALLY solved problem to support virtually every widely used language on all the underlying software YEARS before the Kindle was released. The Kindles had WORSE support than DOS at release.
Even the PW3 in AZW format fails on SOME glyphs / languages, yet succeeds with a different font in the Source MS Word Doc that LOOKs the same on PC.
Really old Sonys are better. The Kindle was later.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

Language support has been pathetically slow on Kindle, considering it was a TOTALLY solved problem to support virtually every widely used language on all the underlying software YEARS before the Kindle was released. The Kindles had WORSE support than DOS at release.

The primary purpose of the Kindle, don't forget, is to be a content delivery system for Kindle ebooks. That doesn't necessitate supporting all the world's languages, but merely those which are sold in the Kindle Store.

[Quoth]

Which illustrates the narrow US English thinking of most USA corporations. Actually FROM the beginning there was no excuse for such discriminatory laziness. Especially given their dominance in online book selling, their attempt to build monopolies and selling to markets outside English speaking as well as the non-English titles they sold on paper.
It was inexcusable in November 19, 2007 (Original Kindle) and for example Chinese version of Windows 3.1 (version 3.2) was November 22, 1993!
The underlying software fully supported all major languages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ions_by_Amazon

Sorry, but there is ZERO excuse. Your argument MIGHT apply to refusal to support ePubs on Kindle. However NOT supporting eReaders and Apps other than Kindle format might now be grounds for legal action given dominance of the Amazon eBook store. Other eReader makers are not allowed to support Amazon formats using DRM, possibly only the pre-Amazon Mobi. Amazon bought and buried Mobipocket to get Mobi format.

Originally Posted by HarryT

In just the same way that not all European languages are members of the Indo-European language group.

Although the overwhelming majority are. The Uralic family and the isolate Basque are among the relatively few that aren't

[HarryT]

It's not as straightforward as you suggest. Supporting more languages has commercial costs associated with it - for example, having support agents available who are fluent in those languages. If supporting a language with a small user-base is not a commercially-viable proposition, I wouldn't expect any company to do so. Why would they add support for something that would result in them losing money?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by stuartjmz

Although the overwhelming majority are. The Uralic family and the isolate Basque are among the relatively few that aren't

Yep. I think Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian and Basque are the only "living" European languages that aren't Indo-European.