<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail_quote">FYI, the U.S. NGA ( National Geospatial Agency ) provides the <a href="http://geonames.nga.mil/gns/html/index.html" target="_blank">NGA GEOnet Names Server (GNS)</a>
with both a viewer and <a href="http://geonames.nga.mil/gns/html/index.html" target="_blank">text lookup</a> . Also available are <a href="http://geonames.nga.mil/gns/html/gns_services.html" target="_blank">various web services</a> ( like WMS ), APIs, downloads and via shapefiles for GIS software like Qgis. YMMV, i.e. in Belgium there is <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxor0dnxUrN2dVprMUpCR0lCdjlxbm9aSUliOHVzTUVPSEVR/view?usp=sharing">very explicit name <font size="2">variants</font></a> with associated languages and encodings, in <a href="http://llmap.org/map/321252/" target="_blank">areas of Australia</a> the aboriginal names are variants, but the actual language isn't explicitly named. If you do a search on<font size="2"> <a style="text-decoration:none">the
</a><a style="text-decoration:none">Nicholas Range</a>
(
Badakhshān, Afghanistan ) for example:</font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="2">( what follows will probably explode in email depending on your client - <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxor0dnxUrN2NFdHdTUxR0dGZmhmOTJsUkJPbmpaRWR5SEd3/view?usp=sharing">alternate</a> )<br></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="2"><a style="text-decoration:none"><br></a></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="1"><a style="text-decoration:none"><font size="2">
</font></a><font size="2"><a style="text-decoration:none">Silsilah-ye Kōh-e Wākhān</a> (Approved - N) <br>
<span style="color:rgb(102,51,153)">Silsilah</span> (Generic)
</font><hr style="width:65%;margin:0px 60px 0px 0px" noshade align="left"><font size="2">
<a style="text-decoration:none">
سلسله کوه واخان</a> (Non-Roman Script - NS)<br>
<span style="color:rgb(102,51,153)">سلسله</span> (Generic)
</font><hr style="width:65%;margin:0px 60px 0px 0px" noshade align="left"><font size="2">
<a style="text-decoration:none">
Nicholas Range</a> (Variant - V)<br>
</font><hr style="width:65%;margin:0px 60px 0px 0px" noshade align="left"><font size="2">
<a style="text-decoration:none">
Qatorkŭhi Vakhon</a> (Variant - V)<br>
</font><hr style="width:65%;margin:0px 60px 0px 0px" noshade align="left"><font size="2">
<a style="text-decoration:none">
Selselah Kōh-e Wākhān</a> (Variant - V)<br>
</font><hr style="width:65%;margin:0px 60px 0px 0px" noshade align="left"><font size="2">
<a style="text-decoration:none">
Selseleh-ye Kūh-e Vākhān</a> (Variant - V)<br>
<span style="color:rgb(102,51,153)">Selseleh-ye Kūh</span> (Generic)
</font><hr style="width:65%;margin:0px 60px 0px 0px" noshade align="left"><font size="2">
<a style="text-decoration:none">
Khrebet Vakhanski</a> (Variant - V)<br>
</font><hr style="width:65%;margin:0px 60px 0px 0px" noshade align="left"><font size="2">
<a style="text-decoration:none">
Vakhanskiy Khrebet</a> (Variant - V)<br>
</font><hr style="width:65%;margin:0px 60px 0px 0px" noshade align="left"><font size="2">
<a style="text-decoration:none">
Qatorkŭhi Vakhon</a> (Variant - V)<br>
</font><hr style="width:65%;margin:0px 60px 0px 0px" noshade align="left"><font size="2">
<a style="text-decoration:none">
Vakhsh Mountains</a> (Variant - V)<br>
</font><hr style="width:65%;margin:0px 60px 0px 0px" noshade align="left"><font size="2">
<a style="text-decoration:none">
Wa-han P’a-mi-erh</a> (Variant - V)<br>
</font><hr style="width:65%;margin:0px 60px 0px 0px" noshade align="left"><font size="2">
<a style="text-decoration:none">
Selsela-Koh-i-Wākhān</a> (Variant - V)</font>
</font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="1"><a style="text-decoration:none"><br></a></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="2"><a style="text-decoration:none">About what you expect - Russian, English, Arabic, Chinese, Arabic, etc. <br></a></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="2"><a style="text-decoration:none"><br></a></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="2"><a style="text-decoration:none">A lookup of
</a><a style="text-decoration:none">Yopurga</a> ,
Xinjiang, China ( a
seat of a third-order administrative division), you will find many
Uighur ( aboriginal) variants expressed in both
Cyrillic (
Ёпурға ) and
Arabic (
يوپۇرغا) - this includes historical entries. The dates can be helpful in determining the relevance - in some areas of the world the only map name may have come of a British Ordnance Survey in the 1800's. <br></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="2"><a style="text-decoration:none"><br></a></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="2"><a style="text-decoration:none">Rumor has it the very best current language data is a proprietary database owned by a evangelical christian organization that is verified by a network of missionaries working in those areas. Almost all the language data has some sort of license or copyright attached to it - the NGA data is the standard US Federal "do whatever you want' with it, and the folks I've met from NGA are very supportive of the OSM project. <br></a></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="2"><a style="text-decoration:none"><br></a></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="2"><a style="text-decoration:none">Hope some of this helps form your proposal.<br></a></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="2"><a style="text-decoration:none"><br></a></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="2"><a style="text-decoration:none">Michael Patrick,</a></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="2"><a style="text-decoration:none">OSM Seattle<br></a></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><font size="1"><a style="text-decoration:none"><font size="2">Data Ferret</font><br></a></font>
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