<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2018-09-20 17:16, Kevin Kenny wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CALREZe_MFn8zFFGZJP7znz2nLzTu2Xx=L_f3dOuGEPSukAG0Bg@mail.gmail.com">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr">On Thu, Sep 20, 2018 at 9:55 AM André Pirard
<<a href="mailto:A.Pirard.Papou@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">A.Pirard.Papou@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> Belgium speaks 3
official languages and their very official borders <b>have
been</b> mapped.<br>
This subject was presented several times on this list and
"raised" a total lack of interest.<br>
Especially regarding the need to define a language
boundary type.<br>
The most similar country regarding languages is
Switzerland.<br>
But they did not care to define borders, AFAIK.<br>
Same for USA, Canada, etc.<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>"Did not care to define" is an odd way of putting it. USA
cannot map official language borders because USA has no
official language or languages. The majority language is,
obviously, US English, but there is no legislation making it
official nor requiring government business to be transacted
in English. We also have a long and ugly history of
nationalists suppressing minority languages, but generally
speaking, the laws that the nationalists claim to be
enforcing do not exist. "English as official language"
legislation has been introduced in virtually every session
of the Congress, and has never passed. The movement to make
English official goes all the way back to 1780, even before
the war of American independence was concluded.<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
Your comment is very friendly and welcome, but, unless each and
every case is like what you say, let us first keep the discussion to
whether OSM should implement language borders and how.<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Best regards / meilleurs voeux / (sorry, I
don't speak Flemish)</blockquote>
How nice, but what even most French typing persons cannot do is
correctly type "vœux".<br>
Not supported by Windows. Ubuntu/Debian.Linux/Unix are needed to
type <compose-key> o e <span class="moz-smiley-s3"><span>;-)</span></span><br>
<br>
Пока <span class="moz-smiley-s3"><span>;-)</span></span><br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CALREZe_MFn8zFFGZJP7znz2nLzTu2Xx=L_f3dOuGEPSukAG0Bg@mail.gmail.com">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div>I suppose one could tag 'official languages' of US
jurisdictions that sort of have them. Until recently,
California and Massachusetts had laws on the books requiring
public schools to teach classes only in English. (Arizona
still does, but California and Massachusetts repealed their
laws in the last couple of years and have reinstated
bilingual education.) Dade County, Florida had a
well-publicized local law that forbade transportation
signage in any language but English, requiring
Spanish-language signs to be taken down. About half the
states have laws requiring that the edicts of government
must be published in English (but not requiring that it be
used to the exclusion of other languages). Nebraska's
legislation after the First World War had the effect,
briefly, of banning all foreign-language instruction in the
state's schools (and Heaven help those who wished to prepare
for travel abroad!).<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>It is true that in the US, one can expect to find street
signs in English (augmented possibly with one or more
minority languages), but that is usually a matter of
practicality rather than formal policy.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I suppose that one could also, as an example, draw an
official language border around the Navajo Nation and
indicate that Diné bizaad and Spanish, as well as English,
are official languages of its government, but that again
opens the whole debate about how to domestic dependent
nations, and it is accurate to state that I don't care to
reopen that debate today.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Best regards / meilleurs voeux / (sorry, I don't speak
Flemish)<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>Kevin</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body>
</html>