[OSM-dev] phonetic gazateer, would be cool feature for nominatim

[Brian Quinion]

> this is usually handled by using a specific language spelling =>
> phonemes translator.
> so that would need a setting for 'language of the destination'
> which can be found automatically if a country name can be found in the
> text

Language of the destination is indeterminate because they could be
searching for the place name as expressed in another language i.e.
Llundain (welsh version of London) so even if you can determine the
country it doesn't work.  And the similar in reverse for the browser
language - they could be searching for London even though they are a
native German speaker.

Also it isn't the phonetic spelling that is really the problem - the
problem is that a lot of the time mistakes are typos not
miss-spellings i.e. Lonon which is phonetically completely different
to London despite being obvious that someone just missed the 'd' when
they were typing.

--
 Brian