[OSM-talk] Explicit tagging of name language

[MD]

Hi,

Ed Avis wrote:
[...]
> I believe the answer, as so often, is to improve the tagging used so that
> software has the information it needs.  In this case an explicit English-
> language name should be added, so we have
> 
>     name=Scotland
>     name:en=Scotland
>     name:fr=Ecosse
>     name:es=Escocia
> 
> (Another way to tag the same info would be to invent a new tag
> 'language_of_main_name=en' but this seems cumbersome and would not be understood
> by existing software.)

This is also the solution I am using when tagging stuff in the German
Community of Belgium, where many places, streets, etc have both german
and french names. But this is indeed a problem in many areas - with
special focus on countries with more than one official language. (But of
course also - for example - in touristic places and elsewhere.)
The only objection I have is that it introduces some sort of redundancy
- even if small. I can't think of a better solution so far, though.

> In the new year I plan to write a small tool to help fix these, prompting a
> human being to decide or at least verify the language of each name.  Then an
> additional name:XX tag will be added to the object.  Sound sensible?
Could be a solution, I think.

Michael