[OSM-talk] Explicit tagging of name language

[Ben Laenen]

Ed Avis wrote:
> Patrick Kilian <osm <at> petschge.de> writes:
> >http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bruxelles-Brussel.jpg
> >
> >See two names on the ground.
> 
> To me that would suggest putting the French name into 'name'

I suggest you don't, or you'd end up in an edit war otherwise. Linguistic 
issues are a very sensitive subject in Brussels and Belgium. The rules for 
Brussels are very clear: treat both Dutch and French exactly the same (yes, 
even though French is spoken much more in Brussels).

> (since it is
> on top) and also tagging 'name:fr' and 'name:nl'.

Most streets in Brussels have a name:fr and name:nl tag, next to a name tag 
which has both the French and Dutch name, separated by a dash and whoever 
creates it chooses what language comes first. It works and people are happy, 
and in the past years I've only seen one person who was switching French and 
Dutch names in the name tag to get French first. That's pretty good given the 
huge political tensions between both language groups in Belgium the past 
years.

> However I can see the argument that exactly what appears on the sign should
> be used.  Even so, I would prefer the two names to be tagged separately
> and combined by Mapnik at render time, rather than adding a - character to
> the 'name' tag.

That would be great, but we have to get names on the map somehow in the mean 
time.

Ben