[OSM-talk] [HOT] Nametagging: Local script versus "international" latin script (for Libya)

[Jean-Marc Liotier]

Stephan Knauss wrote:
> Is there a way to do the transliteration automatically in a 
> consistent way ? According to wikipedia there exist multiple ways
> to do so: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_transliteration

For each of the transliteration standards, an automated method is 
probably possible... But Wikipedia cites sixteen different standards, 
some of them with different focuses, such as phonetic expressiveness, 
spelling, simplicity, lack of diacritics or teaching. I have not read 
about any of those methods being more authoritative, so I guess that we 
have to rely on user input for each named object. On top of all that, 
Arabic has local variations, sometimes strong and always co-existing 
with literary Arabic... So I guess that there won't be a substitute to 
user wisdom.