[OSM-talk] Transcription and 'internationalization' in place names

[Stephan Knauss]

Andrew Errington writes: 

> In fact, I think that if name:ko=* is present, then it doesn't actually matter 
> what is in name=*.  The definition of name=* then becomes subtly altered to 
> mean "The label we use if no language is specified."  Then we can argue what 
> goes into that label...

IMHO the definition of the name tag is fine. It says it's the name the 
*local* people call it. If the local people want some mixed spelling in 
that tag then, -well- it's their problem when doing other things with the 
data besides rendering a map. 

So the standard rendering should be a help for the *local* mappers and thus 
display their local name. 

If for tourists or other special cases a different rendering is required 
then it should be on a specialized map. 

For Thailand we do it like this. The local people can read the names on the 
map as a lot of expats who map here can do. 

For those who want to have latin script names we have a special rendering. 

As Mapquest does already provide a fallback to English, why not adapt the 
label on the main site to read "MapQuest open (bilingual)" to make it 
easier to find? 


Stephan