[OSM-talk] Label language on the Default stylesheet

[Oleksiy Muzalyev]

On 01.11.17 19:15, Elena ``of Valhalla'' wrote:
> On 2017-11-01 at 14:28:12 +0100, Oleksiy Muzalyev wrote:
>> There is a code for the Lingua Latina (Latin language) in the ISO 639-1,
>> which is used at the OSM. It is "la" [1]. It is an ancient language so
>> modern political controversies would not be reflected on it.
>> [...]
> This is the point where I believe that most people (me incuded) don't
> agree: latin has ancient origins, but is still alive precisely because
> it has remained in use up to modern times in a very specific part of the
> world.
>
> It may be a good neutral language between speakers of e.g. French and
> German, but once you get outside of Europe + nations mostly inhabited by
> europeans it's definitely not neutral, but the (scientific) language of
> the old imperialist powers.
>
> It is also much easier to understand for the speaker of some languages,
> but utterly foreign to anybody from a culture where the common langage
> of science was e.g. a variant of chinese or classical arabic, as those
> two languages are to us europeans.
>
> I can think of one language among the ones that I know of that would be
> ancient and free from modern political controversies: ancient Sumerian,
> which is really dead, a language isolate (and thus equally difficult for
> everybody) and written in its own system (so that nobody is advantaged
> here either). Of course, these precise reasons make it quite an
> impractical choice for osm.

These are good valid points. I do not argue about it. However, as Andy 
wrote earlier, we often have to switch to other layers or maps, i.e. the 
default OSM layer is not usable on the global scale.

Using the Latin language for additional names is a practical compromise. 
The Latin alphabet is de facto readable to many people. At the same time 
it would be safer for volunteers all over the world as there are no 
standing military entities which use the Latin language.

In a way we are doing a disservice to those cultures since the major 
online map, the OSM, is not readable for their lands. On one hand, it is 
very good that only local alphabets are being used, but on the other 
hand we kind of lock them on the map in the ethnic enclaves.

Besides, if one does not want that there is a name in the Latin alphabet 
in addition to the name in local alphabet, - just do not add name:la=* 
tag . By the way, for many towns and cities the name in Latin coincides 
with the name in English, for example the city of Odessa [1].

Certainly, the Status quo bias [2] works against this idea too, but it 
is doable, and there will be no drastic changes on the map since the 
name in Latin would be added gradually.

[1] https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odessa

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_quo_bias

Best regards,

Oleksiy