[OSM-talk] [Tagging] Tagging the local language

stevea steveaOSM at softworkers.com
Fri Jan 10 18:06:41 UTC 2020


On Jan 10, 2020, at 7:06 AM, Martin Constantino–Bodin <martin.bodin at ens-lyon.org> wrote:
> I fully agree. I was only taking the example of South America because its language community is relatively simple given the size of its area ☺ But I agree that it’s probably not something that we should actually map. Sorry about that: it wasn’t clear in my message.

I don't usually post here to "throw rocks," but I must say that the language communities in South America are QUITE diverse — anything but "relatively simple."  In addition to the five European languages of Portuguese (#1), Spanish, English, French and Dutch, there are dozens of indigenous languages (Quechua, with about 9 million speakers, Guarani, Aymara, another 7 or 8 million there...) that span the continent.  Additionally, significant numbers are found of speakers of Italian, German, Arabic, Welsh, Coratian, Greek, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Romani and some clusters of Japanese, Hindustani, Javanese and Rapa Nui and Maori on Easter Island.

Just saying.

This is not an easy situation.  The United Nations has "six official languages," that's not ideal, either.  Absolutely anything OSM does will be a compromise, but I agree that we should strive for the most appropriate access to a culturally-appropriate solution.  Great results seldom come from anything less than serious effort.  I encourage continuing work on this important continuing development of OSM.  Good dialog here is certainly part of that.

SteveA
California


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