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The "native" name problem: What language to use?  XML
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alpenrouten.de



Joined: 07/01/2010 23:49:16
Messages: 5
Location: Germany
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Although this topic was mentioned earlier in another posting (but under a different aspect), the following problem seems to be not resolved:

What language (speech and writing) should be used for the "main", "authoritative" (or native, i.e. not alternative) name field of GeoNames features?

At first view the language used for the name entry should be the primary/official language of the described feature. So, for example, all russian cities should have it's name entry in russian language and cyrillic writing, names of rivers in India should be given in Hindi etc.
At the moment this seems to be not the case for a lot (if not the most) of features in Asia, Africa and Middle East.

Furthermore this raises a problem for
  • features that belong to two or more countries (long rivers, border rivers, mountain passes etc). and
  • features that don't belong to any country, such as oceanographic features.

    Any suggestions?


    best regards,
    Andreas
  • [WWW]
    marc



    Joined: 08/12/2005 07:39:47
    Messages: 4412
    Offline

    Hi Andreas

    The main name of a place should be an international name (if one is available). The localized names are in the alternatename table with the corresponding language code.

    Best

    Marc

    [WWW]
    alpenrouten.de



    Joined: 07/01/2010 23:49:16
    Messages: 5
    Location: Germany
    Offline

    Hi Marc,

    what is an "international name"? How is it defined?
    With a look at the names currently existing, it seems that most of the international names are either romanized or english variants of the native name. Is this correct?

    best regards,
    Andreas
    [WWW]
    marc



    Joined: 08/12/2005 07:39:47
    Messages: 4412
    Offline

    Andreas

    This is correct. The main name should be internationally recognizable, this is some English or romanized variant.


    Marc

    [WWW]
     
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