First time here, but I could not find answers for any of the following questions in the forum, nor in the readme.
1. In alternative names file, should we have exactly one preferred alternative name for given geonameid? Found hundreds with more than one.
2. Should this preferred name be in the official language of the country?
3. Is this an error if "name" in geoname file is different than preferred name in alternative names v2 file? Which one should take precedence? I found dozens of cities with different name in cities500.txt and in alternativeNamesV2.txt
4. If there is no entry in alternative names file for given geonameid how can I get the language of the name?
Thank you very much in advance for any information
1. there can be a preferred name in every language.
2. no, many countries anyway have more than one official language
3. no. Usage depends on the use case. For display short, preferred, main toponym name is the order of precedence.
4. then it is unknown.