Thank you for this message! You are completely right.
I meant relatively simple in the sense that there are two “obvious”
languages to which a large majority of the region’s speakers minimally
relate to. But you are completely right that it is already an
oversimplification! I do understand that a surface that big couldn’t be
as simple as that ☺ So it was definitely a bad example. Sorry about that.
And I think that you made a very good point here: there is no point
arguing for a best solution, as there will reasonnably be no such thing,
only compromises. I believe that the proposal from Joseph Eisenberg (
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/Default_Language_Format
) and Mario Frasca (having several “label:language” nodes) are doing
steps in very good directions. But they won’t solve all of the issues
raised in this thread.
Regards,
Martin.
P.S.: You include Easter Island in South America. Interesting. I know
that it is part of Chile, but as it is part of an island relatively far
away from the mainland, I wouldn’t have associated it with the
continent. I’m probably wrong, I guess. But yeah, the notion of
continent is definitely too fuzzy :-\
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
_______________________________________________
talk mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
