English and French translation required for some road names

Communities Canada
1

Hi all, I am working with Microsoft Research and we have an app called Microsoft Soundscape (on iPhone only currently) for the Visually Impaired and Blind communities. The app provides a 3D map experience and calls out to the user several points of interest and road names, all based on OSM data.

In Canada we have noticed that in the French speaking cities and areas of Quebec, that roads may be named “1e Avenue” or “1er Avenue”.

This should be called out as “Première Avenue” in French and “First Avenue” in English. But I have noticed that there is no translation for both languages. The road may be called out as “Une-ième Avenue”. (I will also be following this up with the Voice providers)

Is it possible for some local OSM mappers to consider providing these translations so that apps can callout the names of roads accurately? i.e. a user using the French Language & Voice settings would hear “Première” and users using the English Language & Voice settings would hear “First”?

I have included a link to such a road where I have added the English translation.
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/20443208

What are the thoughts here?
Thanks
Steven

2

I think if you bring this up on the talk-ca mailing list you will get more input.

If you look around Ottawa, you will see that the “name:en” and “name:fr” tags are filled in, since the City of Ottawa has both official languages. The City of Ottawa also expands the road names so there is no “1e” or “1st”… the name would be “First Avenue” (english) and “avenue First” (French) in Ottawa. (https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/591636563)

I would think that in this case, “First Avenue” is not actually correct. If I’m in Quebec, I would expect the names to be pronounced in French even if I am English. It looks to me a mis-use of the ‘name:en’ field… but those from Quebec could comment further.

3

Thanks very much. I will post this to the suggested group and see what more comes back.
This is very useful information.
Steven

4

@Matthew - stupid question, but what is the easiest way to send a message to to the Talk-CA alias?
Thanks
Steven

5

https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-ca

6

Thanks @Matthew Darwin