We are having problems with some users who insist on using only the Arabic language for the names of various toponyms, and for commercial establishments, airports, universities, etc.
It is necessary to remember that the UAE Law requires that all these place names and indicators of commercial establishments and others, ALWAYS appear MANDATORY, in Arabic + English.
This is why OSM must respect the Law, and always use both languages to define all place names and other names that appear on the maps.
Attached is a photograph, as an example, of a small town: Al Jaroof.
On OSM maps, this town should appear with the name: Al Jaroof - ۧÙۏ۱ÙÙ. If we only put ۧÙۏ۱ÙÙ we would be breaking the Law, and we would also be making it difficult for thousands of users who do not speak Arabic to understand our maps.
Is this the place you are talking about? For the avoidance of doubt, that place has had both Arabic and English names since 2018. Neither has been removed.
Which name field a particular third-party map chooses to display is a matter for that third-party map alone; you canât dictate it externally. There are seven different maps available via the osm.org layer switcher and many more elsewhere.
You presumably are complaining about the removal of part of the ânameâ field (without changes to name:ar or name:en) here. The person you are discussing with there says âThe only official languages of the United Arab Emirates and Oman according to its consitution is Arabicâ. I clearly canât comment on that but did suggest you raised the issue here, so thanks for doing that!
Yeah.
The problem is not that names in a certain language are eliminated. That doesnât usually happen. What is happening is that when both languages appear in the Name field (e.g. Jabal ar Rahrah - ŰŹŰšÙ Ű§Ù۱ۧŰčÙ OpenStreetMap
Some users remove the English part of the name, leaving only the Arabic.
By doing so you are breaking the law.
This is what the UAE government says, regarding place names, on its website Request Rejected Official language Arabic is the official language of the UAE. In the courts, the other five official languages are Chinese, English, French, Hindi and Russian. All road and traffic signs, and signs on commercial outlets are in Arabic and English. Some of the other widely spoken languages include Bengali, Farsi, Malayalam, Turkish and Urdu.
Attached is a photo of another example, in thi
s case of a dam: As you can see, it is also in both Arabic + English languages. In this case, it is the Rahba Dam, to which I have just added the name in Arabic, because previously it only appeared in English.
All. Absolutely all road indicators, names of towns, mountains, wadis, commercial signs, etc. They are in English + Arabic because the Law requires it.
That fact sheet doesnât say it is âthe lawâ, merely that Arabic is the official language and it is customary for signs to be in Arabic and English (and note - âArabic and Englishâ, not âEnglish and Arabicâ). Itâs up to mappers actually in the UAE to decide what should be in the OSM name field.
Incidentally, itâs fairly clear that your sign wasnât written by a fluent user of English.
Edit: Note the point below about Arabic being rtl - as written, both languages are âfirstâ
The signs requiring a place name be in both Arabic and English, doesnât necessarily mean both languages should be put in the main name tag. For example, does the corresponding census agency mention the places by both the Arabic and English variant?
I believe that even if naming public objects in Arabic as well as English language is required by law it will still be sufficient if this is done in OSM by using the ânameâ key for the Arabic name (which is the native language) and the âname:ENâ key for the English name. Showing both names on a map is just a problem of the rendering. If you use this map for instance you will see all the names in both languages, for places as well as for roads and other objects:
So I do not think it is mandatory to put both English and Arabic name together in the ânameâ tag.
OSM is a database of spatial data. Like most (all) databases we have a âschemaâ, that is, roughly speaking, standards for what information goes in what fields (OSM doesnât have fields per se, but our tagging is similar). The schema that the community consensus has arrived at says that the name field is for the one name that is primarily used by people local to the area being mapped, and that names in other languages should be placed in the name:xx tag, where âxxâ is the two letter language code, e.g. âenâ for English. Alternate names can be placed in the alt_name=* tag, or itâs more specific variants, e.g. short_name=*
Perhaps you coulld find a hiking app that displays the value of the name:en key.
It would be best to contact wikiloc about their design problems instead of trying to change the standard OSM map rendering by altering the name tag values for your use case. Now they will probably reply to use the Apple map in their app, but they may just include more basemaps (e.g. with English labels) like (as a good example for your use case) Thunderforest Outdoors. Or you may just change the app you use. Wikiloc is just one of many many apps out there.
and if you do some mapping there to add new features, it would be best to put the Arabic name into name=⊠and name:ar=⊠and the English name into name:en=⊠(and you may check the English names on maps like the aforementioned openstreetmap.de map (that will use the English name if it does not have a German one) or at e.g. Relation: âȘŰŻŰšÙ⏠(âȘ4479752âŹ) | OpenStreetMap or https://www.osmap.uk where youâll see the English (and Arabic) name or English name only respectively.
I use OSMAND for hiking (and other map things). It has an option where you can select the language that is used to label things, it even says that if there isnât a name:xx=* tag for the language you selected, it will attempt to do a translation. There is a free version, but if you subscribe, or if you make lots of OSM edits, you can get a version where you get updates nearly every hour, which means the night before you go for a hike, you can double check the area in OSM and make necessary edits have have those on your phone the next morning before you head out on the trail!
Actually, the OSMF wiki has a section in the âdisputed territoriesâ policy that says that OSM, as one database for the world, canât follow all local laws (because they contradict).
For example, what the Indian government thinks is âIndiaâ differs from neighbouring countries. In OSM we try and create data that anyone can use to create a map that works for them, but lots of OSM maps are âillegalâ in lots of countries.
The fact that Wikiloc doesnât offer the features you desire is not an excuse to abuse the OSM schema. We call that âtagging for the renderâ, and consider it a bad thing to do. What if I read neither Arabic nor English, would I be justified in adding my language to the name=* tag? What if I was in a country that had dozens of official languages, should they all be entered in the name=* tag? What a mess that would be!
I would suggest asking for the ability to add your own layer, the way that Vespucci and OsmAnd allow. Tell them lots of their competitors already support that
As the sign shows, both arabic and english languages are indicated. For the name tag content, it is up to the local community to establish a standard. The best is also that the community contacs contributors to assure they follow the name tag standard. No problem if you prefer english on the left, arabic on the right as one reads from left to right and the other right to left. This is the rule applied by the Marocco community using french and arabic.
But as said, various softwares using OSM can use their own rule often based on the prefered language of the user. Gladly when I search OSM for marrakech, maroc, the OSM website recognize my preference and show the french version that I can read. I also like to use the Americana website wich let me move the map around the world and have a french or english version of names. Otherwise, for many countries around the world, I cannot read. OpenStreetMap Americana
Perhaps it is worth noting that even leaving aside the language issue, it would be useful to many users to offer more options than the standard OSM tiles, which do not have outdoor recreation as a high priority.
