Local names

🚧 Migration users: Algeria
1

Hello everyone,

According to
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:name
and
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Multilingual_names
places should be named according to their local languages.
The Algerian map is a total mess, names are written in French only or Arabic only or both Arabic and French, or French, Berber and Arabic.

I see the best approach is to name each place according to its local language.
For example Kabyle region should use kabyle (Berber in latin), Chaouia region should use chaoui (berber in Arabic transcripts), Algiers should be in both French and Arabic, the rest should be in Arabic.

Thanks,

2

Hello,

Arabic became the official national language of Algeria in 1990. So my opinion is that the name=* must be in Arabic (not in name:ar_dz=). French names with name:fr=; For other regional languages I will use your suggestion of adding in loc_name=* according to the region’s local language.

Finally, I will add a name:pronunciation tag with the phonetic transcription of a name into the International Phonetic Alphabet, for people that don’t read Arabic.

met.

3

Actually we have two official national languages: Arabic and Berber (Tamazight).
Allowing both to be used is the best solution, as it is the situation in Switzerland (German, French and Italian) and Iraq (Arabic and Kurdish).

4

Hello,
I would recommend the Moroccan solution: the name tag of every geographic object is “French / Tamazight / Arabic”.
This is partially implemented in northen Algeria, but in the southern regions most of the name tags are in Arabic only.