Conclusion: I think the OSM wiki should have the master version content translated verbatim, and with discussion and agreement on this, I’d like someone to add these guidelines. - Wiki Translation
A wiki document should basically describe pan-lingual and pan-regional content, and a translated version should contain the content of a reference(usually English or German version). Related category
In other words, simply because it is a translation of a specific language, it should not be changed into content suitable for the region where that specific language is used.
If it is necessary to describe a specific region that differs from the reference text, this should be done either by comparing the regions or by including a separate section (usually as a paragraph) describing the specific region.
I generally think that these principles should be agreed upon and articulated.
In practice, however, translations into specific languages are often changed to make them more contextually relevant to the region where the language is spoken.
I don’t have the English skills to lead and organize a discussion like this, so I’m hoping someone will step up and lead the discussion and organize the consensus.
한국어 요약(Korean summary)
위키 번역에서, 번역본은 적어도 참고본의 내용을 유지해야 한다는 지침을 마련해서 추가해야 한다고 생각합니다.
There was a fair bit of discussion on there. My suggestion was to faithfully translate the English version but to have a separate section that allowed for localisation issues or clarifications. But it can require a lot of work to keep translated versions up-to-date with the English version.
I am strongly against this. Examples can be made more specific (especially when language is used only in a limited area).
And mentioning false friends is very useful. See words “bar” in English and in Polish - with a different meaning, but close enough to be highly confusing.
This really should be discussed at wiki anyway, not here.
I believe rhat if there is some type of connical text is that it be short and to the point. Only covering the core concepts central creating a shared understanding of the tag being described. The English should be simple and only use technical words where. Making it easy to translate for those not familiar with English.
I would also include similar description for each of the known values. These could be a scale or just a set of know values. Each should be written equally clear and concise as the tag definition. With an emphasis on how each value represents a distinction state in the array of values defined.
My go would be: It should be translated true with the base english. And country-specifics should me marked - maybe a border in a not-yet-used-colour around the country-specific stuff. That way its clear for people in the language that this is “Other” than the base english. It might be a change or just a local addition.
I agree country specific information should go in its own paragraph/section and should be marked as such, and this is not limited to certain languages, ideally we would have all information in all languages, practically we are lacking volunteering manpower to do this, so people will concentrate on what is most important to them.
I understand this, a solution might be to add the paragraph similar to the Addresses i linked above in the native language and then translate the whole page excluding the other country-specifics.
This way someone from spain can add the paragraph in his own language and copy that paragraph to the spanish translated-article.
That way everybody can see that there are specifics for that country (important if someone is tagging on a holiday, for example) even if they have to copy it into deepl.com or something like that.