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I make a multilingual website and I want to link to openstreetmap, but I want to make sure that the visitor get the map in their own language. E.g. if they're at our Spanish website, they should be directed to the Spanish open street map. Is there a parameter i can use in the link to indicate correct language?

asked 29 Nov '13, 12:22

Matsbla's gravatar image

Matsbla
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accept rate: 0%

edited 29 Nov '13, 20:02

aseerel4c26's gravatar image

aseerel4c26 ♦
32.6k18248554


The openstreetmap.org website itself obeys the browser's language preference. So wether you are logged in or not, if your browser preferences are set to spanish, you'll see the website in spanish (unless some translations are missing).

The standard map rendering however isn't in any specific language. Country names are writen in the country's local language (España, Deutchland, 中华人民共和国, etc). There are many alternative map renderings that favor a particular language, but we don't yet have a generic multilingual map. Some experiments have been made, but this is a hard topic to get right.

permanent link

answered 29 Nov '13, 12:48

Vincent%20de%20Phily's gravatar image

Vincent de P... ♦
17.3k18152249
accept rate: 19%

1

Thanks for the explaining the situation and for the interesting link.

I think open street map don't have a good solution for this now. It should be possible to make a link and make sure that people get the map in a specific language, e.g. people can use a browser at an internet-cafe that is not in their own language, so they can be at a Spanish website, click and get the map in English because they have English browser. Also, at the website there is no button or any way to change interface language directly (only for user with accounts the way I understand it).

(29 Nov '13, 16:56) Matsbla
1

What happens with multilingual countries? e.g. my browser's preferred languages have gd and gd-GB on the top. I know that you have Scottish Gaelic place names in the database, because when I search for Dùn Èideann", OSM correctly displays Edinburgh. All place names are in English though, and there is no way I can get at the Gaelic names that I can see. Preferred languages in my user profile don't help either.

(12 Mar '15, 20:46) GunChleoc

The website itself chooses the first supported language from the browser's config. See this general translation page and help improve the gd translation.

(13 Mar '15, 12:14) Vincent de P... ♦
1

For the map, the original answer applies. See the multilingual map test or see this Irish Gaelic map as an example.

(13 Mar '15, 12:15) Vincent de P... ♦

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question asked: 29 Nov '13, 12:22

question was seen: 4,986 times

last updated: 13 Mar '15, 12:15

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum