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I've recently started mapping in Russia's North Caucasus. Alongside Russian, there are hundreds of small languages spoken, many of them also being a second official language in some areas.

One example is the Abasa language. It has 45.000 speakers and is an official language in Abazinsky District. I now want to add Abasa names in this district. However, when I try to add name tags in the language (in OSM's iD editor), I cannot select it from the list of languages. The language is not in the list. Can I still add a name in Abasa?

This is just an example, there are many other small languages that don't appear as a choice in OSM's web editor.

asked 28 Oct '14, 10:30

Maturi0n's gravatar image

Maturi0n
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edited 28 Oct '14, 10:33


OSM allows you to add any properties to objects; we call that "tags". For example, a commercial building would receive the tag building=commercial. Some of these tags are available as presets in the editors but not all of them are. (There's over 53,000 distinct keys, that's the bit to the left of the equal sign, in the database. You wouldn't want an editor that shows them all in a drop-down!)

ID allows the adding of custom tags. Click the "+" button under "all tags", and enter "name:xx" as the key, and the name in language xx as the value. ("xx" here stands for the ISO language code of the language in question.)

Please, however, refrain from adding translations as names. For example, the "Pont Neuf" in Paris is not called the "New Bridge" in English, so it should not have a "name:en=New Bridge" tag. Only use the name tag when something really has an independent name in another language, never for mere translations.

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answered 28 Oct '14, 10:47

Frederik%20Ramm's gravatar image

Frederik Ramm ♦
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accept rate: 23%

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Most common languages are included in the ISO 639-1 two-letter codes. Some less widely spoken languages will only be in the ISO 639-3 three letter codes. For these, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-3_codes Looks like the code for Abasa (aka Abaza) is abq. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaza_language

(28 Oct '14, 13:37) neuhausr

Hi MaturiOn, remember the basic rule of OSM tag what’s there. So if there’s a road- or name sign alongside the road in a bilingual area, you’re allowed to use that name and tag it accordingly. Take a look here 2 names on one shield https://www.google.nl/maps/@53.0308013,5.692169,3a,90y,102.69h,76.7t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sGtbNDRSZwYg_BkFfmTBM_g!2e0 And the community written as Sneek is also known as Snits, the area has Frisk as language and they have their own Wiki pages http://fy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haadside

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answered 28 Oct '14, 11:56

Hendrikklaas's gravatar image

Hendrikklaas
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accept rate: 5%

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question asked: 28 Oct '14, 10:30

question was seen: 5,001 times

last updated: 28 Oct '14, 13:37

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