Language names

WiktionaryZ is not far off from the moment when we will be able to have the labels of the languages shown with the translations and synonyms in the language of the user interface (UI). The way I understand it will work is that a DefinedMeaning that is tagged with the corresponding ISO-639-3 code will have its available translations copied to the Language table.

This will be fun to observe.

The codes that we use do not allow for specific versions of for instance English; "English (American)" is coded like eng-US. This is however not an ISO-639-3 code. We will find a solution for that one. For other languages there is this utter confusion of what is meant by a language name; Schwyzerdütsch for instance is also called Alemannisch and it is certainly not the Swiss version of High German. Then there are languages like "Western Mari", Wikipedia considers them a dialect where Ethnologue recognises it as a language.

I hope and expect that people will want to have all the languages in their language on WiktionaryZ. For many languages it will be hard to find a name that fits the orthographic rules of their language.. Haiǁom for instance ..

Thanks,
GerardM

PS It would be nice if these entries are sorted.. Well, this is something for another blog..