Proposal:African Scripts in names

African Scripts in names
Proposal status:	Draft (under way)
Proposed by:	Supersellout
Tagging:	name:ff-Adlam=*
Applies to:
Definition:	The tagging system for native African scripts
Statistics:
Draft started:	2023-11-21

Proposal

African scripts such as N'ko, Adlam, Luo, and other native scripts are to be included in the names of places and localities in their respective areas. This article will go into the details of implementing these scripts into the map, as well as the methods to tag them.

These tags can be used on any node, area, way, or relation with a common name in any African script.

Rationale

Africa has many native languages, and with many native languages comes many native scripts. Since the 20th century, countries like Guinea, Kenya, and others have seen numerous varied scripts introduced for replacing the confusing Ajami scripts. These new typesets have become not only commonplace, but also familiar, with street signs, storefronts, radio, and other services using them. However, many maps, including OSM, don't show them, instead opting to use the more well known but less adaptable Latin characters for these names. While readable for foreigners and natives, these characters don't capture the full orthography of the languages spoken in those places, which could make the names of places and things less correlatable for people living there. Also, having to use different scripts for different reasons can be annoying for the mapper or user of a map. Even if one doesn't find it problematic, having the names of familiar places in a familiar language and typeset would be much nicer for localizing the maps, as well as increasing recognition of those scripts.

Names of places therefore should be named in their native script, either over or under the Latin name, and specified as, for example, name:ff-Adlm=*, with the Latin name being name:ff-Latn=*

Tagging

The tags for tagging different scripts

name:ff-Adlm	– For the name of a feature in the Fula language using the Adlam script.
name:ff-Latn	– For the name of a feature in the Fula language using the Latin alphabet.
name:nqo-Nkoo	– Name of a feature in Bambara/Dyula language using the N'ko script.
name:nqo-Latn	– Name of a feature in Bambara/Dyula language using the Latin alphabet.
name:yo-Odu	– Yoruba name in the Oduduwa script (not implemented into Unicode as of 2023).
name:vai-Vaii	– Vai language name in the Vai syllabary.

Rendering

The name should be rendered either over or under the Latin name

Features/Pages affected

Names

Multilingual names

Key:name:yo

Key:name:ff

Comments

Please comment on the discussion page.