Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Case for Localizing Names, "part 3"

My friend Amir wrote twice ([1], [2]) about the need for the localisation of names. The need for localisation is rather obvious when the original name is in another script. But names written in the Latin script can be as foreign. Take for instance the Czech author and screenwriter Jiří Růžička, I do not know how to type his name and, I am sure 98% of the users of Wikidata will be able to do so either.

When a name uses characters that are not in use in a language, it follows that the name is unlikely to be found in a language and consequently transliteration is in order. The name as originally written is not an alias. It is something different. It probably needs an attribute of the type "multilingual text" for support in Wikidata.
Thanks,
       GerardM

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