All,
Is there a policy on OSM for describing road/placenames correctly using accented characters, or should they be left (incorrectly) without accented characters? I have been correcting road layout errors and a few minor road name errors on OSM since a few months, but have been wary of correcting Welsh road names and place names. A good example is each instance of “Lon {whatever}”. Lon is Welsh for “Lane”, and should have a circumflex above the letter o, thus “Lôn {whatever}”. Lon (without the circumflex above the o) is a Welsh female name - I had such a relative named Lon. Fortuantely for her, she didn’t live on a Welsh lane. Should they be amended to correct Welsh, or left as they are in an incorrect state? Another one is the circumflex over the letter y, as in Tŷ (which means “house”). A good example is Tŷddewi, which is the Welsh name for the city of St David’s in Pembrokeshire. Tyddewi is incorrect. Yet another circumflex problem is that above the letter w, as in dŵr (which means “water”). A good example is Garthydŵr in Denbighshire.
It was suggested to me on another part of this forum that I should follow local usage and whatever is used on road signs. The problem with that is that road signs are inconsistent. Some are spelled correctly, others aren’t. It all depends on who made the particular sign that particular day, and there’s no modicum of QA. My local council’s attitude to the Welsh language can be described as apathetic at best, despite the fact that the Welsh Language Act supposedly forces all public bodies in Wales to give equal prominence to both Welsh and English.
RWJ