Language List Names

[OldBoring]

I looked at my own language list and it's a mix:

Chinese, Wu
Chinese, Mandarin

But:
Brazilian Portuguese
Classical Chinese

[dEhiN]

I think there's 3 different things here we're talking about:

1) The Language List page which lists the ISO code and shows the flag
2) The Language list that you use in the UCP when adding a language
3) The profile page list of languages

I just checked and it seems that for numbers 1 and 2, currently both naming conventions are used. Some languages + variants, like Arabic are listed as Language, Variant in both 1 & 2. Some of them, like English, are listed as Variant Language in both 1 & 2. It does look like 1 & 2 vary however, in the actual listing. For example, in 2 you have:

Alsatian
German
Austrian German
...
Old High German
Old Saxon
Altay, Northern
Altay, Southern

while in 1 there doesn't seem to be any ordering scheme (at least that I could figure out)!

I'm not sure if choosing a single naming convention, and changing both 1 & 2 to use it, will by default mean that 3 gets changed as well. Though I guess 3 uses the same names as 2?

But regardless of the convention we use, I think that right now having a mix with no seeming order to the listing is extremely confusing. Sure for 1 you can use Ctrl+F. But you can't for 2. And I just checked for 3, and if I were to have French, Portuguese, Spanish and Tamil all with the same amount of stars, my profile page would show this:

Brazilian Portuguese
French
Spanish
Tamil, Sri Lankan

Personally, I'm in favour of Language, Variant because I think it's distracting and looks odd to see:

Franco-Provençal
French
Acadian French
...
Old French
Friulian

I can't speak for others (native or not), but when I first joined and was adding my languages (so using 2), I did a double take because seeing that confused me. I took me a second or two before I realized why things were like that.

[księżycowy]

I would think, considering the way the list is set up, that any change to any one of the three would change the other two in the same way.

Remember our previous conversation about the language list vs the profile list in the "My Languages"Options thread, dEhiN?

[Luís]

I would think, considering the way the list is set up, that any change to any one of the three would change the other two in the same way.

The underlying data is the same, so if we change the name, it'll be changed across all three.

But something specific to the list (e.g. the way it's ordered) can be changed independently.

[księżycowy]

I keep forgetting to acknowledge the end of the poll and post the results.

So, Egyptian Arabic won by a good margin. Ok, that's what we'll go with! Thanks for those who voted and discussed this!

Lucky for you Luís, as I think that makes less work for you.

[vijayjohn]

Personally, I'm in favour of Language, Variant because I think it's distracting and looks odd to see:

Franco-Provençal
French
Acadian French
...
Old French
Friulian

I can't speak for others (native or not), but when I first joined and was adding my languages (so using 2), I did a double take because seeing that confused me. I took me a second or two before I realized why things were like that.

I used to think things like that looked odd, too, but they're pretty common and really just take getting used to IME.

[księżycowy]

Wait, which one are you talking about, Vijay?

Not that it makes a bit of difference for the list at this point. It's been decided. I'm just curious.

[vijayjohn]

The one dEhiN said looked odd? Old French followed by Friulian

[księżycowy]

Thanks. I was a bit confused for a second.

[Luís]

Lucky for you Luís, as I think that makes less work for you.

True, but it's still a long list. I'll probably do it in batches.

[Luís]

Lucky for you Luís, as I think that makes less work for you.

True, but it's still a long list. I'll probably do it in batches.

I already went through the whole list. It was actually faster than I thought...

Please let me know if you find any mistakes.

[księżycowy]

Perhaps too fast :
Altai, Southern
Altai, Northern

I also wonder if the ones with parenthesis should be changed to the new format as well?
In particular I'm looking at Mari (Meadow), Mari (Hill), Apache (Western), Sorbian (Upper), and Sorbian (Lower). In my eyes at least that's the same as "Mari, Meadow."

I'd leave Yevanic as is, as the name in parenthesis is an explanation rather than a dialectal designation. But that's what I think.

Otherwise, looking good Luís! Thanks!

[Luís]

I changed those languages as well, should be OK now!

[księżycowy]

Looking good to me anyway. Thanks again, Luís!

[Karavinka]

Sinama, Central
Greek, ancient

I just CTRL+F'd comma
Again, good job Luis!

[Luís]

Sinama, Central
Greek, ancient

I just CTRL+F'd comma
Again, good job Luis!

Fixed!