Re: icons for languages

[Tor Lillqvist <tml novell com>]

On ti, 2005-09-13 at 14:58 +0200, Gudmund Areskoug wrote:

> How about a tiny map, indicating the region where that language is 
> traditionally spoken, 

Nah, doesn't work. Where does one draw the line what's "traditional" and
what's "non-traditional"? This opens up a whole new dimension of cans of
worms than using a flag does, by referring to not only current flags,
but also history.

For instance, as a "finlandssvensk" (the Swedish-specaking minority in
Finland) I certainly would find it as silly (if not offensive) to have
to click a map of Sweden as it would be to have to click the Swedish
flag. (Not because there would be anything wrong with Sweden, but
because that would feel like accepting the misconception that
Swedish-speaking Finns are closely related to Sweden.)

> with the language name in its own script(s)?

This is simple and effective. So what if those who don't understand the
language or read the script don't understand what language it is? The
main thing is that people immediately recognize their *own* language.

--tml