[sword-devel] language/locale codes

[Chris Little]

Eeli Kaikkonen wrote:
> BTW, what do linguists do when they want to discuss about a language
> which doesn't have a name translated into the language of discussion,
> especially if the foreign language uses different script? Or do
> scholarly articles use only the native names? I guess linguists want to
> talk about languages they don't actually know.

There are a few common strategies. You can leave names in the native 
language but transliterate to Latin (or Cyrillic, etc. depending on the 
language of the journal) where necessary. Many languages are given a 
Latin-sounding name (e.g Sumerian, Venetic, and Celtiberian).

On top of this, language names frequently undergo fairly regular 
nativizations to other languages. Languages end in -(i)sch in German, 
-(i)sk(a) in Scandinavian, etc.

--Chris