I want to make an interactive map of countries with their names in their native scripts. Has this been done already? What's an easy way to build it?

July 6, 2004 4:28 PM

I'm looking for the best way to go about a pet project involving the names of countries in their native scripts, and wondering 1) if it's been done already and i can't find it, and 2) what would be an easy way to make a slightly interactive map. more inside

i've had a kernal of this idea for a while, and googling came up with some things [1, 2, 3, etc.] close to it which are nevertheless useful resources.

the basic idea is to make a map which lists all the nations of the world in their own native scripts. when you roll over the country or smaller area, or click on it or something, you then get the pronunciation for english speakers, and maybe a list of the languages spoken there or some other bits of info like that.

has this been done? how hard would the coding of the map be, and what would be the easiest way to do it? and what should i do with it when i finish and make it pretty?

posted by mitchel to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Are you looking for something like this?

You could Flash-ify it pretty easily, I'd imagine.
posted by cmonkey at 4:39 PM on July 6, 2004

What happens when you encounter countries with multiple scripts (e.g., India) and/or multiple names for the country (e.g., Belgium)?
posted by joeclark at 5:29 PM on July 6, 2004

cmonkey: Thanks!

joeclark: Belgium gets both names (België, Belgique); India has a whole map to itself, with each republic in its own script.
posted by languagehat at 5:55 PM on July 6, 2004

ya cmonkey, that's pretty much what i was looking for

i noticed a few other errors of a very minor sort, could be typos [accent marks, things like that]

the idea sprang from my basic frustration growing up at memorizing the names of countries which were foolish pidgin names instead of "real" names...
posted by mitchel at 6:23 PM on July 6, 2004

mitchel, as long as you're respecting each country's native language and writing system, why not also respect and understand pidgins and creoles?

You could definitely take this map to the next level by including IPA transcriptions and audio recordings of the names. It's true though that things would get hairy with multilingual countries (which, of course, are just about all of them ... )
posted by kmel at 8:13 AM on July 7, 2004