William,
You can download ICU and use the resources from their data files. You can
also use Windows 2000 or Windows XP and extract them from the resource
files.
If you want to have a list of all languages in all languages you might also
consider all countries in all languages as well if you are picking locales.
What I have always wanted was a set of gif or jpeg files for each language
in the proper language. Then you don't have font rendering issues to select
a language when you may be in a different language.
Say I want to pick Italian and fat fingers here misses and selects Japanese.
If the system does not have a Japanese font the language selection menu now
renders as garbage and no one can read it. This is why I recommend that
clients implement English as well as the native language because most users
will recognize the name of there own language in English and English renders
with most fonts. If you always render each language in its own language
you will have real font problems. This is where graphic representations
come in handy.
With the graphic representations I only need one per language. I certainly
won't choose a language that I can not read.
Carl
> -----Original Message-----
> From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org]On
> Behalf Of William Overington
> Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2001 2:28 AM
> To: unicode@unicode.org
> Cc: archive@ngo.globalnet.co.uk
> Subject: Names of languages each expressed in their own language
>
>
> I wonder if there already exists, or could we devise, a list of
> the names of
> languages each expressed in their own language please.
>
> It would be helpful if the Unicode Consortium might kindly include such a
> list on its website, as that would then give the list considerable
> provenance for accuracy.
>
> I feel that such a list would be a useful reference source, for
> example, for
> preparing menu pages for software applications where the dialogue could be
> offered in a number of natural languages. The specific dialogue for each
> natural language could be added in a separate file by individual
> translators
> as time proceeds, yet the menu page needs to be set up initially.
>
> I put forward here an initial suggestion for the format of each entry,
> though I am not expert on the intricacies of languages and if other people
> would like to improve upon my initial suggestion then that is fine.
>
> Initial suggestion:
>
> Each entry consists of the following.
>
> Name of the language expressed in English.
>
> Name of the language expressed in the language, expressed using 7
> bit ascii
> characters, transliterated if necessary.
>
> Name of the language expressed in the language, expressed using
> the alphabet
> in which the language is expressed, using U+hhhh notation for any
> characters
> which are not ordinary 7 bit ascii characters.
>
> Name of the language expressed in the language, expressed as a Java string
> using the alphabet in which the language is expressed, using
> \uhhhh notation
> for any characters which are not ordinary 7 bit ascii characters.
>
> Name of the language expressed in the language, followed by a full stop
> character or whatever is the equivalent way of expressing in the language
> and its alphabet that which in English is called a full stop,
> expressed as a
> Java string using the alphabet in which the language is expressed, using
> \uhhhh notation for any characters which are not ordinary 7 bit ascii
> characters.
>
> I am aware that there may be some international standard way of denoting
> languages using perhaps three latin characters. I am unaware of the
> details. It would be helpful to include such information in the
> entries in
> the list.
>
> ----
>
> The separate entry with the full stop character added is suggested because
> once languages that do not use the latin alphabet are encountered, the way
> to do this is not obvious to a person who does not know the language.
>
> William Overington
>
> 7 August 2001
>
> www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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