This is a collection of global multiligual place names.

• In 81 languages, we currently support 1312 placemarks for 194 countries,
  other areas: 91 subnational, 13 joint, 51 disputed, and 73 miscellaneous,
  with 289 capitals, 250 cities > 1,000,000 and 351 cities > 500,000.
  
• These languages are designed to work in close partnership with the companion set of Global Maritime Boundaries, but that is not mandatory.
  
• These languages show all 1312 placemarks: Bulgarian, Catalan, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Welsh
  
• The normal update schedule will be one to three months, but "emergency" updates may be made for very serious problems.
  
• If you have a few additions or corrections, Send Me a Message
  
• If your changes are in a language which is NOT in the Latin I code set (Western Europe), then you can enter a posting in the Support Group data forum which supports all Unicode (UTF-8) languages and alphabets
  
• If you have native language skills in Cyrillic or Indian languages, send me a message with your email address. I will send you a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with your language(s) place marks for your edits.
  
• Improved alphabetization and "Regionalization" will be added.

Table of Contents

• Rationale: Why separate language placemark files?
  
• Quick Start - English only
  
• ALL 81 LANGUAGES (the download is only 1.24 MB)
  
• Language Implementation Statistics
  

After about 12,000 downloads of version 3, and the complexity of database maintenance, we now only provide the complete set of languages for download. We no longer provide subsets of particular writing systems.

Special thanks go to Rob T�geir (Scottish Gaeliec), Valerie35 (Russian), and bebop (Itlatian) for their efforts to improve the data.

The data is provided "as is", and no warranty express, implied or otherwise is offered as to the data's accuracy. The developer does not imply any opinion concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The data can be used for educational, scientific or research purposes but should not be used for legal, commercial/economical (exploration of natural resources) or navigational purposes.

Anyone can download this data, but it is for the sole use of the individual downloading the data. The data may not be redistributed without the permission of Alphabet Systems LLC. Redistribution rights are granted for hard-copy renditions or static, electronic map images (e.g. jpeg, gif, etc.) that are plotted, printed or publicly displayed with reference to Alphabet Systems.

Global Multilingual Place Names > Rationale: Why separate placemark files?
__________________________________________

Place names (toponomy) are vital to navigation in Google Earth. With the introduction of Release 4, the application now permits users to see the world in a few languages, but only after exiting and restarting. The user cannot switch quickly to another language "on the fly."

The "system default" country and place names are a mixture of

• Translations - Depending on the method and quality of the work, we can find the United Kingdom's place name Rockingham translated to mean this in other languages:
  
  Such literal translations are often called "calques."
  
  
• Transliterations - these vary by the language of the reader. For example, for Bulgaria's capital, we have Sofiya (Azeri and Google Earth's "default"), Sofia (English, et al.), Sofija (Croatian, et al.), Sofja (Maltese), Sofya (Turkish), Sz�fia (Hungarian), and many others whose alphabets cannot be shown in this BBS.
  
  
• National Languages - Wikipedia says India has 23 official languages. Which should be selected?
  
  
• Native Languages - Wikipedia says India has 1,683 mother tongues, the Russian Federation has over 100. Which should be selected?
  
  
• Alphabets - many users have little familiarity with the Western European alphabet (Latin I code set). Also, languages sometimes use more than one alphabet.
  ---- SerboCroatian uses Cyrillic for Serbian and Latin for Croatian and the Bosnian dialect.
  ---- Hindustani uses Arabic for Urdu and Devanegari for Hindi
  

Google Earth should

• Eliminate the "system default" language, which is no language at all.
  
  
• Permit users set the default place name language independently of the language in which the application will present dialogues, menus, etc.
  
  
• Accept searches in any language and alphabet.
  
  
• Switch between place name display languages rapidly (including countries), without an application restart.
  
  
• Eliminate parentheses in placename displays.
  
  
• Support non-Western European languages in this BBS uniformly across various browsers.
  

From Wikipedia:

Global Multilingual Place Names > Quick Start English
__________________________________________

1312 placemarks for 194 countries,
other areas: 91 subnational, 13 joint, 51 disputed, and 73 miscellaneous,
with 289 capitals, 250 cities > 1,000,000 and 351 cities > 500,000

Global Multilingual Place Names > All 81 languages
__________________________________________

File Size: 1.27 MB

Global Multilingual Place Names > Language Statistics

• In 81 languages, we currently support 1312 placemarks for 194 countries,
  other areas: 91 subnational, 13 joint, 51 disputed, and 73 miscellaneous,
  with 289 capitals, 250 cities > 1,000,000 and 351 cities > 500,000.
  
  
• These languages show all 1312 placemarks: Bulgarian, Catalan, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Welsh
  
  
• These languages show all 711 countries, other areas, and capitals: Croatian, Czech, Danish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovenian, Swedish
  
  
• These languages show all 422 countries and other areas: Basque
  
  
• Afrikaans has all countries, 148 other areas, and 187 capitals
  
• Albanian has 193 countries, 80 other areas, and 130 capitals
  
• Arabic has all countries, 180 other areas, 286 capitals, and 577 cities
  
• Armenian has all countries, 13 other areas, and 198 capitals
  
• Azeri has all countries, 60 other areas, and 196 capitals
  
• Belarusian has all countries, 18 other areas, and 199 capitals
  
• Bengali has 189 countries, 117 other areas, 228 capitals, and 406 cities
  
• Breton has all countries and 82 other areas
  
• Chinese simplified has all countries, 194 other areas, 275 capitals, and 508 cities
  
• Chinese traditional has all countries, 194 other areas, 274 capitals, and 508 cities
  
• Estonian has all countries, 147 other areas, and 184 capitals
  
• Faroese has all countries and 51 other areas
  
• Farsi (Persian) has all countries, 33 other areas, and 202 capitals
  
• Frisian has 193 countries and 52 other areas
  
• Georgian has all countries, 25 other areas, and 199 capitals
  
• Gujarati has 191 countries, 100 other areas, 219 capitals, and 466 cities
  
• Hebrew has all countries, 154 other areas, 288 capitals, and 124 cities
  
• Hindi has all countries, 122 other areas, 243 capitals, and 498 cities
  
• Irish Gaelic has all countries, 113 other areas, and 188 capitals
  
• Japanese has all countries, 192 other areas, 269 capitals, and 517 cities
  
• Kannarese has 112 countries, 87 other areas, 235 capitals, and 445 cities
  
• Kazakh has 193 countries, 57 other areas, and 192 capitals
  
• Korean has all countries, 154 other areas, 207 capitals, and 159 cities
  
• Kurdish has 182 countries, 65 other areas, and 198 capitals
  
• Kyrgyz (Kirghiz) has 191 countries and 15 other areas
  
• Latin has all countries, 177 other areas, 191 capitals, and 43 cities
  
• Latvian has all countries, 113 other areas, 190 capitals, and 29 cities
  
• Lithuanian has all countries, 97 other areas, and 198 capitals
  
• Luxembourgish has all countries, 86 other areas, and 184 capitals
  
• Macedonian has all countries and 18 other areas
  
• Malay has all countries, 154 other areas, all capitals, and 43 cities
  
• Malayalam has 179 countries, 75 other areas, 248 capitals, and 493 cities
  
• Maltese has all countries and 90 other areas
  
• Mongolian has 190 countries and 14 other areas
  
• Oriya has 128 countries, 101 other areas, 204 capitals, and 401 cities
  
• Panjabi has 192 countries, 81 other areas, 243 capitals, and 490 cities
  
• Pashto has 191 countries, 14 other areas, and 195 capitals
  
• Polish has all countries, other areas, and capitals and 119 cities
  
• Rhaeto-Romance has 192 countries and 35 other areas
  
• Sanskrit has 131 countries, 110 other areas, 242 capitals, and 511 cities
  
• Serbian has all countries, 98 other areas, 203 capitals, and 53 cities
  
• Slovak has all countries, 143 other areas, and all capitals
  
• Swahili has all countries and 60 other areas
  
• Tagalog has all countries and other areas, and all capitals
  
• Tajik has all countries, 51 other areas, and 199 capitals
  
• Tamil has 177 countries, 73 other areas, 282 capitals, and 565 cities
  
• Tatar has all countries, 77 other areas, and 136 capitals
  
• Telugu has 126 countries, 98 other areas, 204 capitals, and 401 cities
  
• Thai has all countries, 149 other areas, 253 capitals, and 210 cities
  
• Turkish has all countries, other areas, and capitals and 65 cities
  
• Turkmen has 186 countries, 39 other areas, and 196 capitals
  
• Uigur (Uyghur) has 193 countries, 17 other areas, and 195 capitals
  
• Ukrainian has all countries, 112 other areas, 210 capitals, and 25 cities
  
• Urdu has all countries, 14 other areas, 194 capitals, and 21 cities
  
• Uzbek has 192 countries, 34 other areas, and 195 capitals
  
• Vietnamese has all countries, 54 other areas, 65 capitals, and 81 cities
  

Thank you for the effort.