o EuroFutbal Languages ---------------------------------------------

August 12 1999

Icelandic has just joined the happy family of languages supported on the site bringing the total number up to 31 - by far the most comprehensive coverage of the European club football scene on the planet. Flags are used as linguistic icons - to indicate the language of the article linked, not the country in which the article is written or the country from which the particpating clubs hail from. Simply click on the flags in the match pages to read the previews/reports. The table below shows which languages correspond to which flags. If you can add to this list by sending me relevant sites in currently unsupported languages, or if you know of any sources that I dont link to, I'd be delighted to hear from you. By the way, if you've ever wondered, 'futbal' is one of the words for football in Esperanto.


E English

Ge Deutsch

Sp Español

Ca Catala

Ga Gallego

I Italiano

Sv Svenska

Pt Portugues

No Norsk

F Français

Pl Polski

Gr Ellinika

Nl Nederlands

Cz Cesky

Sk Slovencina

Dk Dansk

Ee Eesti

Si Slovenscina

Mg Magyarul

Fi Suomi

Ro Românã

Il úéøáò (Hebrew)

Tr Türkçe

Ru òÕÓÓËÉÊ (Russkij)

Ua õËÒÁ§ÎÓØËÁ (Ukrajinska)

Hr Hrvatski

Eu Euskara

Bg (Bqlgarski)

Sb Srpski

Lt Lietuviska

Is Icelandic

What I have done in these pages is somewhat controversial due to the fact that ideas about language and nationhood are so linked in today's society. Here is how I resolved some of the thorny issues.

  1. Should I use country-of-origin flags or language flags? Ths issue comes up in only a few cases - articles from Ireland, Belgium, the USA and Austria for example. On seeing how uncomfortable the US flag looks on a page devoted to European soccer however, I opted for using the flags as linguistic icons.

  2. For English language reports, should I use the flag of the United Kingdom or St. George's Cross - the English flag? Since the flags are simply linguistic icons, I chose the English flag to indicate English - as I use the flag of Germany to indicate German. The flags do NOT indicate political agendas, nationalistic or otherwise.

  3. Should I make separate entities for Catala and Gallego? I opted for yes on both as the languages are dissimilar enough from Spanish and Portugese, respectively, to merit it.

Please feel free to mail me with your comments on these or any other issues. Thanks.

EuroFutbal

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