Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
than those spoken as a mother tongue. It might be assumed that English
appears in the map legend for all NATO countries (English explanations
are listed first in Icelandic maps), but this is not the case.
According to the same report, the size of a country seems to have a bearing
on the foreign language skills and so one might expect smaller countries to
employ more foreign languages in their topographic map legend:
Language skills appear to be slightly better in relatively small
Member states such as Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slove-
nia, whereas citizens of Southern European and the two English
speaking countries, the United Kingdom and Ireland, seem to have
more moderate level [sic] of language skills (European Commis-
sion 2006, p.10).
However, this expectation would only seem to be partly true, for Slovenia
does not include any foreign languages on its maps and the Netherlands
only includes English, whereas both Great Britain and Ireland employ two
foreign languages (French and German). It is possible that factors influenc-
ing the choice of these languages may include foreign trading partners and
the country of origin of foreign tourists, particularly if their numbers are
sufficient and they are regarded as potential users.
Table 4
below shows
the top three countries of origin of the foreign tourist arrivals in each coun-
try alongside the map legend languages.
In Great Britain, the languages in the map legend correspond exactly with
those of foreign tourists and trading partners, suggesting a market-driven
approach that is partly supported by the high proportion of tourist symbols
in the map symbology. In most cases, however, it would seem that NMOs
adopt a foreign language that the greatest number of potential map users
are likely to understand (which is evident in the maps of Norway and
Poland), rather than selecting the language of a neighbouring country, a
principal trading partner, or the country responsible for the highest number
of tourist arrivals. The sole inclusion of native mother tongue languages in
the legend explanation (such as in the maps of Austria and France) perhaps
reflects the view that the overwhelming majority of users of state topo-
graphic maps are the native population. Such countries may also be those
in which other detailed mapping or specialized products are available at a
comparable scale (e.g., published by Freytag & Berndt or Michelin respec-
tively in the case of these two countries). Whether it is advantageous to in-
clude foreign languages or not, demand for these maps by other non-native
users is likely to be perceived as low and so change is unlikely.
