Flag icons for languages
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The use of flag icons, particularly national flags, for languages is a common practice. Such icons have long been used on tourist attraction signage, and elsewhere in the tourism space, but have found wider use in website localization where UX limitations have become apparent.[1][2]
Mixed flags
Sometimes the flags of international language communities, such as the Flag of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries or the flag of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie can be used, but they are not as widely recognised as national flags.[3] Where more than one country is a major user of a language, a flag divided diagonally may be used, such as the flags of Brazil and Portugal to indicate the Portuguese language; Brazilians may be offended by the use of their former colonial master's flag to symbolise the Portuguese language, as there are far more speakers of it in Brazil (over 200 million) than in Portugal (10 million).[4][5]
Writing systems
Where two written standards exist for a single language, national flags can be used to distinguish between them: for example, the Flag of Taiwan for Traditional Chinese and the Flag of the People's Republic of China for Simplified Chinese.[6]
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Political motivations
Some Euronet ATMs (automated teller machines) display the Irish flag as a symbol for the English language (usually UK flag or English flag). In the media, this was speculated to be a response to Brexit, with the Republic of Ireland as one of the only two Anglophone nations left in the European Union (another being Malta). Dr. Oetker have been observed doing the same.[7] The Irish flag is more usually used to signify the Irish language.[8]
Criticism
The use of flag icons for languages has been criticized as poor design.[9] The symbolism of a national flag introduces politicization, and often ambiguity.
Belying the nation-state concept, many languages are natively spoken in several countries, and many countries have several major languages. Alternatives include using the native names of languages or their language codes, possibly under a generic symbol of translation such as the Language Icon.
Gallery
This warning sign in a gambling place in Tenerife, Spain uses
for the Spanish text, 
for the English text and 
for the German text.
Sign in San Francisco, Córdoba, Argentina; unusually, the Spanish language is indicated by an Argentine flag, while below it is Italian and Piedmontese text with the flags of Italy and Flag of Piedmont.
Sign in Guernsey using the Flag of Guernsey to symbolise Guernésiais.
Sign in Ireland in 9 languages, with flags and country names for each.
Sign in Ireland in 8 languages, including Romanian, Japanese and Simplified Chinese, with flags for each.
Sign in Ireland in 8 languages.
See also
References
- ↑ Meloni, Julie C. (May 25, 2012). Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One: STY PHP, MySQL Apache AIO_p5. Sams Publishing. ISBN 9780132603645. https://books.google.com/books?id=FbEXG8ZnxPUC&dq=%22flag+to+represent+language%22&pg=PA535.
- ↑ Cronin, Blaise (March 23, 2004). Annual Review of Information Science and Technology. Information Today, Inc.. ISBN 9781573872096. https://books.google.com/books?id=P7zxudnqdzMC&dq=%22flag+to+represent+a+language%22&pg=PA284.
- ↑ Heritage, Canadian (August 15, 2017). "Flags of La Francophonie". https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/flags-francophonie.html.
- ↑ Swisher, Val (October 13, 2014). Global Content Strategy. XML Press. ISBN 9781492002086. https://books.google.com/books?id=apuNDwAAQBAJ&dq=Portuguese+Language+Countries+flag&pg=PP21.
- ↑ Guilherme, Manuela; Souza, Lynn Mario T. Menezes de (February 6, 2019). Glocal Languages and Critical Intercultural Awareness: The South Answers Back. Routledge. ISBN 9781351184632. https://books.google.com/books?id=c8yGDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Portuguese+flag%22+Language&pg=PT185.
- ↑ Graff, Roy; Parulis-Cook, Sienna (July 9, 2019). China, the Future of Travel. Lulu.com. ISBN 9780244800529. https://books.google.com/books?id=A9OmDwAAQBAJ&q=+%22traditional+chinese%22&pg=PA48.
- ↑ Troughton-Smith, Steve (14 April 2019). "English instructions on the back of EU food coming with an Irish flag 🇮🇪 instead of a UK one 🇬🇧 is my new favorite burn 🤣". https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/1117517687922597894.
- ↑ McNally, Frank. "English Stew – Frank McNally on a meeting of the anglophone world in Limerick". https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/english-stew-frank-mcnally-on-a-meeting-of-the-anglophone-world-in-limerick-1.3931097.
- ↑ Watrall, Ethan; Siarto, Jeff (2009) (in en). Head First Web Design. "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". ISBN 978-0-596-52030-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=FMYCsT-cZDUC&pg=PA441.
External links
- Flags are not languages (blog)
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