Dialects and minor languages

Victar got me me to do this for the Arabic names for al-Andalus -- display names Romanized and name in Arabic. I like this approach.

As for dialects, I am of the opinion that we should have the name in the dialect unless it is obscure and thus inaccessible and the display name or perhaps nickname can be in the alternative dialect or language.

The future plan for Geni seems to be to allow each field (display name, about me, etc.) to be associated with a language. I made a rough draft of this a few months ago:
http://pixelcraftco.com/images/geni-profile-edit.gif

My first attempt about a year ago to redesign fields looked like this:
http://pixelcraftco.com/images/name-fields.gif

Pam Wilson (on hiatus) and Justin Durand made some really good points in our private discussion on why to avoid using dialects that I hope then can copy-paste into here.

Just to say, I'm of both minds on the issue. It seems like a heart vs. mind issue.

What is the argument against? I think we have consensus that use of display name keeps ancestor profiles accessible to their descendants with different language skills.

Erica

Not that it matters too much, but in response to your response to me, one does see "You are connected to Alexios I Komnenos, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire." above the blue "How are you related?" box BEFORE calculating a relationship.

AFTER you calculate the relationship, you see what the relationship is.

I have *not* recently "pinged" the path and I do not only see the Greek, and it will *not* go away as soon as UNcached, and what is written there is what is in the display name field.

Yup they keep moving the display name field around on me. Also they made me change browsers with the latest Firefox 4 release. I don't know where *anything* is. <sob>