Libya-truth (2026-07-09 13:29:10+00:00): Hello Pascal,

Thank you for the thoughtful follow-up. You raise a fair point, so let me address it directly.

You are right that Brussels is not a perfect comparison but not for the reason you think.

In Brussels, French and Dutch are both imported languages overlaid onto a historically Brabantian-speaking area. In the Nafusa Mountains, Ghat, and Zuwara, Amazigh/Tifinagh is the original indigenous language it has stronger claim to the name=* tag than Arabic does, since Arabic arrived with the 7th-century . If anything, the Arabic names are the "generated transliterations" of the indigenous Amazigh originals.

A better comparison than Brussels:

Wales: name=Caernarfon Welsh name in name=*, not relegated to name:cy=*, because Welsh is the local spoken language there. Nobody asks Welsh speakers to provide "signage evidence" for each village.
Basque Country: name=Donostia / San Sebastián bilingual name=* because both are locally used. The Basque names predate Spanish.
Gaeltacht areas of Ireland: name=An Daingean Irish in name=* in Irish-speaking areas.
Sámi areas of Norway: name=Guovdageaidnu / Kautokeino  indigenous Sámi name first.
The Nafusa Mountains are Libya's equivalent of a Gaeltacht an area where the indigenous language is the primary spoken language of the majority of the population.

These are not "generated transliterations." Here is concrete evidence:

Jadu (ⵊⴰⴷⵓ): The entire town speaks Nafusi Amazigh as their first language. Berber texts from Jadu are documented in Provasi, E. "Testi berberi di Žâdo (Tripolitania)", 1973. The Italian colonial-era name "Giado" is itself a transliteration of the Amazigh name — not the Arabic.
Nalut (ⵏⴰⵍⵓⵜ): Pure Amazigh toponym. Its famous qasr (fortified granary) is an Amazigh architectural tradition. The town's Amazigh Cultural Center uses Tifinagh on its signage. Post-2011, Tifinagh was introduced into local schools — documented by Karlos Zurutuza, Middle East Eye, 9 Jan 2018.
Yefren (ⵢⴼⵔⵏ): Amazigh-majority town. The name has no Arabic etymology — it IS the Amazigh name. Documented in T. Lewicki, Études ibadites nord-africaines.
Ghadames (ⵖⴷⴰⵎⵙ): Known to the Romans as Cydamus — a Latinization of the Amazigh name, attested in Pliny the Elder's Natural History (77 CE) and Ptolemy's Geography (150 CE). The Ghadames Berber language has its own ISO 639-3 code (gha) and is documented in Kossmann, M. A Grammatical Sketch of Ghadames Berber, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2013.
Zuwara: The indigenous name Tamurt n Wat Willul is still used by locals in daily speech. Zuaran Berber has its own ISO 639-3 code (jbn).
Ghat (ⵖⴰⵜ): Tuareg-speaking town. The Tuareg Tamashek language uses Tifinagh natively — this is not a transliteration but the actual local script. Tifinagh was born among the Tuareg.
Nafusa Mountains (ⴰⴷⵔⴰⵔ ⵏ ⵉⵏⴼⵓⵙⵏ): The Arabic name "الجبل الغربي" (Western Mountain) is a generic geographic descriptor. "Adrar n Infusen" (Mountain of the Infusen/Nafusa people) is the indigenous toponym, confirmed in Khelifa, A. "Nefoussa," Encyclopédie berbère, vol. 33, 2012.
On signage: Libya has been in civil conflict since 2014. Demanding formal government signage as evidence from a conflict zone is an unreasonable standard that OSM does not apply elsewhere. Despite this, post-2011 Tifinagh signage appeared across the Nafusa Mountains — schools, cultural centers, municipal buildings — before the second civil war disrupted governance. The absence of state-maintained bilingual road signs does not mean the language is not locally used. OSM's name=* policy says "the most common name(s) used locally," not "the name on government signs."

Best regards