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I just asked this new question: English translation for Kockásfülű Nyúl (Hungarian)

for which I'd like to use the 'hungarian' tag which doesn't exist at this time and I don't have enough reputation on this site to create it. Can someone with sufficient reputation please create the tag and add it to my question?

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Tags are meant to provide useful categorizations of the questions. Honestly I think we could do without most or all of the existing language-name tags (I found tags for , , , , , and just by looking at a few questions already tagged with ).

I don't think having a tag with the originating language substantially assists people in finding questions; it's quite sufficient to mention in the text of the question what language you're coming from.

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  • I thought adding a specific source language tag would help narrowing down searches. I do enjoy reading translations of various phrases but it's only meaningful to me when I understand the source language, too.
    – xxbbcc
    Sep 10, 2015 at 20:24
  • @xxbbcc, I certainly understand and sympathize with your reasoning on that, I just happen to disagree with it. :-) Perhaps it's because I don't really speak any other languages. (I do know a fair bit of French, German, and Latin vocabulary, but I could not carry on a conversation in any of them.)
    – Hellion
    Sep 10, 2015 at 20:38
  • The latin and french tags certainly, and german probably, are useful because of the effects those languages have had on English. It is unfortunate that many people therefore assume that any translation question needs a language tag.
    – Tim Lymington
    Sep 10, 2015 at 23:12
  • @TimLymington It wasn't ever my understanding that the other-language tags were for translation, but rather for English words that had originated in that language. That's how I understood Latin and Greek, for example.
    – tchrist Mod
    Sep 11, 2015 at 3:56
  • @TimLymington Why do you think it's wrong to assume that? To me it seems that a plain translation tag is not that useful - one only knows the target language (implied by being on this SE site). When I saw those language tags you mention, that was the very first thing I thought of. Other languages' effects on English didn't even come to mind.
    – xxbbcc
    Sep 11, 2015 at 14:26
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    @xxbbcc:M that is precisely my point. This is not a translation site, so the original language is neither necessary nor helpful. Translation questions can be on-topic and useful, but only by virtue of the English phrase; Tagging them by language would be exactly what we want to discourage.
    – Tim Lymington
    Sep 11, 2015 at 21:21
  • @TimLymington I think SE should be used for translation (to English and within limits) - it's vote system is really useful in picking correct translations and offering multiple possible options. Translating a phrase can be excessively difficult between languages (not talking about dictionary words). I guess I see your point, though, and I reluctantly agree. A language tag would help browsing translations but not in looking for a specifc phrase.
    – xxbbcc
    Sep 11, 2015 at 21:37
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    @xxbbcc, On many translation-tagged questions, the person offering the "best" translation has zero knowledge of how to speak the originating language. If someone says "we have a saying that translates directly as 'The dog can't smell its own bad breath' which is used when people refuse to admit that their own ideas are stupid or unusable", I don't need to know what the original language is to come up with English equivalent sayings. I don't view that as a "translation" question really, but as a "how do I express this concept idiomatically in English" question.
    – Hellion
    Sep 11, 2015 at 22:22
  • @Hellion I guess that's what I meant when I said translation within limits.
    – xxbbcc
    Sep 11, 2015 at 22:44

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