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Geographic coordinates

Geographic Coordinates can have different formats depending on the locale.

At their most simplest, coordinates are displayed as two numbers, latitude and longitude, with a separator in between:

  • 48.858055 -43.210555

There's often ambiguity whether the order is latitude-longitude, or whether it is longitude-latitude.1 To avoid this ambiguity, the cardinal directions for each number are included:

  • 48.858055 N 43.210555 W

The coordinate may also be displayed in terms of degress-minutes-seconds (DMS):

  • 48°51.48′ N 43°12.63′ W
  • 48°51′29″ N 43°12′38″ W

But that introduces another problem; How are coordinates displayed in different languages and locales?

  • Cardinal directions – Many locales will have different terminology for the cardinal directions North, South, East, West. For example, in English it's "NEWS", but in Slovenian it is "SVZJ".
  • Decimal-place formatting – Some locales format their decimal-places with a comma, rather than a full-stop. For example, German.
  • Numerals – Some locales format their numbers using non-arabic numerals. For example, Bengali numerals.
  • Order - Some locales will place the cardinal direction before the numerals. For example, Korean, Japanese, or Magyar.

Examples

I found these examples of formatted coordinates by visiting various Wikipedia pages of famous landmarks in different languages.

Language North East Format South West Format
English 48°51′29″ N 2°17′40″ E 22°57′7″S 43°12′38″W
German 48° 51′ 29,6″ N, 2° 17′ 40,2″ O 22° 57′ 5,7″ S, 43° 12′ 38,7″ W
French 48° 51′ 30″ N, 2° 17′ 40″ E 22°57′06″S, 43°12′39″O
Dutch 48° 51′ 30″ NB, 2° 17′ 39″ OL 22° 57′ 6″ ZB, 43° 12′ 38″ WL
Czech 48°51′29,87″ s. š., 2°17′40,12″ v. d. 22°57′6,9″ j. š., 43°12′37,67″ z. d.
Ukrainian 48°51′29″ пн. ш. 2°17′40″ сх. д. 22°57′07″ пд. ш. 43°12′37″ зх. д.
Russian 48°51′29″ с. ш. 2°17′40″ в. д. 22°57′10″ ю. ш. 43°12′34″ з. д.
Armenian 48°51′29″ հս․ լ. 2°17′40″ ավ. ե. 22°57′06″ հվ. լ. 43°12′37″ ամ. ե.
Japanese 北緯48度51分29.6秒 東経2度17分40.2秒 南緯22度57分5秒 西経43度12分39秒
Korean 북위 48° 51′ 30″ 동경 2° 17′ 40″ 남위 22° 57′ 5″ 서경 43° 12′ 39″
Magyar (Hungarian) é. sz. 48° 51′ 31″, k. h. 2° 17′ 47″ d. sz. 22° 57′ 07″, ny. h. 43° 12′ 38″
Bengali ৪৮°৫১′৪০″ উত্তর ২°২০′১১″ পূর্ব ২২°৫৭′৭″ দক্ষিণ ৪৩°১২′৩৮″ পশ্চিম

There are of course many more languages. A lot of them, like Chinese Wikipedia, just display the coordinates in English. This doesn't mean that the various locales don't have their own format, it just means the maintainers of the specific language for Wikipedia decided to not setup their own localization.

Potential of mis-communication between French and German

It's possible for French and German coordinates to be confused with one another.

This is because the cardinal direction for East/West in French is Est/Ouest, and in German is Osten/Westen. Abbreviated, that's E/O and O/W respectively. Because the letter O is used in both French and German for different cardinal directions, it's uncertain what coordinate is without knowing the locale!

In other words, the coordinate 45.796406 N 1.147224 O could either be:

  • 45.796406 North 1.147224 West in French
  • 45.796406 North 1.147224 East in German

  1. See Tom MacWright's lon lat lon lat article. ↩