# Handling multiple languages

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-multiple-languages/6288>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 4, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-multiple-languages/6288 "2012-01-04T22:56:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rafal\_Kuc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/rafal_kuc/32/799_2.png) [@Rafal\_Kuc](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rafal_Kuc)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-multiple-languages/6288/1 "2012-01-04T22:56:43Z")

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Hello,

One of the projects I'm working on requires to handle data that will  
be written in multiple languages and the language can be one of even  
the least common one. One think I was thinking about is define some  
multi fields for most common languages and threat other languages as  
English or use analyzer without a stemmer. Of course, the language  
identification is simpler during indexing and more complicated during  
query time because of shortness of the query.

What I was wondering is not using multi fields but multiple mappings  
in a single index, each mapping for different language.

Is one of those approach better than the other, or maybe You have some  
better ideas how multiple languages can be handled in Elasticsearch ?

Thanks in advance,  
Rafał

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-multiple-languages/6288/2 "2017-07-06T03:43:46Z")

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