As other's have mentioned, it's entirely possible to have multiple fields with different analysis chains. Elastisearch handles multi-languages very well. You just have to start changing the defaults, since the defaults assume a single language for all fields (namely English).

E.g. "title_german" and "title_english" can each have their own analyzer specific to the language. Or you could have a single field "title" which then uses multifields to index a "title.english" and "title.german" field.

The key is that at search time you need to use a query that understands analysis. So you should use something like the `match` query, or `multi_match` for multiple fields. These queries will analyze the input text according to the analyzer configured on the underlying field (e.g. english or german)

There is a ton more information in The Definitive Guide book, in the chapter on languages: http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/cu...

Topics include: language analysis chains, pitfalls of multiple languages per doc (at index vs search time), one language per field schemas, one language per doc schemas, multi-language per field schemas, etc