possible additions

Pavla &OR Francis Frazier pfrazier9@earthlink.net
Fri, 3 May 2002 14:19:13 -0600


Dear Peter & Michael,

Thank you for your pointers and exploration of the issues.  Although I
am not aware of the finer details, I do appreciate your wanting to
streamline with ISO, yet at the same time, provide a standard for
those requiring it sooner than such a process might occur.  From what
you have both written, it seems that I may go ahead & proceed with the
filling out the RFC 3066 forms for each of the language names.

In answer to earlier questions from you both:
Michael: Yes I am aware of the RFC 3066 format, though I did hope a
"mass" registration might be possible.  I may write you individually
with questions as they come up as I do the forms, if that is OK with
you.
Peter:  Yes I have seen the elegant mapping from ISO 639 to the
Ethnologue, very nice to "meet" one of the authors of it!  I'll have
to go over it again, but I think mine matches pretty closely to yours.
As described in my introductory letter, I based what I did on:
identifying the currently used names; and, making a "hybrid"
hierarchy, based on the Smithsonian & the Ethnologue information
(along with some other resources as named in bibliography.)
Therefore, mine will not exactly match the Etnologue.

Furthermore, after I was pointed to the site which Jacob Palme has,
and later found the ISO 639 mapping, I realized the problems with
overlap and potential future confusion.  After discussing it with HL7
leadership,  it seemed the best course would be to submit names to
IETF.  It is my understanding that we (HL7) can deprecate codes, if
necessary, in order to accommodate a potential conflicting
streamlining result (if the result of more streamlining between IETF,
the Ethnologue and/or ISO yields a set of names which does not
perfectly fit with the set I want to submit now.)

Concerning the use of "collective" I went by the ISO 639 names, and I
will double check, but I believe the only "collective" I listed as
viable for my use, was associated with the collective of the Creoles
and Pidgins (other) (collective).  I listed "Creoles and Pidgins
(other) (collective)" as an abstract in my set, not to submit as a
name, but as a way to show the relationship between the
collective-member Chinook Wawa (name from my set) and the current ISO
name Chinook Jargon (synonym.)  Because that is already in ISO, I can
try to submit Chinook Wawa as a synonym of the ISO code for Chinook
Jargon, correct?

Does that sound alright?

Thank you all again!

Pavla Frazier
----- Original Message -----
From: <Peter_Constable@sil.org>
To: <ietf-languages@iana.org>
Cc: <langtag@unicode.org>
Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 10:32 AM
Subject: Re: possible additions


|
| [copying to another relevant list with only partially overlapping
| membership; apologies to those that receive duplicates]
|
|
| On 05/03/2002 10:29:11 AM Michael Everson wrote:
|
| >>Pavla has begun attempting something I have held back from doing
for the
| >>past two years: mass registrations. I suspected this was bound to
happen
| >>sooner or later.
| >
| >So did I.
|
| [snip]
|
| >>I see this mainly as a test of the willingness and ability of ISO
to move
| >>forward quickly with extension of the ISO 639 family of languages.
| >
| >Um, Peter, this isn't ISO, it's IETF.
|
| It is? I must be lost. ("I knew I shoulda taken dat left toin at
| Albequerque." :-)
|
| My comment may seem out of place on this list since this isn't ISO,
yet the
| Convener of ISO/TC 37/SC 2/WG 1 is present, as are some others who
have
| been involved in the work of WG 1. I guess my comments were
primarily for
| their benefit.
|
|
| >Are you suggesting that we give
| >this over to ISO or that we look at registering them here?
|
| I don't have a simple answer for that. Allow me to explain.
|
| Obviously Pavla can proceed to rework his requests into the
necessary
| format. I have held back from pursuing a large number of additional
| registrations with IANA for the past 14 months after I started
seeing
| indication from ISO folk that there was interest in significanctly
| extending the ISO 639 standard. It seems to me that we don't need
lang IDs
| for a large number of languages in both places. If these get added
to the
| IANA registry now and then ISO comes up with an extension to ISO 639
in the
| near future that provides codes for all of these as well, then the
IANA
| codes will eventually be deprecated. (There might be a time delay --
if ISO
| adds new codes in a new part of the ISO 639 family, e.g. an ISO
639-3 --
| then those would not be available without registration under RFC
3066 since
| it does not identify ISO 639-3 as a source. But I'd be inclined to
expect a
| successor to RFC 3066 that did reference a new ISO 639-3 to appear
before
| long, and at that point codes we add now would get deprecated.) So,
it
| makes sense in the long term to look for codes for these languages
to come
| from ISO.
|
| On the other hand, Pavla, quite understandably, doesn't want to wait
a long
| time to get what is needed by him and the agency he represents
(Health
| Level Seven). This is the crux of the issue that ISO folk need to
consider.
| They have been aware that industry needs for more expanded coverage
were
| imminent, and that it has behoven them to act expeditiously to avoid
the
| confusion that could result from duplication if others who can't
keep on
| waiting begin creating codes.
|
| But it's an issue for this group as well: What do we want in the
long term?
| Do we want to keep the IANA registry limited to special cases of
| individual-language definition or to codes for derivative notions
(e.g.
| orthographies, as in the recent German case), leaving the source for
the
| bulk of codes for individual languages to come from ISO 639? Or do
we want
| to disregard whatever future extensions to ISO 639 may (and are
likely to)
| appear, and in so doing invite a large number of new registrations?
(If so,
| we should start discussing process, because I'm going to want to
start
| generating a large number of requests.) Or do we want to try to
permit
| Pavla to pursue his requests yet hope that no other large requests
appear
| before ISO can come up with something more comprehensive?
|
| Personally, I'm not certain which of these choices to recommend. On
the one
| hand, I think it makes most sense to keep the IANA registry limited
and to
| allow ISO 639 to be the source for the vast majority of codes for
| individual languages. (I'm assuming a willingness on the part of ISO
to
| provide a comprehensive set of codes, and I have seen indications
that that
| is not an unrealistic expectation.) At the same time, user needs are
real,
| and I can easily sympathise with someone like Pavla not wanting to
wait for
| a large bureaucratic process to provide what is needed. I myself
have been
| very tempted to begin making mass requests for IANA registrations,
but I've
| held off because I have first needed to assess what would need to
happen
| for the languages of interest to me to be supported in major
industry
| protocols and platform infrastructures (e.g. MS Windows i18n
| infrastructure).
|
| I hope there is a real willingness of all the members here, and also
of
| major industry and standards-body stakeholders, to take a serious
look at
| where we want to go in the long term in relation to language
identification
| issues, and a willingness to start making rapid progress toward
necessary
| long-term solutions. I think it will be in the best interest of all
of us
| and of users at large if we do so.
|
|
|
|
| - Peter
|
|
| --------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
| Peter Constable
|
| Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
| 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
| Tel: +1 972 708 7485
| E-mail: <peter_constable@sil.org>
|
|
|
|
|
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