iu-ike (Eastern Canadian Inuktitut) and iu-ikt (Western Canadian Inuktitut), etc

[John Clews]

Peter Constable wrote:

>Subject:   RE: LANGUAGE TAG REGISTRATION FORM: iu-Cans
>From:   "Peter Constable" <petercon at microsoft.com>
>Date:   Fri, February 4, 2005 9:00 pm

>I wonder if I could ask Michael or others to step aside from the debate
>of iu-Cans-CA / iu-Latn-CA for a second to comment on the other
>registrations I submitted -- or those that Mark submitted yesterday as
>well. I'd like to have an idea how many debates we may have on our
>hands, or on the other hand which of these I don't have to worry about.

Actually, yes, I do think that there are some important issues here that
you DO need to worry about. These haven't come up prior to the very recent
discussions, though you probably will want to take that discussion
separately to the other issues, so I have used a new Subject in the email
header.

Here's the issues:

John Cowan also wrote, in another email:

> Indeed.  Currently, ISO 639-3 tags cannot be used in the first subtag,
> but they can be used in later ones;
> iu-ike (Eastern) and
> iu-ikt (Western)
>are plausible tags, as are related tags ending in -Cans or -Latn.


Specifically, John Cowan suggested that the following be
the format in such instances:

    iu-ike (Eastern Canadian Inuktitut) and
    iu-ikt (Western Canadian Inuktitut), etc

This gives rise to the following thoughts, at least some of which need to
be addressed in the shorter term:

1. Would ISO 639-2 Macrolanguages be used as an initial tag?
Presumably yes (hence the iu-... examples above by John Cowan).


2. Should tags from the current draft ISO 639-3 be permitted as
subtags? Actually, yes, I think they should  (to the extent of checking
ISO 639-3 when allocating subtags) to ensure that there is
compatibility in RFC 3066bis with all parts of ISO 639.


3. Note that ISO 639-3 does NOT map to the Ethnologue exactly -
there is at least one item missing (noted as xxx below).

iu-ike Eastern Canadian Inuktitut
iu-ikt Western Canadian Inuktitut
iu-xxx North Alaskan Inuktitut

Obviously iu-xxx needs to be fixed in ISO 639-3 (unless I'm looking at an
older draft and it has been fixed since).


4. Would ISO 639-3 Macrolanguages (listed in ISO 639-3, Table 3:
Mapping of macrolanguage code elements to individual language
code elements) be permitted in RFC 3066bis subtags? Presumably not.

That is, I assume that iu-iku would NOT be a valid tag, though rules could
be written into ISO 3166bis to define valid and invalid use of such tags.


5. Here's the information from the Ethnologue,  (which will find its way
into ISO 639-3), so that the 3 existing Ethnologue tags there can be
matched to the current 2 tags (and a 3-letter macrolanguage tag) in ISO
639-3.

EASTERN CANADIAN (EASTERN CANADIAN ESKIMO, EASTERN ARCTIC
ESKIMO, INUIT) [ESB] 14,000 speakers out of 17,500 population
(1991 L. Kaplan). West of Hudson Bay and east through Baffin
Island, Quebec, and Labrador. Eskimo-Aleut, Eskimo, Inuit.
Dialects: BAFFINLAND ESKIMO, LABRADOR ESKIMO, QUEBEC ESKIMO.
Vigorous language use except in Labrador, where less than half
are speakers. 75% to 100% literate. Inuit is the name of the
people, Inuktitut of the language. Bible 1826-1871. NT
1871-1993. Bible portions 1810-1990.

INUKTITUT, NORTH ALASKAN (NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO) [ESI] 3,500
total speakers out of a total population of 8,000 (1990 M.D.
Kaplan). Mackenzie delta region to Norton Sound, Alaska, USA.
Eskimo-Aleut, Eskimo, Inuit. Dialects: MACKENZIE ESKIMO,
INUPIAT ESKIMO. Most speakers are over 30. Younger speakers
often prefer English. 50% to 75% literate. NT 1968, in press
(1992). Bible portions 1920-1964.

INUKTITUT, WESTERN CANADIAN [ESC] 4,000 speakers out of a
population of 7,500 (1981). All Eskimo mother tongue speakers
in Canada 18,840 (1981 census). Central Canadian Arctic, and
west to the Mackenzie Delta and coastal area. Eskimo-Aleut,
Eskimo, Inuit. Dialects: COPPER INUKTITUT (COPPER ESKIMO,
COPPER INUIT), CARIBOU ESKIMO (KEEWATIN), NETSILIK, SIGLIT.
Language use vigorous in Caribou and Netsilik. 50% to 75%
literate. Caribou may need separate literature. Bible portions
1920-1972. Work in progress.


Best regards

John Clews

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