language-script vs language-region-script

Misha Wolf Misha.Wolf at reuters.com
Sun Jan 2 16:54:56 CET 2005


IMO, the ever-increasing flow of peoples between regions of the world,
whether caused by economic or political factors, increases the binding
of script to language and reduces the binding of region to language.

There are a number of languages which have a close association with one
country or region, but use more than one script.  In some cases, one of
these scripts is banned or officially discouraged "at home", but is used
in a (semi-)clandestine way at home and also by emigres abroad.  Surely,
it makes more sense to use xx-yyyy (language-script) than xx-zz-yyyy
(language-region-script).

Looking specifically at Chinese, Reuters is in the process of cutting
over to the use of zh-Hans and zh-Hant.  These tags are far more useful
to us and to our customers than would be tags incorporating a region.

I have also been asked for language tags indicating Kanji, Katakana,
Hiragana, and Katakana-or-Hiragana, and have advised the use of ja-Hani,
ja-Kana, ja-Hira and ja-Hrkt, respectively.  (Nothing useful would be
served by specifying ja-JP-Hani, ja-JP-Kana, ja-JP-Hira and ja-JP-Hrkt).
Concerns have recently been expressed to me, within Reuters, about the
unofficial nature of these tags and if the RFC 3066-bis process takes
much longer, I shall be requesting registration of these tags under the
provisions of RFC 3066.

Misha Wolf
Standards Manager
Chief Architecture Office
Reuters





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