draft-phillips-langtags-08, process, specifications, and extensions

[John Cowan]

Bruce Lilly scripsit:

>    The following rules apply to the second subtag:
> 
>    - All 2-letter subtags are interpreted as ISO 3166 alpha-2 country
>      codes from [ISO 3166], or subsequently assigned by the ISO 3166
>      maintenance agency or governing standardization bodies, denoting
>      the area to which this language variant relates.
> 
>    - Tags with second subtags of 3 to 8 letters may be registered with
>      IANA, according to the rules in chapter 5 of this document.
> 
>    - Tags with 1-letter second subtags may not be assigned except after
>      revision of this standard.
> 
> That does not permit tags with two-letter second subtags to be registered
> in the IANA registry; 

That would be an incorrect inference on your part.

This rule controls the interpretation of 2-letter subtags in the second
position, and says that tags with second subtags of 3-8 letters may be
registered.  It does *not* say that tags with 2-letter subtags in the
second position must not be registered; they can be and have been.

> Granted, it could be clearer.

Granted, it could say what you think it says.  But it doesn't.

> No, a strict RFC 3066 parser will not be able to identify "sr-Latn"
> or "sr-Latn-CS" as valid tags.

But merely because they are unregistered.

-- 
John Cowan  cowan at ccil.org  www.ccil.org/~cowan  www.reutershealth.com
"In the sciences, we are now uniquely privileged to sit side by side
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