Language tags, the phillips draft, and procedures

[Michael Everson]

At 14:57 +0100 2005-01-09, JFC (Jefsey) Morfin wrote:
>>
>>>As I indicated to Misha, what would really help would be a list of 
>>>motivated support from IAB, Chairs of the IETF WGs from the 
>>>different concerned areas, and non-English or non-American mother 
>>>tongue involved network experts or authorities.
>>
>>*This* is racist. A person's mother tongue being English does not 
>>prevent him or her from being multilingual or from being 
>>well-informed about linguistics and linguistic taxonomy. Nor does a 
>>person's mother tongue being another language confer upon him or 
>>her such expertise.
>
>But this absurd comment demonstrates a surprising non scientific 
>bias or a real misreading ability. Even in Franglish an "involved 
>network expert or authority" has a clear meaning.

You specified that the experts be people whose mother tongue is other 
than English. Having English as a mother tongue does not curse a 
person from having other languages or prevent him from having 
linguistic expertise any more than having Swahili or Cheyenne blesses 
a person with linguistic expertise. My comment was not absurd. Your 
requirement was ignorant and provocative.
-- 
Michael Everson * * Everson Typography *  * http://www.evertype.com