Request for variant subtag: western

[Michael Everson]

At 12:43 -0700 2006-08-31, Mark Davis wrote:
>And what does the Ethnologue say but:
>
>"Eastern Armenian (4,341,000) is spoken in Armenia and its Turkish and
>Iranian borderlands; Western Armenian (879,612) is spoken elsewhere.
>Western Armenian is understood only by some in Iran."

Do look at the actual dialects, please. There aren't just two. You edited that.

Eastern Armenian, Erevan (Eriwan), Tbilisi (Tiflis), Karabagh, 
Shamakhi (Schamachi), Astrakhan (Astrachan), Dzhulfa (Dschugha, 
Dschulfa), Agulis, Khvoy-Salmst (Choi-Salmst), Urmia-Maragheh 
(Urmia-Maragha), Artvin (Artwin), Karin (Erzurum, Erzerum), Mus 
(Musch), Van (Wan), Tigranakert (Diyarbakir, Diarbekir), Kharberd 
(Charberd, Erzincan, Erzenka), Shabin-Karahissar 
(Schabin-Karahissar), Trabzon (Trapezunt), Hamshen (Hamschen), 
Malatya (Malatia), Kilikien, Syria (Syrien), Arabkir, Akn, Sebaste, 
Ewdokia (Tokat), Smyrna (Izmir), North Komedia, Constantinople 
(Konstantinopel, Istanbul), Rodosto, Crimea (Krim), Ashkharik. All 
dialects in all countries usually reported to be inherently 
intelligible. Eastern Armenian (4,341,000) is spoken in Armenia and 
its Turkish and Iranian borderlands; Western Armenian (879,612) is 
spoken elsewhere. Western Armenian is understood only by some in 
Iran. In Syria, people in Kessaberen (northeastern mountain village 
of Kessab) and the village of Musa Dagh (now relocated to Lebanon) 
speak related varieties which other Western Armenian speakers do not 
understand. Most speakers of Kessaberen have now learned Western 
Armenian. Western (Turkish) Armenian and Ararat (Russian) are easily 
intelligible.

Western Armenian is a dialect of diaspora.

I still do not believe that generic directional subtags are a good 
idea. There are other ways of identifying the dialects in question, 
and proliferating compass-point subtags is going to lead to trouble.
-- 
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com