LANGUAGE SUBTAG MODIFICATION - GB

[Erik van der Poel]

> This is the problem that I am trying to address with the "tools" available
> within the registry. Ideally I would like to add a comment saying "as of
> 03/29/06 GB no longer includes the Channel Islands and Isle of Man see GG JE
> IM".  This would, in my view, suffice.  But I don't think, having spoken to
> Doug, that the registry is really designed to do this.  I think he is right
> but I also think it is easier to have something updated or annotated within
> the registry than it is to get the ISO cogs moving.

I think it would be great if we decided to add short comments that 
indicate the history. We can always come up with formal names for these 
fields in future versions of BCP 47.

We don't have to make it as descriptive as the time zone database, but 
we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water either, like the 
newsletter does. There should be a happy medium between these 2 
extremes, no?

ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2006b.tar.gz

Erik

---------------------------

Here is an excerpt from the TZ DB, for those who don't want to download 
the above-mentioned file:

# Brazil

# From Paul Eggert (1993-11-18):
# The mayor of Rio recently attempted to change the time zone rules
# just in his city, in order to leave more summer time for the tourist 
trade.
# The rule change lasted only part of the day;
# the federal government refused to follow the city's rules, and business
# was in a chaos, so the mayor backed down that afternoon.

# From IATA SSIM (1996-02):
# _Only_ the following states in BR1 observe DST: Rio Grande do Sul (RS),
# Santa Catarina (SC), Parana (PR), Sao Paulo (SP), Rio de Janeiro (RJ),
# Espirito Santo (ES), Minas Gerais (MG), Bahia (BA), Goias (GO),
# Distrito Federal (DF), Tocantins (TO), Sergipe [SE] and Alagoas [AL].
# [The last three states are new to this issue of the IATA SSIM.]

# From Gwillim Law (1996-10-07):
# Geography, history (Tocantins was part of Goias until 1989), and other
# sources of time zone information lead me to believe that AL, SE, and 
TO were
# always in BR1, and so the only change was whether or not they observed 
DST....
# The earliest issue of the SSIM I have is 2/91.  Each issue from then until
# 9/95 says that DST is observed only in the ten states I quoted from 9/95,
# along with Mato Grosso (MT) and Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), which are in BR2
# (UTC-4)....  The other two time zones given for Brazil are BR3, which is
# UTC-5, no DST, and applies only in the state of Acre (AC); and BR4, 
which is
# UTC-2, and applies to Fernando de Noronha (formerly FN, but I believe it's
# become part of the state of Pernambuco).  The boundary between BR1 and BR2
# has never been clearly stated.  They've simply been called East and West.
# However, some conclusions can be drawn from another IATA manual: the 
Airline
# Coding Directory, which lists close to 400 airports in Brazil.  For each
# airport it gives a time zone which is coded to the SSIM.  From that
# information, I'm led to conclude that the states of Amapa (AP), Ceara 
(CE),
# Maranhao (MA), Paraiba (PR), Pernambuco (PE), Piaui (PI), and Rio 
Grande do
# Norte (RN), and the eastern part of Para (PA) are all in BR1 without DST.

# From Marcos Tadeu (1998-09-27):
# <a href="http://pcdsh01.on.br/verao1.html">
# Brazilian official page
# </a>

# From Jesper Norgaard (2000-11-03):
# [For an official list of which regions in Brazil use which time zones, 
see:]
# http://pcdsh01.on.br/Fusbr.htm
# http://pcdsh01.on.br/Fusbrhv.htm

# From Celso Doria via David Madeo (2002-10-09):
# The reason for the delay this year has to do with elections in Brazil.
#
# Unlike in the United States, elections in Brazil are 100% computerized and
# the results are known almost immediately.  Yesterday, it was the first
# round of the elections when 115 million Brazilians voted for President,
# Governor, Senators, Federal Deputies, and State Deputies.  Nobody is
# counting (or re-counting) votes anymore and we know there will be a second
# round for the Presidency and also for some Governors.  The 2nd round will
# take place on October 27th.
#
# The reason why the DST will only begin November 3rd is that the thousands
# of electoral machines used cannot have their time changed, and since the
# Constitution says the elections must begin at 8:00 AM and end at 5:00 PM,
# the Government decided to postpone DST, instead of changing the 
Constitution
# (maybe, for the next elections, it will be possible to change the 
clock)...

# From Rodrigo Severo (2004-10-04):
# It's just the biannual change made necessary by the much hyped, supposedly
# modern Brazilian eletronic voting machines which, apparently, can't deal
# with a time change between the first and the second rounds of the 
elections.