SignWriting (was: Re: NEW-INSERT LANGUAGE SUBTAG MODIFICATION for "Sgnw")

[Doug Ewell]

Mark Davis wrote:

> Could we see a bit more of a description of what Sgnw is supposed to 
> be? That is, is
>
> en-Sgnw
>
> supposed to be signed English? And if so, with what system?

SignWriting is a notation system for sign languages.  It describes the 
hand gestures and eyebrow raises and everything else that constitutes 
sign language.

So in the RFC 4646bis era, you might write "sgn-ase-Sgnw" to indicate 
American Sign Language written in SignWriting.

The Wikipedia article on "SignWriting" includes an example of Flemish 
Sign Language written in SignWriting.

DIGRESSION:  The Wikipedia page on "Flemish Sign Language" gives an ISO 
639-2 code element of "sgn-BE-VLG", which not only is not a real ISO 
code element but doesn't even appear on Michael's sign language page; he 
gives "sgn-BE-nl" for "Belgian-Flemish Sign Language" instead.  (Note 
that "VLG" is the ISO 3166-2 code element for "Vlaamse Gewest", or 
Flanders.)  It also states that Flemish Sign Language was "previously 
known as Belgian Sign Language," which raises two questions: (1) should 
"sgn-BE-nl" be deprecated in the RFC 4646bis era and given a 
Preferred-Value of "sgn-bvs", and (2) what happened to Michael's 
"Belgian-French Sign Language," coded as "sgn-BE-fr"?

We still haven't reached any agreement on how to tag signed spoken 
languages.  Michael proposed to use "sgn" plus an ISO 639-2/B alpha-3 
language code element, plus an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code 
element -- thus, "sgn-eng-US" for signed American English.  Presumably 
"sgn-eng" could be used for signed English, country not specified, 
although I don't know if that has any meaning in the world of signed 
spoken languages.

--
Doug Ewell  *  Fullerton, California, USA  *  RFC 4645  *  UTN #14
http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/
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