be-tarask

[Lars Aronsson]

Michael Everson wrote:
> At 11:04 +0300 2007-04-25, Ihar Hrachyshka wrote:
> 
> >Such comment IS WRONG in all ways. 1929 edition is VERY 
> >different from what Jaska wants to register. And I think he can 
> >even prove this by himself.

Before I begin to comment and question, let me reiterate that I 
have no opinion or knowledge about Belarusian.  I'm just following 
and learning this registration process, for the case that I could 
some day need to register subtags for other languages.

If I understand this right, there was a book by Mr. Taraskievich 
in 1918, published in its 5th edition in 1929, then an official 
government reform in 1933 and one more in 1959.  Then in 2005 a 
new book that connects back to 1929.  We now have 5 different 
years that each could identify a slightly different version of the 
language, but these five can be grouped into two major branches: 
the 1933-1959 version that is today the official version in the 
republic of Belarus and the 1918-1929-2005 version now to be 
registered as "be-tarask".

>From a philosophical standpoint, you need names for things only to 
tell them apart.  If there was no difference between apples and 
pears, we could just call it "fruit" and that would be it.  It 
follows that if there is a difference and you need a word for 
"apples", then you also need a word for "pears".

It is peculiar (to me) already that "be-tarask" is registered 
without also registering a subtag for the other, official version 
of Belarusian.  Suppose I start up my word processor and activate 
the spelling correction.  Which dictionary do I want to use?  
Be-tarask or the other one that doesn't have a subtag?  Is that to 
be called "be" without the subtag?  The only similar case I know 
is de-1901 and de-1996, where both subtags were registered at the 
same time.

The above post from Ihar is the first time I see that the 2005 
version would be "VERY different" from the 1929 version.  Does 
that mean somebody will need to register a new subtag for the 1929 
version, to tell it apart from the 2005 version?  Are there 
different newspapers printed in these two sub-sub-versions of 
Belarusian?  In the light of this, was it perhaps a mistake to use 
the name of the 1918-1929 author, Mr. Taraskievich, as the basis 
for the subtag for the 2005 version of the language?


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se