[Ltru] Re: Scottish English (was: LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM)

[Peter Constable]

> From: ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no [mailto:ietf-languages-
> bounces at alvestrand.no] On Behalf Of Addison Phillips


> OTOH, there was quite a long thread this year on this list about the
> practical limits of language tags. They cannot be expected to identify
> every distinct variation in language. In most cases we are all
> satisfied
> to say that "en" is English... and sometimes add a closer regional
> variation. But truly detailed linguistic variation begins to test the
> capabilities of tags. In the case of "en-scottish", I can see the
> justification, but am concerned about where the line gets drawn.

Perhaps it's a matter of expectations. Having a "scottish" subtag doesn't mean that every product needs to use it. Perhaps that in itself implies that not every product needs to guarantee a request for "en-scottish" can be serviced with the kind of results that the requester might be expecting. Perhaps the film and TV industry cares about a Scottish/"British" distinction, but some other community cares about some other way of tiling that bit of the plane.

Welcome to the world of dialects! That is precisely why Gary Simons and I concluded years ago that a standard that attempts to do for dialects what 639-3 attempts for languages is simply implausible.

Rather, the only thing that seemed plausible was for communities to have a way to register the distinctions they care about. Well, here we are! Someone from one community wants to register "Scottish" to distinguish it from "British". Unless there's reason to believe Karen's need isn't applicable to her industry segment as a whole (which I strongly doubt), then I'm not sure what better approach there is.



Peter