LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM: pinyin

[Kent Karlsson]

You missed my (rhetorical) point completely. cmn is the code
for one of the languages (Mandarin) *encompassed* by the
macrolanguage code(s) zh/zho (Chinese). zh-Latn-pinyin
is in the (current) proposed registration form limited to
Mandarin, while 'zh' is not limited to Mandarin. And
Pinyin for Cantonese (yue, also encompassed by zh/zho)
differs in both language and romanization rules.

In the proposed registration, zh-Latn-pinyin, the 'zh'
part is regarded as standing for Mandarin, not for "any
Chinese language" as 'zh' should be interpreted. While
I don't think that is prohibited (the 'pinyin' variant
can well be interpreted as both "Mandarin" and "Pinyin"),
I think it is a bad idea. Better to state the proper
language code in the prefix. (Unfortunatly that is not
possible until after 4646bis is ready.)

	/kent k


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no 
> [mailto:ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no] On Behalf Of 
> Frank Ellermann
> Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 1:33 PM
> To: ietf-languages at alvestrand.no
> Subject: Re: LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM: pinyin
> 
> Kent Karlsson wrote:
> 
> > unless one sees 'zh' as an alias for 'cmn'...
> 
> <http://www.sil.org/ISO639-3/documentation.asp?id=zho>
> 
> ISO 639-3 claims that 'zho' is an alias for 'zh',
> not 'cmn'.  IMO a reason why adding ISO 639-3 to
> the IANA subtag registry without stating what is
> what could create a huge mess.
> 
>  Frank
> 
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