LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM: pinyin

Randy Presuhn randy_presuhn at mindspring.com
Mon Aug 4 19:26:28 CEST 2008


Hi -

> From: "Tracey, Niall" <niall.tracey at logica.com>
> To: <ietf-languages at alvestrand.no>
> Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 9:54 AM
> Subject: RE: LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM: pinyin
>
> From: John Cowan
> Sent: 03 August 2008 22:31
>
> > Most uses of "Pinyin" refer to Hanyu Pinyin, the official transcription
> > system (both national and ISO) of the official language of China (another
> > ambiguous name, but I'm sure you know what I mean by it).
> > We're following that lead.
>
> I'm pretty certain that if anyone was to count, we'd find that most uses of
> the word "alphabet" refer to the Latin alphabet. Does that make "Alphabet"
> a valid alternative to "Latn"? 

No, but it does make the point that the "alphabet" semantic of "Pinyin" is
already covered by the "Latn" subtag.  "Pinyin" as a subtag is only useful
if it describes a *specific* transcription system.

Randy



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