LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM (R4) - Pinyin

Michael Everson everson at evertype.com
Fri Sep 26 15:45:41 CEST 2008


On 26 Sep 2008, at 12:40, Mark Davis wrote:

> Type: variant
> Subtag: hpin1958
> Description: Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin Chinese
> Prefix: zh-Latn

I do not prefer this because, as John said yesterday:

>> For every relevant langauge there is a Hanyu-Pinyin-type  
>> orthography; rather than devising individual subtags for all of  
>> these, we devise one, which when applied to Chinese signifies Hanyu  
>> Pinyin.


I think the right way to do this is to use "pinyin" in the same way as  
"fonupa" is used, applicable to many languages. When applied to zh  
alone, it should be defined to mean Mandarin (in the absence of being  
able to use cmn). I do not think we should have 40 different pinyin- 
based subtags. It is clear that the Chinese are using the conventions  
of this alphabet for many languages.

I have however now almost been convinced that it is appropriate to put  
"zh-Latn" in the prefix for this and for "wadegile", though I don't  
know what you guys expect software to do when it finds the -Latn-  
omitted, as it surely will. Do you just not care?

Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com



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