A stake in the ground

[Randy Presuhn]

Hi -

> From: "Doug Ewell" <doug at ewellic.org>
> To: <ietf-languages at iana.org>
> Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 6:26 AM
> Subject: Re: A stake in the ground
>
> John Cowan <cowan at ccil dot org> wrote:
> 
> > So, a second stake: add Standard Estonian 'ekk' and Voro 'vro' to the 
> > extlang list.  "Need brooks no delay, yet late is better than never."
> 
> We can't do this per Section 3.4 (12.C.4):  "'Extlang' records MUST NOT 
> be created for items already in the registry.  Extended language subtags 
> will only be considered at the time of initial registration."
> 
> I'm not sure exactly why we have this rule, since adding an extlang 
> would not invalidate the corresponding primary language subtag in any 
> way (it would be preferred, in fact), but we have it.

I think it can be explained by the nature of the whole extlang compromise.
Recall that there were those who wanted to not use the extlang production
at all.  There were others who thought it essential to deal with some
specific situations.  We ended up allowing both forms, with severe limits
as a concession to those who would have preferred to not use extlang at all.
It's not surprising that the result is turning out to be over-specified.

Randy