Ietf-languages Digest, Vol 81, Issue 40
Mark Crispin
mrc+ietf at panda.com
Sat Sep 26 21:39:03 CEST 2009
Thanks Frank for your comments.
Given what you said, I agree that it probably does not make sense to both
with registering Nihon-shiki. The final concern that I have is this:
Would your application be adversely impacted if it turned out that the
ultimate usage of the Hepburn tag became "something that is more or less
Hepburn" (with all of the variants therefore) and of the kunrei-shiki tag
became "something that is more or less kunrei-shiki" (with all of the
variants such as JSL, Nihon-shiki, etc.)?
My prediction is that if you expect the Hepburn tag to be used only for
strictly compliant Hepburn (as defined by Hepburn) and the kunrei-shiki
tag to be used only for strictly compliant ISO 3602, you will be
disappointed.
If, on the other hand, it's alright if the usage winds up being generic,
and that we call text Hepburn if it has "Fujitsu" and kunrei-shiki if it
has "Huzitu", then I see no problem.
Or, put another way, for the Japanese word 失礼 ("rudeness"), can a user
of these tags triage:
Hepburn: shitsurê, shitsurē, shitsurei, shitsuree
kunrei-shiki: siturê, siturē, siturei, situree
without causing trouble for you and your application? If so, then we're
good.
As you may have guessed, my hangup is with bothering to register the
distinction between Nihon-shiki and kunrei-shiki yet not any of the other
variants which commonly appear.
I agree that it is madness to try to register all the possible variants in
order to have strict compliance. I've noticed that even native Japanese
who prefer kunrei-shiki don't strictly follow ISO 3602 once they are out
of the clutches of their primary school and no longer have to do as the
Monbushou says...
If the generic usage is alright, then I suggest we the registration say
something to reflect this and specifically debunk any assumption of strict
compliance.
-- Mark --
http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
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