Variant subtag proposal: Høgnorsk variety of Norwegian

[Leif Halvard Silli]

John Cowan, Fri, 1 Jan 2010 21:56:55 -0500:
> Leif Halvard Silli scripsit:

[ I cannot comment all your interesting points. :-) ]

>> So, then I would like to hear your opinion about inserting a note 
>> explicitly forbidding to use 'nb' as a prefix of 'hognorsk', as doing 
>> so would be illogical and not intended. 
> 
> Is anyone likely to do so?  After all, you are not proposing to forbid
> 'da', or 'en', or 'min', which would be equally "illogical and not
> intended".

Well, up until Jämtland was mentioned, then I would not have considered 
that one could legitimately use 'nn' or 'nn-SE' about any dialect in 
Sweden - but reality surprises. Whereas for 'nb-hognorsk', we can 
already state that no such surprise is possible. As have been pointed 
out, not every tagger knows things in and out, so I think it could now 
and then be helpful to state that the tag which means 'High Norwegian' 
is not possible after 'Bokmål'. I can imagine that someone would be 
confused, if they were only thinking about what 'hognorsk' means - if 
they have not context for. I grew up with Nynorsk myself, but only 
learned about Høgnorsk as a grown up. And Bokmål - especially in its 
conservative forms - can be perceived as more "high" than Nynorsk, by 
many. After all, Nynorsk is often touted as 'folkemålet' ('the people 
tounge/the tonge of the people').  'High' is usually not linked to 
'people'.

And - as well - it would be helpful to see that it is not forbidden to 
use 'no-hognorsk'.

But of course, my preferred solution is still to say that 'no' is one 
of two preferred prefixes. That both 'no' and 'nn' would both be 
possible would however not indicate that both prefixes were equally 
good - always. Whether one thinks this is acceptable seems to be down 
to each one's perception of 'macrolanguage'.

PS: 'no-se': As some of you may remember from another list, my 
engagement in the tagging business started when I discovered the sloppy 
tagging the Norwegian government practised - where they e.g. used 
'no-se' about Northern Sami ... Perhaps I should check if they were 
aspiring to get Jämtland back. ;-)
-- 
leif halvard silli