Simple: Language Subtag Registration

John Cowan cowan at mercury.ccil.org
Sun Dec 13 22:30:50 CET 2015


Michael Everson scripsit:

> I see what you mean by “ungrammatical” —- one might ask if
> “simple English” that had “thinked” instead of “thought”
> be excluded from this.

Indeed.  Orwell's Newspeak would be doubleplusungood "en-simple".

> On the other hand, I know several people from Co. Carlow in Ireland
> who regularly say “I have went” and “I have drank”. This is
> grammatical in their dialect.

True, but no one would say Hiberno-English was a simple dialect (well,
except T.H. White), nor is "root language" necessarily confined to a
standard language.

> I don’t think we should place strictures on speakers of languages
> with more morphological complexity than English that “simple” may
> or may not apply to them. That might be for them to decide. To tag
> Latina sine flexione one would have la-simple or… or what?

I tend to think it's a separate language altogether, like Interlingua
de IALA.

-- 
John Cowan          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
Not to perambulate the corridors during the hours of repose
in the boots of ascension.       --Sign in Austrian ski-resort hotel


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