<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Beyond the need to describe these languages in the ISO context, I have a need to structure these choices in drop-downs used in asset management systems in a way that prevents data quality problems. As noted by others, there is a lot of potential for confusion with the terms Scots, Gaelic, Scottish, etc. </font>
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<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">The Scottish English question originated as we were migrating content previously classified as "Scottish" from an recently acquired repository. That label, of course, means nothing.</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">While "Irish" may be a more common English-language term for Gaelic, and is the ISO term for this language, I won't use it. Why? Because I have people who will receive content identified only as Gaelic. If someone unfamiliar with Gaelic languages looks down a list and see the choices Irish and Scots Gaelic, they are likely to classify the film as Scots Gaelic whether it is or not. Instead, I use:</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Gaelic (Irish)</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Gaelic (Scots)</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">These names then sort together alphabetically and the classifier realizes that he or she must know whether the film is Irish Gaelic or Scots Gaelic. This is not a revolutionary practice, but I thought it was worth noting in the context of this discussion. So far I haven't had to add "Scots" to my list. :) It's my understanding that the product I have is Scottish English and not Scots.</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">- Karen Broome</font>
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<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif"><b>"Peter Constable" <petercon@microsoft.com></b></font>
<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Sent by: ietf-languages-bounces@alvestrand.no</font>
<p><font size=1 face="sans-serif">10/20/2005 09:13 AM</font>
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<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif"> To: <ietf-languages@iana.org></font>
<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif"> cc: </font>
<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif"> Subject: RE: Scottish English</font></table>
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<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">> From: ietf-languages-bounces@alvestrand.no [mailto:ietf-languages-<br>
> bounces@alvestrand.no] On Behalf Of Harald Tveit Alvestrand<br>
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> standard gripe....<br>
> <br>
> from the material available from ISO 639, there's no way of telling<br>
for<br>
> sure whether "sco" ("Scots") refers to a language related to English<br>
or a<br>
> language related to Gaelic.<br>
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Gary Simons and I identified this as an issue for ISO 639 in a paper we<br>
presented back in 2000. On the one hand, you don't want to make the<br>
descriptors given for languages a normative part of the standard, but on<br>
the other hand, an identifier is meant to identify the concept of a<br>
particular language, and it's important to make clear in some way what<br>
the intended denotee language is. It's why the Web site for ISO 639-3<br>
will have links to other sources that document this.<br>
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Peter Constable<br>
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