<div dir="ltr">Hoi,<br>When you compare the list of Gerard Lang with the ISO-639-3 list, you will find a marked difference. There are for instance a North and South Levantine Arabic among other variants of Arabic that are not associated with borders of countries. Also many of the languages he mentions have their own language codes and others are not part of this list at all.<br>
<br><a href="http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=ara">http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=ara</a><br><br>Thanks,<br> Gerard<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 6:15 PM, CE Whitehead <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cewcathar@hotmail.com">cewcathar@hotmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
<br>
Hmm, Gerard Lang brings up a point regarding the regional subtags although I cannot really discuss Ainu and hardly feel qualified to discuss the Arabic varieties (my interests in school were syntax and rhetoric; in phonology I was more interested in language rhythms and supersegmentals).<br>
<br>
In some cases the regional subtags we have may not be sufficient for Arabic; in several of the Arabic varieties Gerard listed there are sufficient regional subtags-- but I do think we need a regional subtag for the "Levant" (Palestinian, Lebanese, Western Jordanian and Syrian Arabic--to my knowledge there is really little difference between Palestinian and Lebanese; I am no expert however but I recall that my Arabic teacher and friends of hers, all Palestinians, tended to front more of their vowels than their neighbors did; for example, they said 'felestiniy' whereas the neighbors say 'falestiniy' I think; they also fronted some u's but did not front a's and u's to quite the extent that native speakers of Hebrew do; the available country subtags thus I think suffice if further distinctions are needed).<br>
<br>
We may also need some regional subtags to distinguish the varieties of Iraqi Arabic, and one for the Gulf too (although I think Yemeni Arabic is a bit different from the rest of the Gulf--but am not sure).<br>
<br>
In cases where the regional subtags are not appropriate, would an extension be useful? Or would too many protocols/applications be unable to deal with it?<br>
<br>
As I understand it, that is handled by <a href="mailto:iesg@ietf.org">iesg@ietf.org</a><br>
<br>
If more regional subtags are needed, that is not up to ietf-languages of course that I know of.<br>
<br>
--C. E. Whitehead<br>
<a href="mailto:cewcathar@hotmail.com">cewcathar@hotmail.com</a><br>
<br>
Lang Gérard gerard.lang at <a href="http://insee.fr" target="_blank">insee.fr</a><br>
Wed Sep 10 16:24:42 CEST 2008<br>
> Concerning varieties of arabic languages, ISO 639-3 classification is, no doubt, well motivated, but not alone.<br>
> For example, the document "Scriptures of the World", published in 1994 by "United Bible Societies", that seems> to be an important source for Ethnologue, retained:<br>
> -Arabic;<br>
> -Algerian arabic;<br>
> -Chadian arabic;<br>
> -Egyptian arabic;<br>
> -Judaeo-Tunisian arabic;<br>
> -Lebanese arabic;<br>
> -North African arabic;<br>
> -Palestinian arabic;<br>
> -Sudan arabic;<br>
> -Southern Sudan arabic;<br>
> -Tunisian arabic.<br>
<br>
> Bien cordialement.<br>
<br>
> Gérard LANG<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
--<br>
Doug Ewell * Thornton, Colorado, USA * RFC 4645 * UTN #14 <a href="http://www.ewellic.org" target="_blank">http://www.ewellic.org</a><br>
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