xx-XX-nnnn vs. xx-nnnn in Chinese and German
Peter_Constable@sil.org
Peter_Constable@sil.org
Tue, 12 Feb 2002 03:10:01 -0600
On 02/11/2002 03:24:19 PM ietf-languages-admin wrote:
>I take your point, Peter. However, that Chinese character
>simplification reform was pushed forward in one country (CN) even
>though also adopted in (SG) as well, I think, and naturally in (MO)
>and (HK) too, as they are now part of (CN) though currently not much
>used in (TW).
The problem is that simplified characters can potentially be used in any
of these countries, as can traditional characters. I have heard mention of
both traditional and simplified characters being used in in CN. If that's
the case, what can we take zh-CN to mean? And if we take it to mean
"Chinese" language written with simplified characters, then what of texts
from that country written in traditional characters? And what do people do
with data sets that use simplified characters but with content that
relates specifically to some other context? Tags "zh-CN" and "zh-TW" are
already creating problems for people, i.e. users in industry are saying,
"That doesn't work for me." I'm not surprised that a muddled construct
creates problems.
>So my question is: are you saying that there should be legitimately
>
> zh-1962 (if that was the date) as well as or instead of
> zh-cn-1962?
I haven't suggested that, nor am I about to. Personally, I support the
suggestion of having ISO 15924 tags to distinguish traditional from
simplified Chinese characters, as I mentioned earlier.
>Taking that further, we have proposals
> for
>
> de-DE-1996
> de-AT-1996
> de-CH-1996
>
>Should we also have a proposal for
>
> de-1996?
>
>If so, how would that differ from
>
> de-DE-1996
> de-AT-1996
> de-CH-1996
>
>already proposed?
Good question? How would it differ? What kind of entity is de-1996
supposed to denote? *That* is the problem. What kind of category is it
supposed to denote? We don't have any answer for that. But that is the
kind of approach we have taken to now: assigning tags when we think we
need some kind of distinction without any thought to what kind of entities
it is that we are trying to distinguish. I for not would not support a
registration of de-1996 until such questions are answered.
- Peter
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Constable
Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
Tel: +1 972 708 7485
E-mail: <peter_constable@sil.org>