iu-ike (Eastern Canadian Inuktitut) and iu-ikt (Western Canadian Inuktitut), etc

Addison Phillips [wM] aphillips at webmethods.com
Sat Feb 5 20:51:05 CET 2005


3066bis reserves "extended language" subtags for ISO 639-3's future adoption using the pattern described by John Cowan. Alpha3 subtags are not otherwise valid in the second position under 3066bis, so no confusion can result.

I'm dubious about registering any of these subtags in advance of ISO 639-3 being completed, however.

Addison

Addison P. Phillips
Director, Globalization Architecture
http://www.webMethods.com

Chair, W3C Internationalization Core Working Group
http://www.w3.org/International

Internationalization is an architecture. 
It is not a feature.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no 
> [mailto:ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no]On Behalf Of John Clews
> Sent: 2005年2月5日 11:12
> To: Peter Constable
> Cc: ietf-languages at iana.org
> Subject: iu-ike (Eastern Canadian Inuktitut) and iu-ikt (Western 
> Canadian Inuktitut), etc
> 
> 
> Peter Constable wrote:
> 
> >Subject:   RE: LANGUAGE TAG REGISTRATION FORM: iu-Cans
> >From:   "Peter Constable" <petercon at microsoft.com>
> >Date:   Fri, February 4, 2005 9:00 pm
> 
> >I wonder if I could ask Michael or others to step aside from the debate
> >of iu-Cans-CA / iu-Latn-CA for a second to comment on the other
> >registrations I submitted -- or those that Mark submitted yesterday as
> >well. I'd like to have an idea how many debates we may have on our
> >hands, or on the other hand which of these I don't have to worry about.
> 
> Actually, yes, I do think that there are some important issues here that
> you DO need to worry about. These haven't come up prior to the very recent
> discussions, though you probably will want to take that discussion
> separately to the other issues, so I have used a new Subject in the email
> header.
> 
> Here's the issues:
> 
> John Cowan also wrote, in another email:
> 
> > Indeed.  Currently, ISO 639-3 tags cannot be used in the first subtag,
> > but they can be used in later ones;
> > iu-ike (Eastern) and
> > iu-ikt (Western)
> >are plausible tags, as are related tags ending in -Cans or -Latn.
> 
> 
> Specifically, John Cowan suggested that the following be
> the format in such instances:
> 
>     iu-ike (Eastern Canadian Inuktitut) and
>     iu-ikt (Western Canadian Inuktitut), etc
> 
> This gives rise to the following thoughts, at least some of which need to
> be addressed in the shorter term:
> 
> 1. Would ISO 639-2 Macrolanguages be used as an initial tag?
> Presumably yes (hence the iu-... examples above by John Cowan).
> 
> 
> 2. Should tags from the current draft ISO 639-3 be permitted as
> subtags? Actually, yes, I think they should  (to the extent of checking
> ISO 639-3 when allocating subtags) to ensure that there is
> compatibility in RFC 3066bis with all parts of ISO 639.
> 
> 
> 3. Note that ISO 639-3 does NOT map to the Ethnologue exactly -
> there is at least one item missing (noted as xxx below).
> 
> iu-ike Eastern Canadian Inuktitut
> iu-ikt Western Canadian Inuktitut
> iu-xxx North Alaskan Inuktitut
> 
> Obviously iu-xxx needs to be fixed in ISO 639-3 (unless I'm looking at an
> older draft and it has been fixed since).
> 
> 
> 4. Would ISO 639-3 Macrolanguages (listed in ISO 639-3, Table 3:
> Mapping of macrolanguage code elements to individual language
> code elements) be permitted in RFC 3066bis subtags? Presumably not.
> 
> That is, I assume that iu-iku would NOT be a valid tag, though rules could
> be written into ISO 3166bis to define valid and invalid use of such tags.
> 
> 
> 5. Here's the information from the Ethnologue,  (which will find its way
> into ISO 639-3), so that the 3 existing Ethnologue tags there can be
> matched to the current 2 tags (and a 3-letter macrolanguage tag) in ISO
> 639-3.
> 
> EASTERN CANADIAN (EASTERN CANADIAN ESKIMO, EASTERN ARCTIC
> ESKIMO, INUIT) [ESB] 14,000 speakers out of 17,500 population
> (1991 L. Kaplan). West of Hudson Bay and east through Baffin
> Island, Quebec, and Labrador. Eskimo-Aleut, Eskimo, Inuit.
> Dialects: BAFFINLAND ESKIMO, LABRADOR ESKIMO, QUEBEC ESKIMO.
> Vigorous language use except in Labrador, where less than half
> are speakers. 75% to 100% literate. Inuit is the name of the
> people, Inuktitut of the language. Bible 1826-1871. NT
> 1871-1993. Bible portions 1810-1990.
> 
> INUKTITUT, NORTH ALASKAN (NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO) [ESI] 3,500
> total speakers out of a total population of 8,000 (1990 M.D.
> Kaplan). Mackenzie delta region to Norton Sound, Alaska, USA.
> Eskimo-Aleut, Eskimo, Inuit. Dialects: MACKENZIE ESKIMO,
> INUPIAT ESKIMO. Most speakers are over 30. Younger speakers
> often prefer English. 50% to 75% literate. NT 1968, in press
> (1992). Bible portions 1920-1964.
> 
> INUKTITUT, WESTERN CANADIAN [ESC] 4,000 speakers out of a
> population of 7,500 (1981). All Eskimo mother tongue speakers
> in Canada 18,840 (1981 census). Central Canadian Arctic, and
> west to the Mackenzie Delta and coastal area. Eskimo-Aleut,
> Eskimo, Inuit. Dialects: COPPER INUKTITUT (COPPER ESKIMO,
> COPPER INUIT), CARIBOU ESKIMO (KEEWATIN), NETSILIK, SIGLIT.
> Language use vigorous in Caribou and Netsilik. 50% to 75%
> literate. Caribou may need separate literature. Bible portions
> 1920-1972. Work in progress.
> 
> 
> Best regards
> 
> John Clews
> 
> --
> 
> 
> 
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