Region subtags under 3066 and 3066bis

Frank Ellermann nobody at xyzzy.claranet.de
Tue Feb 15 22:04:19 CET 2005


Doug Ewell wrote:

>> If you want to use them anyway, why no fr-EA, maybe French
>> as in Melilla makes sense.  And why no fr-EU if you think
>> that fr-NT is okay ?

> EA and EU are "reserved" by ISO 3166/MA, but have never
> actually been "assigned" code elements.  That is the
> difference.

Okay, that makes sense.  So I can use the (green) "officially
assigned" country codes in RfC 3066 laguage tags as found on...

http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/iso_3166-1_decoding_table.html?printable=true#AA

...but not the (gray) "transitionally reserved" codes.  That
kills also fr-NT and any other ??-NT, good riddance.  I've no
problem with keeping ??-TP in a hypothetical 3066bis based on
a cut-off date, as long as it contains a complete frozen list.

At the moment (RfC 3066) ??-TP is unfortunately obsolete.  It
would be nice, if a future 3066bis allows existing ccTLDs (in
addition to 3166 country codes), that would cover cases like
TP and YU, and also some (yellow) "exceptionally reserved" AC,
GG, IM, JE, EU, and UK.  fr-GG and fr-JE are even no nonsense.

> RFC 3066bis allows currently and previously assigned code
> elements to be used in language tags

With a proper IANA registry ?  Otherwise it would be hard to
find "previously assigned" country codes like the now (white)
"unassigned" DD or NH.

> The rationale is that the MA is under no obligation to
> continue to reserve EA for Ceuta and Melilla

Okay.  OTOH they changed the status of AX to "official", and EA
could also make sense.  Especially here, I'm far from sure that
es is the only relevant language in EA.  Or maybe it's somewhat
different from es-ES.

> RFC 3066bis would allow "fr-015" meaning "French as spoken in
> Northern Africa,"

That should be good enough instead of similar ??-EA constructs.
Today fr-MA could approximate it - minus political correctness.

                  Bye, Frank




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