Is there a subtag for 'plain English' or 'simplified English'

CE Whitehead cewcathar at hotmail.com
Tue Dec 19 17:32:57 CET 2006


Hi,  Regina:
I'm not sure I get completely what you are saying; when I taught in Kuwait I 
slightly adapted some technical essays for the students and for each, I just 
included a note with the author's byline that the author's text was adapted 
(by me).  That should always be done regardless of whether you can get a 
tag.

As Jon says, it is not a variant of English as you are still using standard 
English.

I am sure also that a note in a meta content tag would be a good idea.

There is nothing to stop you from using a special subtag though in any case, 
except I do not know what sense your audience will make of it.

There are cases when a variant subtag is definitely in order though.  If in 
your simplified English you draw only or primarily on a collection of 
English vocabulary, limited to a specific register that is defined somewhere 
(as a separate dictionary, as a subset of a dictionary) then a variant 
subtag would be in order and until you get such a variant subtag then you 
probably should use your own experimental tag.

However, the people who tell you your current subtag is too long are right; 
you are allowed at most 8 characters, plus the x- I think.

--C. E. Whitehead
cewcathar at hotmail.com
>
>Hoag, Regina wrote:
>>What would you suggest to indicate the difference between something 
>>written in English and a simplified English "translation" of that content. 
>>For example, the legal wording of a bill submitted to voters and the 
>>"plain English" translation of that bill.
>
>They're both English. The difference between them is not their language in 
>the sense of the word that "English", "Irish" and "Russian" are languages.
>
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