ISO 639 - New item approved - N'Ko

[Peter Constable]

I'd like Michael to clarify why U+2019 is used rather than U+02BC.


Peter


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no [mailto:ietf-languages-
> bounces at alvestrand.no] On Behalf Of Doug Ewell
> Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 8:22 PM
> To: ietf-languages at iana.org
> Subject: Re: ISO 639 - New item approved - N'Ko
> 
> Håvard Hjulstad <HHj at standard dot no> wrote:
> 
> > The ISO 639 RA-JAC has approved the following:
> >
> > Alpha-3 identifier (ISO 639-2): nqo
> > English name: N'Ko
> > French name: n'ko
> > Indigenous name: n'ko
> 
> This brings up several issues related to the Language Subtag Registry:
> 
> 
> 1.  Adding a new subtag
> 
> A new primary language subtag, corresponding to this new ISO 639 code
> element, needs to be added:
> 
> Type: language
> Subtag: nqo
> Description: N'Ko
> Added: 2006-05-21
> 
> This subtag is an automatic, guaranteed addition to the Registry, not
> subject to the discretion of the list or the Reviewer, as per Section
> 3.3 of draft-registry.
> 
> (Incidentally, code element "nko" was not chosen because it is already
> assigned to "Nkonya" in ISO/DIS 639-3.)
> 
> 
> 2.  Spelling of "N'Ko"
> 
> In the ISO 639 RA-JAC announcement, the name "N'Ko" is spelled with an
> ordinary, ASCII apostrophe (U+0027).  There is already a script subtag
> (Nkoo) for the script called N'Ko, taken from ISO 15924, and in that
> standard the name is spelled with a so-called "smart" apostrophe
> (U+2019), as "N’Ko".  This is rendered in the ASCII-only Registry as
> "N&#x2019;Ko".
> 
> I really don't like the idea of spelling "N'Ko" two slightly different
> ways, one for the language and another for the script, simply because
> the source standards happened to differ in their use of apostrophes.
> Section 3.1 says, "Most descriptions are taken directly from source
> standards such as ISO 639 or ISO 3166," but there is no requirement to
> follow them precisely, right down to the style of apostrophe.  I would
> much prefer one of these two courses of action:
> 
> a.  Adopt the "smart" apostrophe, U+2019, for both language subtag "nqo"
> and script subtag "Nkoo".  This requires a tiny modification to the
> Description field in item (1) above.  It means that neither name can be
> typed directly from ASCII-only keyboard layouts, but remember that the
> Registry already uses non-ASCII characters in 13 other places, including
> two that are not in Latin-1 either.  (Expansion of the Registry in the
> future to include subtags based on ISO 639-3 will introduce hundreds
> more.)
> 
> b.  Adopt the "dumb" apostrophe, U+0027, for both subtags.  This
> requires us to modify the Description field of the existing script
> subtag "Nkoo", replacing "N&#x2019;Ko" with "N'Ko", in addition to
> approving the new language subtag.
> 
> In private communication, the Reviewer has indicated he prefers option
> (a).  Either (a) or (b) is acceptable to me, as long as one of the two
> is chosen.
> 
> The list needs to decide on this, and the Reviewer needs to make a
> ruling in two weeks' time.
> 
> 
> 3.  Suppress-Script
> 
> Michael has also stated, "The N'Ko script is overwhelmingly used to
> write the N'Ko language."  The question, then, is whether the record
> proposed in item (1) above should also include the following field:
> 
> Suppress-Script: Nkoo
> 
> I would suggest that Michael has done more research on the N'Ko language
> and script than all the rest of us put together ever will, and if he
> says that "Nkoo" is overwhelmingly used to write "nqo" then I have no
> reason to doubt him.  However, this is a matter for the whole list.
> 
> The list needs to decide on this, and the Reviewer needs to make a
> ruling in two weeks' time.
> 
> 
> I will submit one or more modification forms to the Reviewer after items
> (2) and (3) have been resolved.
> 
> --
> Doug Ewell
> Fullerton, California, USA
> http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/
> 
> 
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