Suppress-Script: Japn for language ja (Japanese)

[Martin Duerst]

Hello Michael, hello everybody,


This is a request to add "Suppress-Script: Jpan" to the entry for
the language subtag "ja" (Japanese) according to Section 3.5.,
Registration Procedure for Subtags, and based on Section 3.4.,
Stability of IANA Registry Entries, of RFC 4646, which says:

   8.   The field 'Suppress-Script' MAY be added or removed via the
        registration process.

This is the current version of the data for Japanese:

%%
Type: language
Subtag: ja
Description: Japanese
Added: 2005-10-16
%%


This is the proposed new version:

%%
Type: language
Subtag: ja
Description: Japanese
Added: 2005-10-16
Suppress-Script: Jpan
%%

[My understanding is that Added: refers to the original addition of
the tag, rather than to changes.]


   LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM
   1. Name of requester:
      Martin J. Dürst

   2. E-mail address of requester:
      duerst at it.aoyama.ac.jp

   3. Record Requested:

      Type: language
      Subtag: ja
      Description: Japanese
      Suppress-Script: Jpan

   4. Intended meaning of the subtag:
      Japanese Language (no change of meaning)

   5. Reference to published description
      of the language (book or article):

      Published descriptions of Japanese abound and can be
      found easily. A description of the Japanese writing system,
      with references to published works, can also be found at
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system.
      The list of published works given there is as follows:
      - Gottlieb, Nanette (1996). Kanji Politics - Language Policy
         and Japanese Script. Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-7103-0512-5.
      - Twine, Nanette (1991). Language and the Modern State -
         The Reform of Written Japanese. Routledge. ISBN 0-4150-0990-1.
      - Seeley, Christopher (1984). "The Japanese Script since 1900".
         Visible Language XVIII 3: 267-302.
      - Seeley, Christopher (1991). A History of Writing in Japan.
         University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 0-8248-2217-X.
      - Habein, Yaeko Sato (1984). The History of the Japanese Written
         Language. University of Tokyo Press. ISBN 0-86008-347-0.
      - Unger, J. Marshall (1996). Literacy and Script Reform in Occupation
         Japan: Reading Between the Lines. OUP. ISBN 0-1951-0166-9.

      Please note that many of these books, besides describing the
      characters used in the current Japanese Writing System, also
      discuss history, language policy, and other related topics.

   6. Any other relevant information:
      Japanese is in overwhelming majority written in what is called
      Kanji-Kana-majiribun (Kanji-Kana mixture), a mixture of Kanji
      (Han ideographs), Hiragana, Katakana, and occasional other characters.
      Each script has its well-defined functions: Kanji are used
      mostly for word stems and composite words, Hiragana for endings
      and particles, and Katakana for foreign words and technical terms.
      In this respect, Japanese is unique among languages. The script
      code Jpan was therefore created to identify this unique mixture.

      The use of Jpan for Japanese also fits John Cowan's recent
      description of Suppress-Script:
      "the criterion for including a Suppress-Script is that the script
       is always used for the language except in a few highly restricted
       domains, such as writing for the blind, scholarly transliteration,
       transcription for use in another language, and when the standard
       script is not available."
      One additional case is Hiragana-only for the very start of grade
      school.

      The main reason Jpan hasn't yet been assigned as the Suppress-Script
      to Japanese is, citing Doug Ewell:
      "Jpan was added to ISO 15924 this past July, after we went through
       our first round of adding Suppress-Scripts in bulk, and nobody
       thought to add it to ja."
      This registration intends to fix this oversight.


With kind regards,          Martin.

P.S.: Please note that the first few paragraphs of Section 3.5.,
      Registration Procedure for Subtags, of RFC 4646, seems to disallow
      changes to Suppress-Script. This conflict with Section 3.4 seems
      to be an editorial error. I'm asking the LTRU WG to discuss
      (and hopefully confirm and fix) this.



#-#-#  Martin J. Du"rst, Assoc. Professor, Aoyama Gakuin University
#-#-#  http://www.sw.it.aoyama.ac.jp       mailto:duerst at it.aoyama.ac.jp