One language, one subtag (was: Re: Ietf-languages Digest, Vol 50, Issue 18)

[Doug Ewell]

Peter Constable <petercon at microsoft dot com> wrote:

> The only scenario in which maybe someone is helped is when the 
> specialist wants a query to return records for all historic varieties. 
> I dont see why they cant use a Boolean operator for that, but even if 
> there was enough need for a single ID,  I wouldnt be inclined to use 
> eng and ces for that purpose: that would be helping the 0.01% scenario 
> at the detriment of 99.99% of users.

Great point.  When someone needs to request content in more than one 
language, wouldn't it make more sense to be able to specify multiple 
language tags than to create a new Frankenstein language tag for them? 
And wouldn't it be reasonable to use multiple language tags to tag 
multi-language content?  Each language tag is supposed to represent one 
language; the collection codes are an explicit exception.

If I want to request content in Old English OR Middle English OR Modern 
English, that doesn't make all three of those "the same language." 
Tomorrow I may want to request content in English OR Russian; what then?

--
Doug Ewell  *  Fullerton, California, USA  *  RFC 4645  *  UTN #14
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