Valencian registration redundant tags; prefixes; more information

[CE Whitehead]

Hi below is some relevant information from the new RFC 4646 for anyone 
wishing to register a tag:

first, there is a variant subtag for Nadiza, and  I think Nadiza is a region 
of Slovenia.  So variant subtags can be used for regions.

But . . .

the variant subtags cover languages/varieties that are "not associated with 
an external standard:"


Hence, I think perhaps IF the Valencian variety of the language defined by 
the ca tag is associated with an external standard, perhaps the appropriate 
regional tag would be in order!!!

But I am not an expert.

What follows is more info from the RFC 4646 document!

* * *
Tags with two-word codes indicating region (for example a region of China)--

These are essentially I think "redundant tags" from the old RFC 3066 (which 
is now obsolete); see http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4646.txt
on these tags:


   Note: The redundant and grandfathered entries together are the
  " complete list of tags registered under [RFC3066].  The redundant tags
   are those that can now be formed using the subtags defined in the
   registry together with the rules of Section 2.2.  The grandfathered
   entries include those that can never be legal under those same
   provisions.

   The set of redundant and grandfathered tags is permanent and stable:
   new entries in this section MUST NOT be added and existing entries
   MUST NOT be removed.  Records of type 'grandfathered' MAY have their
   type converted to 'redundant'; see item 12 in Section 3.6 for more
   information.  The decision-making process about which tags were
   initially grandfathered and which were made redundant is described in
   [RFC4645].

   RFC 3066 tags that were deprecated prior to the adoption of this
   document are part of the list of grandfathered tags, and their
   component subtags were not included as registered variants (although
   they remain eligible for registration).  For example, the tag
   "art-lojban" was deprecated in favor of the language subtag 'jbo'."

* * *

Also a note on the importance of a prefix for a variant subtag, again
from http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4646.txt :

   "Variant subtags are usually registered for use with a particular
   range of language tags.  For example, the subtag 'rozaj' is intended
   for use with language tags that start with the primary language
   subtag "sl", since Resian is a dialect of Slovenian.  Thus, the
   subtag 'rozaj' would be appropriate in tags such as "sl-Latn-rozaj"
   or "sl-IT-rozaj".  This information is stored in the 'Prefix' field
   in the registry.  Variant registration requests SHOULD include at
   least one 'Prefix' field in the registration form."

* * *

In addition, there are procedures for handling cases where tags are not 
being reviewed quick enough (the request for the subtag to indicate the 
Valencian dialect of the language that people from parts of Spain/Andorras 
speak is being reviewed in a timely way it seems; but this information may 
be useful to anyone who does not feel his/her request has been 
discussed/reviewed in a timely way):

"3.3.  Maintenance of the Registry

   Maintenance of the registry requires that as codes are assigned or
   withdrawn by ISO 639, ISO 15924, ISO 3166, and UN M.49, the Language
   Subtag Reviewer MUST evaluate each change, determine whether it
   conflicts with existing registry entries, and submit the information
   to IANA for inclusion in the registry.  If a change takes place and
   the Language Subtag Reviewer does not do this in a timely manner,
   then any interested party MAY use the procedure in Section 3.5 to
   register the appropriate update."

* * *
And,
What about the region subtags?

First, it seems 2-character subtags are mainly country codes but may also 
include subdivisions:


  "2.  All two-character subtags following the primary subtag were
       defined in the IANA registry according to the assignments found
       in [ISO3166-1] ("Codes for the representation of names of
       countries and their subdivisions -- Part 1: Country codes") using
       the list of alpha-2 country codes, or using assignments
       subsequently made by the ISO 3166 maintenance agency or governing
       standardization bodies."

3-character subtags are generally macro tags it seems (but I am not an 
expert):

   "3.  All three-character subtags consisting of digit (numeric)
       characters following the primary subtag were defined in the IANA
       registry according to the assignments found in UN Standard
       Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use [UN_M.49] or
       assignments subsequently made by the governing standards body.
       Note that not all of the UN M.49 codes are defined in the IANA
       registry.  The following rules define which codes are entered
       into the registry as valid subtags:

       "A.  UN numeric codes assigned to 'macro-geographical
           (continental)' or sub-regions MUST be registered in the
           registry.  These codes are not associated with an assigned
           ISO 3166 alpha-2 code and represent supra-national areas,
           usually covering more than one nation, state, province, or
           territory."

Examples of the use of the subtags for regions:

"   "de-CH" represents German ('de') as used in Switzerland ('CH').

   "sr-Latn-CS" represents Serbian ('sr') written using Latin script
   ('Latn') as used in Serbia and Montenegro ('CS').

   "es-419" represents Spanish ('es') appropriate to the UN-defined
   Latin America and Caribbean region ('419')."

The above tags seem to use region tags for countries and macro-regions!

* * *

Now, finally, some examples of variant subtags, and complete language tags 
formed with these:

   "Variant subtag records in the language subtag registry MAY include
   one or more 'Prefix' fields, which indicate the language tag or tags
   that would make a suitable prefix (with other subtags, as
   appropriate) in forming a language tag with the variant.  For
   example, the subtag 'nedis' has a Prefix of "sl", making it suitable
   to form language tags such as "sl-nedis" and "sl-IT-nedis", but not
   suitable for use in a tag such as "zh-nedis" or "it-IT-nedis".

   ""sl-nedis" represents the Natisone or Nadiza dialect of Slovenian."

I think Nadiza is a region of Slovenia.  So variant subtags can be used for 
regions.

But . . .

the variant subtags cover languages/varieties that are "not associated with 
an external standard:"

   "Variant subtags are used to indicate additional, well-recognized
   variations that define a language or its dialects that are not
   covered by other available subtags.  The following rules apply to the
   variant subtags:

   "1.  Variant subtags are not associated with any external standard.
       Variant subtags and their meanings are defined by the
       registration process defined in Section 3.5."

Hence, I think if the Valencian variety of the language defined by the ca 
tag is associated with an external standard, perhaps the appropriate 
regional tag would be in order!!!

--C. E. Whitehead
cewcathar at hotmail.com

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