LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM: pinyin

John Cowan cowan at ccil.org
Sun Aug 3 23:30:33 CEST 2008


Gerard Meijssen scripsit:

>  Pinyin is ambiguous. 

"Dutch" is ambiguous too, but ISO has chosen to link it to Nederlands
only.  Most uses of "Pinyin" refer to Hanyu Pinyin, the official
transcription system (both national and ISO) of the official language of
China (another ambiguous name, but I'm sure you know what I mean by it).
We're following that lead.

Another point: we are neither a concensus organization nor a democracy:
we are an advisory council to an absolute dictator.

-- 
First known example of political correctness:   John Cowan
After Nurhachi had united all the other         http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Jurchen tribes under the leadership of the      cowan at ccil.org
Manchus, his successor Abahai (1592-1643)
issued an order that the name Jurchen should       --S. Robert Ramsey,
be banned, and from then on, they were all           The Languages of China
to be called Manchus.


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