LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM: pinyin

[Phillips, Addison]

It would be absurd not to permit the use of the 'zh' subtag with the subtag for the Romanization scheme, IMO. Yes, 'cmn' is more accurate. But we allow all sorts of inaccurate tagging.

However, the point that 'pinyin' as a term is inexact seems reasonable. Perhaps change the subtag requested to 'hanyu'? How about:

Type: variant
Subtag: hanyu
Description: Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin Chinese
Prefix: zh-Latn
Prefix: zh


Note that 'cmn' would be added as a prefix when available.

Addison Phillips
Globalization Architect -- Lab126

Internationalization is not a feature.
It is an architecture.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no [mailto:ietf-languages-
> bounces at alvestrand.no] On Behalf Of Kent Karlsson
> Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 6:49 AM
> To: ietf-languages at alvestrand.no
> Subject: RE: LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM: pinyin
> 
> 
> You missed my (rhetorical) point completely. cmn is the code
> for one of the languages (Mandarin) *encompassed* by the
> macrolanguage code(s) zh/zho (Chinese). zh-Latn-pinyin
> is in the (current) proposed registration form limited to
> Mandarin, while 'zh' is not limited to Mandarin. And
> Pinyin for Cantonese (yue, also encompassed by zh/zho)
> differs in both language and romanization rules.
> 
> In the proposed registration, zh-Latn-pinyin, the 'zh'
> part is regarded as standing for Mandarin, not for "any
> Chinese language" as 'zh' should be interpreted. While
> I don't think that is prohibited (the 'pinyin' variant
> can well be interpreted as both "Mandarin" and "Pinyin"),
> I think it is a bad idea. Better to state the proper
> language code in the prefix. (Unfortunatly that is not
> possible until after 4646bis is ready.)
> 
> 	/kent k
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no
> > [mailto:ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no] On Behalf Of
> > Frank Ellermann
> > Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 1:33 PM
> > To: ietf-languages at alvestrand.no
> > Subject: Re: LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM: pinyin
> >
> > Kent Karlsson wrote:
> >
> > > unless one sees 'zh' as an alias for 'cmn'...
> >
> > <http://www.sil.org/ISO639-3/documentation.asp?id=zho>
> >
> > ISO 639-3 claims that 'zho' is an alias for 'zh',
> > not 'cmn'.  IMO a reason why adding ISO 639-3 to
> > the IANA subtag registry without stating what is
> > what could create a huge mess.
> >
> >  Frank
> >
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> >
> 
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