pinyin (and wadegile) request has gotten derailed

Michael Everson everson at evertype.com
Wed Sep 17 10:26:51 CEST 2008


On 17 Sep 2008, at 06:40, Mark Davis wrote:

> What I have requested is a subtag for distinguishing a particular  
> set of orthographic conventions for romanization of Mandarin  
> Chinese, not Tibetan. If John wants a subtag that includes (for  
> whatever reasons you have) both romanizations of Chinese and  
> Tibetan, that's fine. But that's not what I applied for, nor what my  
> company needs.

Maybe, but the subtag you requested can apply to more than one  
language. That is the point. You may need zh-cmn-Latn-pinyin, but the  
final subtag there can be correctly applied to bo-Latn-pinyin and zh- 
Latn-TW-pinyin. This is, as I have said, analogous to the use we make  
of the "fonupa" subtag and as John has said, analogous to the  
"baku1926" subtag we had approved for Jangalif and other related  
orthographies. Pinyin (i.e. with Hanyu Pinyin-like conventions for the  
meaning of "x" and "q") is just the same.

I do not agree to restrict the "pinyin" subtag to Hanyu Pinyin on  
linguistic grounds. The three languages mentioned above use Pinyin  
conventions in certain romanizations (Tibetan for instance also uses  
Wiley).

I am happy to agree to add the "pinyin" subtag so long as it can be  
used for Tibetan and Tongyong (with appropriate prefixes). I don't  
agree to add it as a subtag that is restricted to Hanyu Pinyin alone,  
because I believe that this linguistically incorrect.

I think this solution works, and I would like to move forward with it.  
I do want to figure out the best way to deal with the script subtags  
however, as I have not seen complete consensus on that. I have to go  
out to breakfast now; I will be on a train from London to Penzance  
later this afternoon and will write up something which I will send as  
soon as I get internet again.

Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com

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