suppress-script values for macrolanguage-encompassed languages

CE Whitehead cewcathar at hotmail.com
Thu Dec 23 03:36:43 CET 2010



Hi.  Here are my remaining votes on Peter's suppress script request:  for the languages subsumed under [ar], I would be wary of a blanket suppress-script for non-written languages -- but feel it is fine at least for Egyptian and Moroccan Arabic as well as perhaps for Chadian Arabic and definitely of course for standard Arabic ([arb]).  However it may not be o.k. for Cypriot Arabic.  For the remainder I feel it would be best to hold off on suppress-script till we can get feedback from native bloggers and such . . . mainly because the dialects differ most not in writing but in the vowels used and the endings -- which aren't so readily shown using Arabic script; I don't recollect what I said about Mozarabic and it's not Arabic but somehow I got the idea that ietf had classified it as such; sorry).
 
For Yiddish as I said suppress-script of Hebrew is fine.
 
For the cases where Peter has indicated a script is unstable, he is right; these seem to be unstable; so again a blanket suppress-script may not be the best idea in these cases, nor perhaps in the case of konkani since I got conflicting info for it online.

Here are my preferences item-by-item:
 
A suppress-script of Arab should be fine for pes (Iranian Persian) and prs (Dari or Afghan Persian).


* * *
For ps (pushto) -- suppress-script of Arab should be fine for pbt (Southern Pashto), pbu (Northern Pashto), and pbs (Central Pashto). 

* * *
For lv (Latvian) suppress-script of Latin should be fine for lvs (standard) and ltg (Latgalian); likewise for et (Estonian) suppress-script of Latin should be fine for ekk (Standard Estonian) and vro (Võro); and of course for no (Norwegian) suppress-script of Latin should be fine for nn (Norwegian and nb (Norwegian Bokmal).

Likewise I would guess Latin would be o.k. for the Quechua varieties.

* * *
for sw (Swahili) Latin script is fine.
 
 
As for the rest, I know nothing about the writing of these; so everything is based only on what I found online:

* * *
For ay -- Aymara -- again Latin script is shown online -- and this seems right to me.
* * *
For gn --Guarani -- those subtags that are encompassed indicate Latn script at ethnologue.

* * *
For kok (Konkani) I am not sure about suppress-script -- this is not my area of expertise; I can direct you to ethnologue's pages on this:
for konkani, goan
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=gom
gives "Kannada script. Latin script"

whereas for konkani,
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=knn
gives Devanagari as the official script
And here is the Wikipedia info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konkani_language#Scripts
* * *

For mg (Malagasy) again Latin script is shown online.
* * *


For om (Oromo) which Peter listed as unstable, ethnologue shows Latin as primary:

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=gaz
Ethnologue says this is now Latin script although the script was Ethiopic
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=orc
Ethnologue says the script is Latin
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=hae
Ethnologue says the script is Latin
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=gax
Ethnologue says the script is Latin

* * *
For sq (Albanian)

Ethnologue 
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=aat 
says Greek script is used for this variety; however Omniglot suggests that when we are not concerned with historical variants, Latin script may be sufficient: 
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/albanian.htm 

For the other variety, ethnologue
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=als

says this used Greek script but now uses Latin.

* * *
 
For tmh (Tamashek), again Peter said this was unstable, and Latin and Tifnagh are both listed for all varieties at ethnologue;
Wikipedia suggests the preferred script depends on the country and in addition that Arabic script may be occasionally used
* * *
For Malay varieties, which again Peter indicated as not having a stable script, Latin script seems dominant.  There are three religious groups -- Muslim, Christian, traditional -- and thus non-Latin scripts such as Thai or Arabic may be at least occasionally used; see:
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=486-16 

Ethnologue shows Arabic and Latin scripts for Indonesian (the primary language in this group):
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ind
but Latin must be dominant as this already gets Latin suppress-script.
 
However in some cases ethnologue does list only a non-Latin script . . . (I'll have the whole list tomorrow).
 
Best,
 
--C. E. Whitehead
cewcathar at hotmail.com  		 	   		  
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