Last call: Latvian (and Bontok) extlang subtags

[Doug Ewell]

Michael Everson <everson at evertype dot com> wrote:

> Assuming that I am to approve "frequently used" extlang subtags, I 
> must have some means for making a quantitative assessment. I've no way 
> of doing this. But you've tied my hands (you don't want me to reject 
> both proposals and you don't want me to accept both proposals) and 
> I've asked for criteria that I might use and you haven't given any.

I have given you criteria.  I concede that they require you to estimate 
how frequently 'lv' has been used to tag Standard Latvian content and 
Latgalian content, and that concrete numbers aren't available to you.

> So in the absence of any meaningful help for the Reviewer here, fine, 
> I'll just believe the quantitative assessment given by you and John. 
> There's nothing else I can do about it.

Clearly we need a better model for the future.  ISO 639-3/RA was also 
asked (2009-039) to make Low Saxon into a macrolanguage, encompassing 10 
existing individual languages and one newly created one.  The RA 
rejected that proposal, but what if they had accepted it, or choose to 
accept it if repackaged in the future?  We would have to make the same 
decision, and I predict the question of whether 'nds' has been widely 
used to refer to these 11 languages would be even more controversial.

--
Doug Ewell  |  Thornton, Colorado, USA  |  http://www.ewellic.org
RFC 5645, 4645, UTN #14  |  ietf-languages @ http://is.gd/2kf0s ­