Request of new variant subtag for kichwa (inside qu)

Phillips, Addison addison at lab126.com
Tue Jun 7 17:53:28 CEST 2011


> 
> A question... Since Unified Kichwa is not just an orthography but represents a
> unified grammar as well, isn't a language code more appropriate than a sub
> tag?
> 
I wouldn't think so: it isn't a separate language but rather a particular variation or flavor of Quechua, although ISO 639 is welcome to make a different conclusion ;-).

I'm not sure that registering a subtag is necessary if the region code 'EC' already covers the particular need. Wikimedia's allergy to region codes could be considered perverse because, if taken to its logical extreme, it would require the registration of many more variant subtags to represent specific regional, official, or standardized forms that would otherwise be well identified by and associated with a given region. Greater diversity of tags that mean the same thing is actually a bad thing because it gives rise to interoperability problems.

However, usually a distinction is maintained between specific language variations (especially when formally defined that thus may need to be separately identified) from general variations within a language. So I don't oppose this registration.

Addison

Addison Phillips
Globalization Architect (Lab126)
Chair (W3C I18N WG)

Internationalization is not a feature.
It is an architecture.




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