Registration request for new variant subtag; Anii, Balanka

[John Cowan]

Richard BUDELBERGER scripsit:

> I don’t understand why there are not 19 subtags for Anii
> language. (And so on : 27 for nahuatl, etc.)

The general answer is that lists of dialects are not very reliable.
They often contain obsolete, incomplete, or incorrect information,
incorrect names, insulting names, etc.  Consider this list of French
"dialects": Standard, Right Bank, Quebec, Louchebeme, Chiac, St. Domingue,
Jerriais, Legal, Vietnamese, Metis.  Obviously it would be useless to
construct a system of subtags based on this list.

Well, that's the sort of thing you find, even in reputable sources, for
little-known languages, not because it is intended but because the people
who have exact knowledge are not yet contributing to the sources.  So we do
not, in general, assign language variety subtags until someone with an
actual need for specific subtags appears with supporting documentation.

-- 
He played King Lear as though           John Cowan <cowan at ccil.org>
someone had played the ace.             http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
        --Eugene Field