Re: What to do with Gaulish ? What to do with American Renaissance French

CE Whitehead scripsit:

> I've been using fr-x-rn to identify Renaissance and 17th C French
> (x-rn is experimental since there is not a tag though there is clearly a 
> Renaissance vocabulary that is in some ways reminiscent of Old 
> French--medieval French--but is quite distinct from it).

I'd urge you to go ahead and get a variant registered.  Fill out the
following form and send it to ietf-languages@iana.org (register
by sending a request to ietf-languages-request@iana.org first):

   LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM
   1. Name of requester: C. E. Whitehead
   2. E-mail address of requester: cewcathar@hotmail.com
   3. Record Requested:

      Type: variant
      Subtag:
      Description: 17th-century French
      Prefix: fr
      Comments:

   4. Intended meaning of the subtag:
   5. Reference to published description
      of the language (book or article):
   6. Any other relevant information:

I've filled it out in part already.  Subtags are 5-8 letters or digits
long, and should be specific to the language in question ("Renaissance"
means different time periods in different cultures, not to mention that
there are other renaissances such as the Carolingian one).

If your arguments are convincing, you could have a registered
subtag within a few weeks.

> But I note that that the French from the New World at the time of the 
> Renaissance & 17th C has some particularities of its own:
> 

[snip]

> Is a tag like:
>               fr-US-X-rn
> excessive?

Not at all; it is very reasonable.  It says "Modern French as spoken
in the U.S. with a private subtag 'rn'."  If you register a standard
subtag per above, you will be able to use such combinations freely.

> Or would such a tag be helpful; there is clearly a U.S. variety of 
> French today, in Louisiana, but it's "Accadian;" there's also "Cajun" 
> which combines English and French I guess.

The next version of RFC 4646, which will incorporate ISO 639-3 (a
comprehensive list of languages based on the SIL Ethnologue) will
have codes for "Cajun French" (frc) and "Louisiana Creole French" (lou),
as well as lots of other French creoles from outside the U.S.
It's not currently licit to use those codes, but it's not like
anyone could stop you.

-- 
But the next day there came no dawn,            John Cowan
and the Grey Company passed on into the         cowan@ccil.org
darkness of the Storm of Mordor and were        http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
lost to mortal sight; but the Dead
followed them.          --"The Passing of the Grey Company"

Received on Thursday, 9 November 2006 16:30:02 UTC