Re: 2 many language tags for Norwegian

Martin Duerst 2008-05-01 03.36:
> At 01:10 08/05/01, Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
>
> >I got that point now. And the list also got that I think 'de-gsw' should be fine.
>
> No. I wouldn't want to be served Swiss German, see below for details.
>   

In what situation would you not want to be served Swiss German? What 
usecase do you have in mind?
 
Let's say I was a Swiss German Language enthusiast, using Apache, with a 
site in Swiss German and English.  Main target audience: German 
speakers, 99,99% of them without 'gsw' enabled. I would like to track 
positive feedback also from English capable language enthusiasts, so an 
English parallel version for that audience as well.

So what to do? Should I tag my pages as 'gsw' only to be certain that my 
main target audience would get the English page instead of the Swiss 
German page? The fact of the matter is that even today I can tag that 
page as 'de'. And even today I can serve the 'gsw' page as default page, 
so you get the page no matter what.  (If that person was myself, then I 
would have tagged the Swiss German page as both German and as Swiss German.)

You may say I should not tag it as 'de', but can you say positively what 
I should I do then, to reach my audience? Teach the hundred millions of 
Germans how to insert 'gsw' into their browser?

If there is a bigish web site offering both Swiss German and Standard 
German, as long as the standard German is tagged 'de' only, you should 
get that version first. But of course, if Google had dropped standard 
German in favour of Swiss German, then, if the tag for Swiss German was 
'de-gsw', then you *would* get that version, because of the way Apache 
works and as long as your browser prefers 'de'. Is that the "big" 
problem you have in mind?

The problem only comes if you as user demands the right to avoid the 
Swiss German page at all cost. But I don't think such demands should 
lead the developement of the language tags.

> >Allthough, I  - not being German at all -  find it relatively easy to hack myself through an Alemannisch text, only having learned standard German for 4 years in obligatory school.
>
> Your short experience, and you knowledge of another Germanic language, may
> be an advantage.

I might read both languages at the same speed, for instance ;-)

>  People in Germany (and Switzerland!), used to read German
> every day, but rarely if ever seeing or reading Swiss German, have, relatively
> speaking, much more difficulties. I'm Swiss, [...]

I fail to see that this is a real argument against 'de-gsw'.
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Friday, 2 May 2008 00:28:02 UTC