Re: 2 many language tags for Norwegian

Martin Duerst 2008-05-05 04.19:
> At 09:57 08/05/05, Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
> >
> >John Cowan 2008-05-05 02.16:
> >> Leif Halvard Silli scripsit:
> >>
> >> > 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. 
> >> If you want to target German-speakers, write in Standard German.
> >> Otherwise you are in the position of someone writing in Icelandic and
> >> targeting Nynorsk users.  They won't have a clue.
> >>   
> >
> >That comparsion does't hold water for a second.
>
> How so?
>   

You mentioned you understood most Swiss German dialects. I have heardly 
been exposed to any Icelandic at all.

> >> > > 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'.
> >>
> >> He really really doesn't want to see gsw even if it's available,
> >> *even though* he speaks gsw natively.  The fallback is worse than useless.
> >>   
> >
> >I assume that he is interested if he visits my web site.
>
> I might be interested in a site about Swiss German containing
> some comparisons between dialects or temporal comparisons, some
>   

I don't know what icelandic dialects to compare.

> literary work in Swiss German, or some audio content. But as
> for myself, I'd want the descriptive text on this Web site to
> be written in standard German, so that I can actually read
> it without guessing and spending lots more time than necessary.
>   

Wheras I have learned to be curious about  Icelandic and its 
relationship to Norwegian. Can I understand it or not? I don't really 
know. Testing real icelandic, small piecs of text, is therefore 
intereseting. On paper. I would probably have problems with audio.

> I'd assume that at least 99% of the Swiss German speaking
> population, even real hard-core Swiss German enthusiasts,
> would prefer that.
>   

Ok.

> The argument that I would want to read everything in Swiss
> German if I visit a Web site that is completely in Swiss
> German doesn't really work, because it's circular.
>   

By assume, I meant that I would not help you avoid experiencing the 
point of my web site. The Swiss German Wikipedia is a good example.
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Monday, 5 May 2008 11:21:36 UTC