Re: Article for wide review: Choosing a language tag

> http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-choosing-language-tags
> 
> Comments are being sought on this article prior to final release. Please
> send any comments to www-international@w3.org (subscribe). We expect
> to publish a final version in one to two weeks.

In Decision 1, the section on macrolanguages should explain that
macrolanguage subtags may be used in the same way, and with the same
considerations, as collection subtags.  This is quite apart from their
use with extlang subtags.

In Decision 2:

a) It's a mistake to conflate "[p]rimary language subtags that can be
used with extended language subtags" with macrolanguages.  Only six
('ar', 'kok', 'ms', 'sw', 'uz', 'zh') of the 58 current macrolanguages,
plus 'sgn', fall into this category.  Find or invent another term to
avoid confusion.

b) Explain clearly that the extlang tags are always identical to their
primary language subtags, so "kok-gom" can be replaced by "gom" even if
you don't know what 'kok' or 'gom' mean.

In Decision 4, for "regional areas", which is vague, read "regions
containing more than one country" or "multinational regions".

-- 
And it was said that ever after, if any                 John Cowan
man looked in that Stone, unless he had a               cowan@ccil.org
great strength of will to turn it to other              http://ccil.org/~cowan
purpose, he saw only two aged hands withering
in flame.   --"The Pyre of Denethor"

Received on Saturday, 10 October 2009 00:18:20 UTC