197 lines
9.0 KiB
XML
197 lines
9.0 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<page title="How to register a new subtag">
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<p>The <em><a href="registries.html">language subtag registry</a></em>
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includes many <a href="whatare.html">subtags</a> identifying countries, languages or variants
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such as local dialects. Your favorite language and/or variant is
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probably already there. But, if it is not, you can ask for the
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registration of a new subtag. This text explains how, but the
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complete and authoritative explanation is in <a
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href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5646">RFC 5646</a>,
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specially its section 3.5, <a href="https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5646#section-3.5">Registration Procedure for Subtags</a>". It is
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recommended to read at least this section.</p>
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<p>Before you start, a warning: the process takes time, documentation
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and the ability to defend your proposal and to back it with facts and
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references. Just sending an email saying "People in my hometown speaks
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<wikipedia name="Alsatian language">Alsatian</wikipedia>, I want 'als' to be registered as a language subtag" is not sufficient.</p>
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<p>You have different sorts of subtags and the rules are not the same
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for all:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Subtags for types "countries" or "scripts" cannot be registered
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directly with the <wikipedia>IETF</wikipedia>. You have to go through
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the maintenance agencies of <wikipedia name="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</wikipedia>, the language
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subtag registry managed by IETF copies the ISO standards here.</li>
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<li>Only subtags of types "language" and "variant" are therefore
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considered here. In practice, chances that a "language" subtag
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registration succeeds seem limited (you will probably be redirected to
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the maintenance agencies of <wikipedia>ISO 639</wikipedia>; if you
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already ask them and were turned out, prepare a very good proposal if
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you want the IETF to make another choice). We then concentrate on
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"variant" subtags.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>The process is the following (it is a simplified version; did I
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tell you to read the full story in <a href="https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5646#section-3.5">section 3.5</a> of <a
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href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5646">RFC 5646</a>?):</p>
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<ol>
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<li>Collect background information, typically references to published
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descriptions of the language or dialect. A Wikipedia page is possible but
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may be insufficient, specially since the page may change
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easily. Stable references are preferred.</li>
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<li>Choose a subtag which must conform to the syntax rules explained
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in RFC 5646 (<a href="https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5646#section-2.1">section 2.1</a>). A variant subtag must be either a string of
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five to eight alphanumeric characters, <em>or</em> a string of four
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alphanumeric characters, starting with a digit. So, <code><wikipedia
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name="Valencia (province)">valencian</wikipedia></code> is illegal
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(too long) while <code>valencia</code> is legal. <code><wikipedia
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name="German spelling reform of 1996">1996</wikipedia></code> is legal, too, but
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not <code>732</code>.</li>
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<li>Fill-in the registration form whose template is:
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<pre>
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LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM
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1. Name of requester:
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2. E-mail address of requester:
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3. Record Requested:
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Type:
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Subtag:
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Description:
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Prefix:
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Preferred-Value:
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Deprecated:
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Suppress-Script:
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Comments:
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4. Intended meaning of the subtag:
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5. Reference to published description
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of the language (book or article):
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6. Any other relevant information:
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</pre>
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Pay special attention to Prefix (in practice, most variants have a
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Prefix, which is the main language of this variant, such as
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<code><wikipedia name="Catalan language">ca</wikipedia></code> for
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valencian).<br/> Think twice about Description (in general a short
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one-line sentence) and Comments (which may be longer), because the
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consistency of tagging among different taggers will heavily depend on
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the quality of these fields.<br/>Keep
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detailed scholar references for the Reference section of the request:
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the registry is not a library.<br/> Some
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fields are typically not used for a variant such as
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Suppress-Script.</li>
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<li>Send it to the mailing list <code><a
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href="mailto:ietf-languages@iana.org">ietf-languages@iana.org</a></code>
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(you may choose to <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-languages">subscribe to the mailing list</a> before, to get an
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idea of the people and discussions, and to be sure to have the
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complete thread).</li>
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<li>Reply to questions, address objections, be prepared to modify your
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registration form and keep cool.</li>
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</ol>
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<p>Let's see a complete example showing many issues (thanks to CE
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Whitehead for the nice example). The current registry has three
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entries for the <wikipedia>french language</wikipedia>,
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<code>fr</code> for today's French, <code>frm</code> for Middle French
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(the language spoken during the <wikipedia>Renaissance</wikipedia>)
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and <code>fro</code> for Old French (the language spoken during the
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<wikipedia name="Middle Ages">Middle Age</wikipedia>). This is not
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always sufficiently fine-grained to classify some old texts. So, here
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is a possible proposal to register a variant, <code>1606Nict</code>,
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for the late Middle French, as described in the famous <wikipedia
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name="Jean Nicot">Nicot</wikipedia>'s book:</p>
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<pre>
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LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM
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1. Name of requester: C. E. Whitehead
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2. E-mail address of requester: cewcathar@hotmail.com
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3. Record Requested:
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Type: Variant
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Subtag: 1606Nict
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(or alternately 16siecle)
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Description: Late Middle French
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Prefix: frm
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Preferred-Value:
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Deprecated:
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Suppress-Script:
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Comments: French as catalogued in Jean Nicot, "Thresor de la langue francoyse" 1606
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4. Intended meaning of the subtag:
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5. Reference to published description
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of the language (book or article):
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* Joachim du Bellay, La deffence et illustration de la langue francoyse,
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1549; ed critique by Henri Chamard, Geneve, Slatkine Rpt. 1969
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* Jean Nicot, "Thresor de la langue francoyse" 1606; ARTFL Project,
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University of Chicago:
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http://portail.atilf.fr/dictionnaires/TLF-NICOT/index.htm
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6. Any other relevant information:
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See second request below
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</pre>
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<p>Do note the detailed references and the use of Prefix to
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clearly state that it is a variant of Middle French.</p>
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<p>Let's see a second example from the same author, with the added
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difficulty that we use <wikipedia>XML</wikipedia>-like encoding for
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the composed characters (see section 3.1 of RFC 5646). This specificies the early modern French, as
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described by the <wikipedia name="Académie française">french academy</wikipedia>:</p>
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<pre>
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LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM
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1. Name of requester: C. E. Whitehead
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2. E-mail address of requester: cewcathar@hotmail.com
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3. Record Requested:
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Type: Variant
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Subtag: 1694acad
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(alternately 17siecle)
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Description: Early modern French
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Prefix: fr
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Preferred-Value:
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Deprecated:
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Suppress-Script:
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Comments: As catalogued in the "Dictionnaire de
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l'acad&#xe9;me fran&#xe7;oise", 4eme ed. 1694; includes
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elements of Middle French; also new terms from the Americas
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4. Intended meaning of the subtag:
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5. Reference to published description
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of the language (book or article):
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* Dictionnaire de l'académie françoise, 4eme ed. 1694; RTFL Project,
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University of Chicago:
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http://portail.atilf.fr/dictionnaires/ACADEMIE/index.htm
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* Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe (1984), Fenelon's Letter to the
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French Academy : with an introduction and commentary.
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* Ayres-Bennett, Wendy (2004), Sociolinguistic variation in
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seventeenth-century France : methodology and case studies.
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also:
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* http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/treasures/giants/lasalle/lasalle-cover.html
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http://teacherweb.com/FL/Cocoa/CEWhitehead/HTMLPage15.stm
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</pre>
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<p>It is probably useful to list some mistakes that people seem to
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make often. Keep in mind that:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Language issues are always extremely passionate, both for
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psychological (people feel very strong about their language) and
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political reasons (wars have been fought about languages). Please, try
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to keep easy and do not forget that it is perfectly normal that an
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international audience does not know your language (or the language
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you champion) and does not see things they way you do.</li>
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<li>Pay attention to syntax issues (you may wish to ask a computer
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person, may be with the help of some of the software tools listed <a
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href="/">on the home page</a>) and also be sure to fill in the form
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properly - or do not be suprised if the first reactions are on the
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syntax, not on the proposal itself. If the IETF yells at your form
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errors, do not assume it is a refusal of your language: it is simply a
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desire to enforce the documented process.</li>
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<li>The IETF is not a general appeal mechanism for other standard
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bodies decisions. Other standards are imperfect, true, but so is IETF
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work, too. Please do not use the IETF language registration mechanism just
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because ISO turned you down. Variant registration is typically fine
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because no other standard body do it.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Thanks
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for reading and good luck for your future subtag
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registrations. Remember: it may seems difficult but it is worth
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it.</p>
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</page>
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