Web-LangTag/register-new-subtag.xml
Stephane Bortzmeyer c4589a4d45 Test of all links
2023-06-11 16:17:27 +02:00

197 lines
8.9 KiB
XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<page title="How to register a new subtag">
<p>The <em><a href="registries.html">language subtag registry</a></em>
includes many <a href="whatare.html">subtags</a> identifying countries, languages or variants
such as local dialects. Your favorite language and/or variant is
probably already there. But, if it is not, you can ask for the
registration of a new subtag. This text explains how, but the
complete and authoritative explanation is in <a
href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5646">RFC 5646</a>,
specially its section 3.5, <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5646#section-3.5">Registration Procedure for Subtags</a>". It is
recommended to read at least this section.</p>
<p>Before you start, a warning: the process takes time, documentation
and the ability to defend your proposal and to back it with facts and
references. Just sending an email saying "People in my hometown speaks
<wikipedia name="Alsatian language">Alsatian</wikipedia>, I want 'als' to be registered as a language subtag" is not sufficient.</p>
<p>You have different sorts of subtags and the rules are not the same
for all:</p>
<ul>
<li>Subtags for types "countries" or "scripts" cannot be registered
directly with the <wikipedia>IETF</wikipedia>. You have to go through
the maintenance agencies of <wikipedia name="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</wikipedia>, the language
subtag registry managed by IETF copies the ISO standards here.</li>
<li>Only subtags of types "language" and "variant" are therefore
considered here. In practice, chances that a "language" subtag
registration succeeds seem limited (you will probably be redirected to
the maintenance agencies of <wikipedia>ISO 639</wikipedia>; if you
already ask them and were turned out, prepare a very good proposal if
you want the IETF to make another choice). We then concentrate on
"variant" subtags.</li>
</ul>
<p>The process is the following (it is a simplified version; did I
tell you to read the full story in <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5646#section-3.5">section 3.5</a> of <a
href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5646">RFC 5646</a>?):</p>
<ol>
<li>Collect background information, typically references to published
descriptions of the language or dialect. A Wikipedia page is possible but
may be insufficient, specially since the page may change
easily. Stable references are preferred.</li>
<li>Choose a subtag which must conform to the syntax rules explained
in RFC 5646 (<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5646#section-2.1">section 2.1</a>). A variant subtag must be either a string of
five to eight alphanumeric characters, <em>or</em> a string of four
alphanumeric characters, starting with a digit. So, <code><wikipedia
name="Valencia (province)">valencian</wikipedia></code> is illegal
(too long) while <code>valencia</code> is legal. <code><wikipedia
name="German spelling reform of 1996">1996</wikipedia></code> is legal, too, but
not <code>732</code>.</li>
<li>Fill-in the registration form whose template is:
<pre>
LANGUAGE SUBTAG REGISTRATION FORM
1. Name of requester:
2. E-mail address of requester:
3. Record Requested:
Type:
Subtag:
Description:
Prefix:
Preferred-Value:
Deprecated:
Suppress-Script:
Comments:
4. Intended meaning of the subtag:
5. Reference to published description
of the language (book or article):
6. Any other relevant information:
</pre>
Pay special attention to Prefix (in practice, most variants have a
Prefix, which is the main language of this variant, such as
<code><wikipedia name="Catalan language">ca</wikipedia></code> for
valencian).<br/> Think twice about Description (in general a short
one-line sentence) and Comments (which may be longer), because the
consistency of tagging among different taggers will heavily depend on
the quality of these fields.<br/>Keep
detailed scholar references for the Reference section of the request:
the registry is not a library.<br/> Some
fields are typically not used for a variant such as
Suppress-Script.</li>
<li>Send it to the mailing list <code><a
href="mailto:ietf-languages@iana.org">ietf-languages@iana.org</a></code>
(you may choose to <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-languages">subscribe to the mailing list</a> before, to get an
idea of the people and discussions, and to be sure to have the
complete thread).</li>
<li>Reply to questions, address objections, be prepared to modify your
registration form and keep cool.</li>
</ol>
<p>Let's see a complete example showing many issues (thanks to CE
Whitehead for the nice example). The current registry has three
entries for the <wikipedia>french language</wikipedia>,
<code>fr</code> for today's French, <code>frm</code> for Middle French
(the language spoken during the <wikipedia>Renaissance</wikipedia>)
and <code>fro</code> for Old French (the language spoken during the
<wikipedia name="Middle Ages">Middle Age</wikipedia>). This is not
always sufficiently fine-grained to classify some old texts. So, here
is a possible proposal to register a variant, <code>1606Nict</code>,
for the late Middle French, as described in the famous <wikipedia
name="Jean Nicot">Nicot</wikipedia>'s book:</p>
<pre>
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: 1606Nict
(or alternately 16siecle)
Description: Late Middle French
Prefix: frm
Preferred-Value:
Deprecated:
Suppress-Script:
Comments: French as catalogued in Jean Nicot, "Thresor de la langue francoyse" 1606
4. Intended meaning of the subtag:
5. Reference to published description
of the language (book or article):
* Joachim du Bellay, La deffence et illustration de la langue francoyse,
1549; ed critique by Henri Chamard, Geneve, Slatkine Rpt. 1969
* Jean Nicot, "Thresor de la langue francoyse" 1606; ARTFL Project,
University of Chicago:
http://portail.atilf.fr/dictionnaires/TLF-NICOT/index.htm
6. Any other relevant information:
See second request below
</pre>
<p>Do note the detailed references and the use of Prefix to
clearly state that it is a variant of Middle French.</p>
<p>Let's see a second example from the same author, with the added
difficulty that we use <wikipedia>XML</wikipedia>-like encoding for
the composed characters (see section 3.1 of RFC 5646). This specificies the early modern French, as
described by the <wikipedia name="Académie française">french academy</wikipedia>:</p>
<pre>
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: 1694acad
(alternately 17siecle)
Description: Early modern French
Prefix: fr
Preferred-Value:
Deprecated:
Suppress-Script:
Comments: As catalogued in the "Dictionnaire de
l'acad&amp;#xe9;me fran&amp;#xe7;oise", 4eme ed. 1694; includes
elements of Middle French; also new terms from the Americas
4. Intended meaning of the subtag:
5. Reference to published description
of the language (book or article):
* Dictionnaire de l'acad&#xE9;mie fran&#xE7;oise, 4eme ed. 1694; RTFL Project,
University of Chicago:
http://portail.atilf.fr/dictionnaires/ACADEMIE/index.htm
* F&#xE9;nelon, Fran&#xE7;ois de Salignac de La Mothe (1984), Fenelon's Letter to the
French Academy : with an introduction and commentary.
* Ayres-Bennett, Wendy (2004), Sociolinguistic variation in
seventeenth-century France : methodology and case studies.
also:
* http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/treasures/giants/lasalle/lasalle-cover.html
http://teacherweb.com/FL/Cocoa/CEWhitehead/HTMLPage15.stm
</pre>
<p>It is probably useful to list some mistakes that people seem to
make often. Keep in mind that:</p>
<ul>
<li>Language issues are always extremely passionate, both for
psychological (people feel very strong about their language) and
political reasons (wars have been fought about languages). Please, try
to keep easy and do not forget that it is perfectly normal that an
international audience does not know your language (or the language
you champion) and does not see things they way you do.</li>
<li>Pay attention to syntax issues (you may wish to ask a computer
person, may be with the help of some of the software tools listed <a
href="/">on the home page</a>) and also be sure to fill in the form
properly - or do not be suprised if the first reactions are on the
syntax, not on the proposal itself. If the IETF yells at your form
errors, do not assume it is a refusal of your language: it is simply a
desire to enforce the documented process.</li>
<li>The IETF is not a general appeal mechanism for other standard
bodies decisions. Other standards are imperfect, true, but so is IETF
work, too. Please do not use the IETF language registration mechanism just
because ISO turned you down. Variant registration is typically fine
because no other standard body do it.</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks
for reading and good luck for your future subtag
registrations. Remember: it may seems difficult but it is worth
it.</p>
</page>