Re: [Ietf-languages] Fwd: Proposal for variant language subtags for German dialects

[Doug Ewell <[e-mail]>]

Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:

>> However as an Information Professional working in language archives,
>> I am concerned with the assumed proposition that dialect regions are
>> "areas" in a geographical sense. Dialects are mapped to language
>> entities not geographical spaces. People live in geographical spaces
>> – and people move.
>
> RFC 5646 does not seem to discuss this point but it is very common.
> When a belgian person writes in fr-BE and then moves to Canada, but
> keeps writing the same, the language is still fr-BE even if the person
> is not physically in Belgium. True, this point is not explicit in the
> RFC but it seems well-known.

I remember discussions during the development of RFC 4646 that led to this carefully worded description of region subtags (2.2.4):

“Region subtags are used to indicate linguistic variations associated with or appropriate to a specific country, territory, or region. Typically, a region subtag is used to indicate regional dialects or usage, or region-specific spelling conventions.  A region subtag can also be used to indicate that content is expressed in a way that is appropriate for use throughout a region, for instance, Spanish content tailored to be useful throughout Latin America.”

This wording avoids the commonly used template “X as spoken in Y,” thereby implicitly, if not explicitly, addressing the situation that Stéphane describes.

This description was slightly updated in RFC 5646 to refer instead to “variations such as regional dialects or usage,” further insulating it from the definitional debate over a “dialect” versus a mere “language variation.”

Variant tagging of a language variety that is “associated with or appropriate to” a particular region, even if some users of that variety live outside that region, is fully consistent with both the letter and the spirit of BCP 47. However, care must be taken to avoid defining such tags too coarsely (“Eastern United States”) or too finely (“Flatbush”) for practical use. Often there is more to the story than “east” and ”west.”

--
Doug Ewell, CC, ALB | Lakewood, CO, US | ewellic.org