Re: [Ietf-languages] Suggestion to update Urdu Script Designation in the subtag registry

[Doug Ewell <[e-mail]>]

Hugh Paterson III wrote:

> In Nigeria Hausa can also be written with the Latin script. Where can
> I go to find what the basic default assumptions are for a language
> tag? Is the default always Latin?

I realize you know most of what follows, because SIL. Much of this explanation is for others.

When I want to find out details like this about a language, I first go to the ISO 639-3/RA site:
https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/hau

That points me to four sites for more information:
Ethnologue:	https://www.ethnologue.com/language/hau
Glottolog:	https://glottolog.org/glottolog?iso=hau#12/11.1513/8.7804
Multitree:	http://www.multitree.org/codes/hau.html
Wikipedia:	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hausa_language

Unfortunately I can no longer recommend Ethnologue to anyone except professionals in the field, because it now requires a minimal subscription at USD 480 per year (more capable subscriptions cost much, much more) to see basic information like speaker population, location, and writing system.

Glottolog is focused on language family assignments, on which experts often disagree, but it does include location and alternate names, as well as a ton of references.

Multitree appears to be down at present, so I can't say anything about it except that. My understanding is that it is also focused on relationships between languages.

Wikipedia is what it always is: There's a ton of information; the question is whether you feel you can trust the expertise and accuracy of the contributors.

The IANA Language Subtag Registry was never intended to be an encyclopedic reference to languages, their names, or their usage. It lists the subtags corresponding to languages, scripts, regions, and language varieties that are necessary to construct good and meaningful tags for identifying and locating content.

There is no "default" writing system expressed or implied in either the Registry or BCP 47. Suppress-Script, as stated earlier, is a mechanism to help people avoid using script subtags that are unlikely to add useful information. But to find out what script is most common for any given language, or other important information about the language, encyclopedic references are often needed. And the absence of a Suppress-Script field for a language subtag is no indication of anything.

Richard Wordingham replied:

> Unless there is a suppress-script tag for the language, the default is
> not normatively defined.

There is nothing normative about Suppress-Script.

--
Doug Ewell | Thornton, CO, US | ewellic.org