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

[John Cowan <[e-mail]>]

On Mon, Oct 30, 2023 at 2:21 PM Doug Ewell <[e-mail]> wrote:

> John Cowan wrote:
>
> > The following variant subtags should be changed from de- to the
> > following forms:
> > .[...]
> > ripuaria (Ripuarian) = ksh
>
> Was this meant to be "ksh-ripuaria", or did you mean that Ripuarian is
> already covered by 'ksh' (Kölsch), and as such this particular request
> should be withdrawn?
>

I didn't realize that Kolsch is a variety of Ripuarian, so this comment can
be ignored.


> > All "Low German" descriptions should be duplicated as "Low Saxon".
>
> Is this needed for clarity, or only for encyclopedic completeness?
>
> Wikipedia (which I understand is not infallible) describes Low Saxon as “a
> group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands,
> northwestern Germany and southern Denmark”; i.e. Low Saxon is a subset of
> Low German. If accurate, this implies that the equivalence and/or
> redundancy shown in the description “Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low;
> Saxon, Low” which we inherited from ISO 639-2 may not be appropriate for
> dialects and sub-dialects.
>

"Low Saxon" is generally used in the Netherlands, but it's perfectly valid
in Germany too.   I'd say the names are equivalent in denotation.

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