Re: [Ietf-languages] Proto-languages

[Doug Ewell <[e-mail]>]

Richard Wordingham wrote:

> There are roughly 624 non-compliant Wiktionary language tags, whereas
> there are only about 520 private use language subtags available.

There are only 520 three-letter, ISO 639-based private-use language subtags. However, there is an infinite number of private-use tags beginning with "x-".

While the word “infinite” is often used hyperbolically, the ability to string together private-use subtags of the form (1*8alphanum), like "x-this-that-and-the-other", means the supply of this type of tag is truly limitless.

They are just as compliant to BCP 47 as the ISO 639-based 'q' subtags, and from a human perspective, probably a lot more scrutable. Content in a proto-language could be tagged as "x-proto-whatever" and human readers would likely have an easier time understanding that than, say, 'qhv'.

Any of these is vastly preferable to the truly non-compliant tags that Wiki projects have used. And given that the goal here is probably to provide discrete, well-formed tags, rather than to interchange with other projects and databases also in Proto-Whatever, registration of anything, at any level, seems unnecessary.

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