Subject: [Ltru] Populating the initial registry: Languages

From: "Doug Ewell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 14:02:39 -0800

Here is my first attempt to describe the process for populating the
draft registry with initial records.  This first installment deals only
with the language records.  Subsequent parts will deal with records for
other types of subtags.

When commenting on this description, please make it clear whether you
are commenting on (a) the accuracy and completeness of the description
itself or (b) whether you think the end results should be different.
These are both good topics for discussion, but they should not be
confused for one another.

All records are assumed to follow the format described in Section 3.1.
Date fields should be set to the date of creation of the record unless
otherwise noted (there are no exceptions in this installment).  The date
record itself is trivial and is not discussed here.  All descriptions
are taken from the English name in the relevant standard, and are
converted to ASCII by removing diacritical marks.

Step 1:  Current ISO 639 codes

* Source:
http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/ISO-639-2_values_8bits.txt
* Format is vertical-bar-delimited text.
* Fields are (1) alpha-3 bibliographic code, (2) alpha-3 terminologic
code (if different from bibliographic), (3) alpha-2 code (if any), (4)
English name, (5) French name.
* For each entry, create a new language subtag, except for the entry
with English name "Reserved for local use" which is handled specially as
described in Step 3.
* If the entry has an alpha-2 code (field 3), use it for the subtag;
else use the alpha-3 terminologic code (field 2).

Step 2:  Deprecated ISO 639 codes

* Source: http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/codechanges.html
* Format is HTML table.
* Fields are (1) alpha-2 code (if any), (2) unified alpha-3 code, (3)
English name, (4) French name, (5) date of change, (6) type of change,
(7) notes.  Asterisks, hyphens, and other detritus in fields are
ignored.
* Read list from bottom to top.
* For each entry of type "Add", confirm that a corresponding registry
entry exists.  (I think there is one language missing from the text file
that is present on the change page; confirmation would be welcome.)
* For each entry of type "CC" followed (or preceded) by a corresponding
entry of type "Dep" (deprecated), confirm that a registry entry already
exists for the "CC" entry.  Create a new registry entry corresponding to
the "Dep" entry, and assign a canonical value equivalent to the code in
the "CC" entry.
* For each entry of type "Dep" that does not have a corresponding "CC"
entry, create a new registry entry, and assign a canonical value of "--"
(two dashes).
* For each entry of type "NC" (name change) or "NA" (variant name(s)
added), confirm that the description of the subtag matches the "new"
English name (converted to ASCII).

Step 3:  Private-use codes

* ISO 639 codes in the range "qaa" through "qtz" are for private use.
Create a single language subtag entry with value "qaa..qtz" and
description "PRIVATE USE" (all caps).

Step 4:  Sorting (optional)

* Separate the records with 2-letter subtags from those with 3-letter
subtags.  Include "qaa..qtz" with the 3-letter records.
* Sort each group in ascending order by subtag.

-Doug Ewell
 Fullerton, California
 http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/

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