RE: [mpeg-OTspec] RE: Updates to script and language tags

[Simon Daniels MSFT]

Forwarding some answers to Bob’s questions from Andrew Glass...



Ok, so what is the purpose of the N'Ko -> N’ko change -- just to lowercase the 'k'?  But the ISO name for this language is N'Ko (uppercase K).

[Andrew Glass] My understanding is that N’Ko with upper case is the script name, and N’ko with lowercase is the language name. However, this may not be a consistent distinction. I’m following up with an N’Ko expert to clarify.


Also, I was curious about the proposed Swahili -> Kiswahili change -- do most people look under "K" to find the name of this language? 

[Andrew Glass] Kiswahili is the form of the name we [Microsoft] have been asked to use. While English speakers may be more familiar with the name Swahili, the expectation here is that people who are providing functionality that targets this language will not be surprised to find it under Kiswahili.


Fundamentally: the proposal claims that the changes are to "more universally accepted" -- what authority is being used to identify such? 

Lacking any information on the authority in use, I turned to iso639 and with just a cursory glance found some of the proposed names are not there -- so presumably some other authority is being referenced?

[Andrew Glass]  ISO 639 names are intended to be descriptive, so that consumers of the standard know which language a code refers to. The names themselves are not normative. The recommendations we have for changing the names for languages is based on experience of shipping software that is used by members of these language communities. Community members sometimes have a different opinion of the name for their language than linguists who enumerated languages and reported them to the standards body. This is an attempt to bring this list of language names into alignment with our data.





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