[Spellyans] Off Topic: Orthography tags for Cornish

[Michael Everson]

I tried getting some useful comment from people on C24. I ought to  
have known better.

A proposal has been made to add some subtags to an internet standard  
in order to be able to differentiate different kinds of Cornish. This  
could have some utility also in automatic text conversion from one  
orthography to another.

The prefix for this tagging is the ISO 639-1 two-letter code "kw".  
Please note that I was one of the people who registered a two-letter  
code for Cornish some years ago. Thitherto there had only been the ISO  
639-2 three-letter code "cor". (You're welcome!)

Currently, any form of Cornish can be tagged with "kw".  
<lang="kw">Kernow</lang>.

There is a need to be able to tag some text as belonging to one  
orthography or another. To do this we use subtags. For example to  
describe American English one might use "en-US", and to describe  
British English one might use "en-GB". And to be precise about a  
particular orthography, one may tag for instance Oxford English  
Dictionary spelling as "en-GB-oed".

A proposal has been made to register subtags for UC, UCR, and KK (KS  
will be made later pending the publication of a formal specification).  
It was made on 29 September. It is certain that the proposal will be  
accepted on 13 October. That's the way the process works. Once  
registered, the subtags cannot be changed.

A technical limitation is that the subtags must be between five and  
eight characters in length.

The subtags which were proposed are coruc, corur, and corkk. I have  
asked here and elsewhere for discussion as to the suitability of these  
tags. To date the only person who has actually offered possible  
substitutes is me; I suggested uccor, ucrcor, and kkcor. Thus for 'a  
big watch':

<lang="kw-uccor">üryor bras</lang>.

<lang="kw-ucrcor">ueryor bras</lang>.

<lang="kw-kkcor">euryor vras</lang>. (Yes, KK treats the word as  
feminine.)

<lang="kw-kscor">euryor brâs</lang>.

Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com