Re: British or American spelling in IETF docs

Has this ever been discussed previously?

"We propose that the IETF set up a number of non-working-group mailing
   lists for discussion in different languages.  These can be run as
   talk-[ISO639 language code]@ietf.org, e.g. [email protected] for
   Japanese, [email protected] for Chinese, etc [ISO639]."

    https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-wood-discussion-beyond-english#section-1


I find the proposal quite appealing.


Kind regards,

Ken Kubota

____________________________________________________

Ken Kubota
https://doi.org/10.4444/100



> Am 14.08.2026 um 10:15 schrieb [email protected]:
> 
> Hi Corinne,
> 
> For trying to address that imperialism and extend the IETF beyond the English language,
> there are some thoughts in:
> 
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-wood-discussion-beyond-english
> 
> and the state of use of and reliance on English in RFCs is also discussed in
> 
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-wood-term-modest-proposal
> 
> The IETF requires and uses English for technical discussion in
> meetings, in working groups, in working-group documents, and in
> anything considered for publication. The requirement for consistent
> use of English does simplify immediate communications overhead and
> makes for clear discussion of documents in a single language,
> although that does also clearly discriminate against, disrespect, and
> exclude non-English speakers by being incomprehensible to them.
> Commitment to English also disadvantages and is inimical to those
> from more diverse backgrounds, who lack fluency in or comfort with
> that language, and who must shoulder the long-term burden and
> difficulties of added effort in communications.
> 
> 
> best
> 
> 
> Lloyd Wood
> [email protected]
> 
> 
> On Sunday, 9 August 2026 at 19:04:40 GMT+10, Corinne Cath <[email protected]> wrote: 
> 
> 
> Would or would this not be the right moment to bring up the imperialism of having to do RFCs in English to begin with? — and now back to your regular Sunday programming :p 
> 
> 
> Dr. Corinne Cath 
> Research Affiliate at the University of Cambridge, Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy 
> Bluesky: ccs.bsky.social
> Mastodon: @[email protected] 
> W: www.corinnecath.com / www.pitg.network 
>