Re: Language Subtag Registration

Michael Everson wrote:

> Obviously Philadelphia English exists, but why does it need a tag?
> Pronunciation is not usually marked by re-spellings. The requester
> rightly notes that it exists, but doesn’t give any reason for needing
> the subtag.

This was my point. There is a common set of use cases for language tags, 
which does not currently extend to reproducing regional accents in 
text-to-speech. (Speech-to-text can generally identify English spoken in 
regional accents without special tagging.)

Without the TTS and STT use cases, this subtag would mostly serve to 
indicate that such a dialect exists, or to call attention to it, neither 
of which is the purpose of IETF language subtags.

> I would think that US-paphilly would be a reasonable subtag format
> though, incorporating a state and subsequent identifier.

I would object to 'paphilly'. Unless one lives in or very near one of 
the minor Philadelphias dredged up by Kent Karlsson, "Philadelphia" 
clearly refers to only one place, and "Philly" even more so.

I live about 18 km from Louisville, Colorado (fun fact: pronounced 
"Lewisville"), and I would not begin to suggest that the existence of 
this suburb of 20,000 should mean that a hypothetical subtag for the 
Louisville, Kentucky dialect, with its distinctive "Loo-vull" 
pronunciation, should have to include 'ken' or 'ky' to avoid ambiguity.

Whatever the merits or demerits of the proposed subtag itself, 'philly' 
would be clear in its meaning and 'paphilly' unnecessarily obscure.

> But Philadelphia English is spoken in New Jersey too.

Just as en-US can be spoken anywhere in the world. Like region subtags, 
variants that refer to a location identify language usage characterized 
by that region. There is never a requirement that the usage actually be 
confined to that region.

--
Doug Ewell | Thornton, CO, US | ewellic.org

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