Question about new locale language tags

From: Arne Götje (高盛華) (arne@linux.org.tw)
Date: Tue Dec 19 2006 - 20:03:49 CST

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    Hi list,

    in Taiwan, we have many different local languages, but currently only
    one Locale (zh_TW). According to the ISO639 information, the 'zh'
    language tag refers to all "Chinese" languages together, including
    Minnan and Hakka.
    However, in the real world, it is used for Mandarin only. (And Minnan
    and Hakka are quite different from Mandarin, both in terms of
    pronunciation and vocabulary. And the indigenous languages are not even
    included.)

    Now, we want to create new locales to provide a 'native language'
    environment to the different peoples in Taiwan, because currently
    everyone is forced to use Mandarin.

    According to http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Taiwan each
    of the 26 languages (22 of them living, 15 of them important) have all 3
    character language codes, for example 'nan' for Minnan, 'hak' for Hakka,
    'ami' for Amis, ...

    Can we use these language codes to form new locales, like 'nan_TW',
    'hak_TW', 'ami_TW', etc.? Or does anything speak against this practice?

    Cheers
    Arne
    - --
    Arne Götje (高盛華) <arne@linux.org.tw>
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