Subject: [Ietf-languages] A code for standard Zhuang

From: David Starner <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2018 22:54:08 +0000

There seems to be some interest in Zhuang Wikimedia projects*; looking at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuang_languages and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Zhuang , it seems that Standard
Zhuang has no special tag. Presumably, it shouldn't be tagged za, because
that's for the language group (which is apparently not a linguistically
valid group); should it be tagged zyb, since it's based on the Youngbei
(zyb) dialect/language, or should SIL be petitioned for a new tag for
Standard Zhuang? I admit I'm an outsider here, but it does seem the issue
could be a question for Wikimedia soon.

*
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Language_committee#handling_languages_with_multiple_scripts

---

From: John Cowan <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2018 22:21:39 -0400

On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 6:54 PM, David Starner <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Standard Zhuang?

I added this comment at <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Language_committee#handling_languages_with_multiple_scripts
>:

I agree that 'zyb' is the right tag for Standard/Yongbei Zhuang.  The tag
'zh' is a macrolanguage tag, representing a cover term for all the Zhuang
languages, which are no more closely related than the Sinitic or the
Romance languages.  The Wuming variety of Yongbei was chosen not because it
is historically more prominent (as in the case of the French of Paris
becoming Standard French) but because it makes the most phonemic
distinctions, or was believed to do so at the time of standardization.  As
for the script, there are probably more people literate in Latin script
than in Sawndip (Han) script, so the former should most likely be adopted.

> I admit I'm an outsider here
>

There are truly no outsiders here, only people who have not yet chosen to
become insiders.  Welcome!

-- 
John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        [email-masked]
Pour moi, les villes du Silmarillion ont plus de realite que Babylone.
                --Christopher Tolkien, as interviewed by Le Monde