SignWriting List September 27, 2004 Dear SW List: Here is a wonderful article on the web by Joe Clark. I do not know Joe. You will notice he mentions the SGN code for sign languages, and says there is no way to specify a sign language at this time, but he just doesn't realize that more has been done...But he mentions the coding of regional dialects below...Or go to his web page: http://www.joeclark.org/book/sashay/serialization/AppendixB.html ---------------------- Trebuchet MSAUTHOR’S NOTE – You’re reading the HTML version of a chapter from the book 0000,3333,9999Building Accessible Websites (ISBN 0-7357-1150-X). 0000,3333,9999Copyright © 0000,3333,9999Joe Clark, 2002 (0000,3333,9999about the author). All rights reserved. ¶ 0000,3333,9999Back to Contents Lucida GrandeUnder the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, you are required to specify changes in the “natural” or human language used in documents. You do this by adding the Andale Monolang="CourierlanguagecodeAndale Mono"Lucida Grande attribute to virtually any tag (like Andale Mono<

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Lucida Grande, Andale Mono<<Lucida Grande, Andale Mono<<Lucida Grande, or Andale Mono<CourierxAndale Mono><CourierxAndale Mono>Lucida Grande. Also, in order to specify a change in language, you must already have declared the default, base, or original language, which you do by adding Andale Monolang="CourierlanguagecodeAndale Mono"Lucida Grande to the Andale Mono<Lucida Grande or (preferably) Andale Mono<Lucida Grande tags, like so: • Andale Monobody lang="en"Lucida Grande • Andale Monohtml lang="fr-ca"Lucida Grande So just what GeorgiaareLucida Grande those language codes? They’re two-letter abbreviations, optionally followed by a hyphen and some other qualifier. In the second example above, French is specified Andale Mono(fr)Lucida Grande, but of the Canadian variety (Andale MonocaLucida Grande). The exact specification is GeorgiaISOLucida Grande 639-1, “Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages,” whose homepage resides at the Library of Congress: lcweb.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/. (Yes, that URL says “iso639-2”; you have to hunt around at the site to find the 639-1 section, which is a bit outdated.) Note that the companion standard, GeorgiaISOLucida Grande 639-2, provides GeorgiathreeLucida Grande-letter codes for languages – and for a vastly wider range of languages, at that. Online, however, we must stick with the two-letter codes. At least, this is my interpretation. A page at the 5555,1A1A,8B8BWorld Wide Web Consortium Internationalization site tells us: VerdanaAccording to RFC 3066, for languages with both a two-letter and a three-letter code, the two-letter code must be used. This also solves the problem of those languages that have two different three-letter codes, because all of them also have a two-letter code. Lucida GrandeSo this “solves the problem,” does it? I don’t see a lot of problems that are actually “solved” here. The RFC (request for comment) mentioned in this citation merely refers back to GeorgiaISOLucida Grande 639-1 and tells us, in effect, that the only three-letter language codes we may use are those that do not have a two-language code. But there are somewhat complex rules in place governing when a three-letter code may be coined without creating a corresponding two-letter code. From an accessibility perspective, this restriction will eventually have to be lifted. Textual media are not the only kind available on the Web, and as more and more video becomes available, more and more sign languages will be available, and all sign-language names exist in the three-character specification (under Andale MonosgnLucida Grande). It is technically impossible to specify a sign language on a Website as the standards currently exist. My recommendation? Damn the torpedoes! If you have to specify a language with a three-letter code because you cannot find a two-letter code, do it. Such a practice appears to be permitted anyway and is the only one that makes sense. Let’s start with the two-letter codes. Now, hundreds of languages have been defined, and I’m not going to list every single one of them here because the super-obscure language codes have no practical value to my audience. (It’s nice to know that Faroese has its own language code, but how many readers of a book on Web accessibility will have cause to design Websites in Faroese? And won’t such designers already know that Faroese’s language code is Andale MonofoLucida Grande?) Besides, the GeorgiaISOLucida Grande 639-1 specs are all online and provide all the codes for you. I have not found a truly reliable source for the Top Ten languages used online (after English – the Top Eleven, really). I have synthesized various lists into the following somewhat longer compilation – not quite Top Forty, but close. Trebuchet MSVery-widely-used languages online Lucida GrandeJapanese Andale MonojaLucida Grande German Andale MonodeLucida Grande Chinese Andale MonozhLucida Grande French Andale MonofrLucida Grande Spanish Andale MonoesLucida Grande Italian Andale MonoitLucida Grande Dutch Andale MononlLucida Grande Portuguese Andale MonoptLucida Grande Finnish Andale MonofiLucida Grande Swedish Andale MonosvLucida Grande Norwegian Andale MononoLucida Grande Danish Andale MonodaLucida Grande Korean Andale MonokoLucida Grande Polish Andale MonoplLucida Grande Russian Andale MonoruLucida Grande Hebrew Andale MonoheLucida Grande Hungarian Andale MonohuLucida Grande Greek Andale MonoelLucida Grande Turkish Andale MonotrLucida Grande Czech Andale MonocsLucida Grande Thai Andale MonothLucida Grande Arabic Andale MonoarLucida Grande Icelandic Andale MonoisLucida Grande Trebuchet MSConfusable codes Lucida GrandeNote that country codes and language codes are often Georgiajust different enoughLucida Grande to get you into trouble if you’re not eagle-eyed. • Japan is Andale MonojpLucida Grande, but Japanese is Andale MonojaLucida Grande. • China is Andale MonocnLucida Grande, but Chinese is Andale MonozhLucida Grande. • The Netherlands is Andale MononlLucida Grande, and so is Dutch. • Sweden is Andale MonoseLucida Grande, but Swedish is Andale MonosvLucida Grande. • Denmark is Andale MonodkLucida Grande, but Danish is Andale MonodaLucida Grande. • Greece is Andale MonogrLucida Grande, but Greek is Andale MonoelLucida Grande. Trebuchet MSDialects Lucida GrandeSome dialect names are standardized under GeorgiaISOLucida Grande 639-1, while others, usually of a more fanciful nature (Cockney, Newfoundland, GeorgiajoualLucida Grande) are not. Both types are permitted; it is up to the browser or device to interpret the codes correctly. It is possible and legal, for example, to specify all these variants of English: • Andale MonoenLucida Grande (English: No specified variant) • Andale Monoen-usLucida Grande (United States English) • Andale Monoen-au-tasLucida Grande (Tasmanian English, Australia) • Andale Monoen-inLucida Grande (Indian English) • Andale Monoen-uk-Cockney-Rhyming-SlangLucida Grande You must not assume, however, that browsers or devices will be able to understand or represent anything beyond the first dash. In rather more important cases, like the two variations of Norwegian, Bokmål and Nynorsk, enough social importance is given to the dialects that they have their own codes. • Andale MononoLucida Grande (Norwegian: No specified variant) • Andale MononbLucida Grande (Norwegian Bokmål) • Andale MononnLucida Grande (Norwegian Nynorsk) Authors writing in Norwegian will likely know which dialect they are using and can cite it appropriately. Authors who merely quote Norwegian text or make some other casual use of it may not know which is which; that’s what the generic Andale MononoLucida Grande tag is for. If you’re wondering about Chinese (no doubt you are), Mandarin and Cantonese are not the only recognized dialects, but all of them are subsumed under Andale MonozhLucida Grande. You must use dialect codes for Mandarin (Andale Monozh-guoyuLucida Grande) and Cantonese (Andale Monozh-yueLucida Grande) if you wish to differentiate them. (The distinction is nearly meaningless on Websites that do not use voice given that the two dialects use the same writing system.) There is no difference in language code between Traditional and Simplified Chinese; arguably there should be. Take my word for this as a linguist and an accessibility GeorgiaobsessifLucida Grande: This stuff is more detailed and pedantic than trainspotting, and almost as addictive to susceptible personalities. Just keep in mind that dinner-party guests are never really as interested in this topic as we are. Trebuchet MS0000,3333,9999PreviousLucida Grande   ¶   Trebuchet MS0000,3333,9999ContentsLucida Grande   ¶   Trebuchet MS0000,3333,9999NextLucida Grande