IPA vs HTML/DHTML

[Mike Cleven]

from Dave Robertson's reposting of several professional linguists' comments
concerning IPA rendering in HTML:


>Unfortunately IPA is not one of the encodings supported by HTML, so I
>really don't think you can incorporate IPA characters as such in your HTML
>code.

Is HTML _really_ written by W3squared people in Geneva, or is it ENTIRELY
American-dominated???  What's with this?  OK, I'm half-corked on uncorked
Greek cask-wine, but it seems UTTERLY ridiculous that an
internationally-dominant standard such as HTML/DHTML would not seek to
address the very practical linguistic realities of IPA.  In fact DHTML and
Unicode (to me) would seem best structured _AROUND_ the well-laid ground of
IPA, rather than ignorant of it!  Wake nah, ikke sant, n'est-ce pas, etc.?
("Ain't it so" in various languages; an interesting exercise in and of
itself, perhaps)

Of course HTML/DHTML is a Netscape-Sun/Microsoft double hybrid, not
concocted in the villas of Lac Leman or the Japanese or Brazilian Rivieras;
Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley calling the order of the New Civilization
(god help us all!), but this is an instance where the linguistic community
should put its academic foot down - shouldn't it?  If there's a DHTML 5.x
(6.x?) on the way, maybe it's time this IPA situation was finally and
ultimately resolved.  Does anyone really care?  I mean, really, if the Web
is supposed to be a truly international/multicultural environment (as it's
supposed to be) then the utility of the core script interface should be
compatible with _ALL_ languages, not just those the software community finds
most convenient.  Actually not even _convenient_; just what they're aware
of.  If the futureweb is to be open to all surviving languages (however many
that is by whenever) it should be equally renderable in all tongues,
shouldn't it?  Ainu, Tuvan, Xhosa, Quechua, Berber, whatever.  Or _NOT_?

BTW I have a vested interest in this discussion, somewhat, if only vaguely.
The software I act as a marketing representative for has been up against
localization issues for some time now; the creation of standard code-page
environments is intrinsic to multi-language software creation; now rendered
by fairly expensive software or translation service packages, but perhaps
addressable by other means; this doesn't _quite_ have to do with IPA related
issues, but it's connected to a certain degree.....

This whole thing also brings to mind the infamous Microsoft dispute with
Iceland over the availability (or not) of Windows in the historically and
ultimately-literate Icelandic language; NIX!; which is why Iceland remains
Apple-dominant.....and lately Unix/Linux, presumably....

So anyway, all you linguistic academics out there; am I missing the point in
my Dionysian haze, or is there a fault of priorities going on in the
software-generating ecologies of Palo Alto, Redmond, and lower Manhattan.
Given the high-and-holy ground that HTML/DHTML is now being addressed upon,
one would think that the academic linguistic community should be able to
have these concerns addressed, without second-hand and after-the-fact
remedies being applied.  Why not use IPA for the basis of next-gen DHTML,
i.e. 7.x?

OK, OK; I'm good with the diatribes; but I hope this was good food for
thought; forward as appropriate, edited if necessary.... ;-)

MC





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