IETF - Working Group Charters

Language Tag Registry Update (ltru)

Last Modified: 2009-02-11

Additional information is available at tools.ietf.org/wg/ltru

Chair(s):

Applications Area Director(s):

Applications Area Advisor:

Chris Newman <chris.newman@sun.com>

Mailing Lists:

General Discussion: ltru@ietf.org
To Subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ltru
Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ltru/current/maillist.html

Description of Working Group:

The primary language subtags allowed by the current IANA Language
Subtag Registry are limited to ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2 in the same
way as they were limited by RFC 3066. This covers approximately 500
possible language subtags. ISO 639-3, scheduled for approval towards
the end of 2006, will make available around 7000 more code elements
for identifying languages.

The working group will prepare an update to the Language Subtag
Registry procedures to allow the use of 3-letter code elements
from ISO 639-3 as primary language subtags or extended language
subtags as appropriate. The working group will also deliver means
to update the current IANA Language Subtag Registry with the newly
available subtags.

The working group will examine, and if necessary clarify or adjust,
procedures and guidelines with respect to extended language subtags
and variant subtags. Use cases include the identification of
signed languages, transliterations, and transcriptions.
The working group will also consider how the draft work on
ISO 639-6 may relate to the future development of language tags.

The working group will clarify text where necessary. It may also
make adjustments to the registration process and the form of the
registry if this is deemed appropriate based on ongoing registration
and operational experience. These adjustments and clarifications
are not expected to delay the progress of the work.

Work on the drafts is planned to start before ISO 639-3 is fully
approved and published. However, the WG will not finalize the
drafts before ISO 639-3 is fully approved.

Goals and Milestones:

Done		Submit first working group draft of registry-structure draft
Done		Submit first draft of matching algorithms draft
Done		Submit registry structure draft for IETF Last Call
Done		Submit matching algorithms draft for IETF Last Call
Done		Submit first WG draft of registry procedure update
Done		Submit first WG draft of registry data update
Mar 2008		Submit registry procedure update draft for IETF Last Call
Mar 2008		Submit registry data update draft for IETF Last Call

Internet-Drafts:

Tags for Identifying Languages (0 bytes)
Update to the Language Subtag Registry (0 bytes)

Request For Comments:

Initial Language Subtag Registry (RFC 4645) (15517 bytes)
Tags for Identifying Languages (RFC 4646) (135810 bytes)
Matching of Language Tags (RFC 4647) (45595 bytes)