Network Working Group A. Phillips, Ed.
Internet-Draft Quest Software
Expires: December 12, 2005 M. Davis, Ed.
IBM
June 10, 2005
Matching Language Identifiers
draft-ietf-ltru-matching-02
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
Abstract
This document describes different mechanisms for comparing and
matching the tags for the identification of languages defined by [RFC
3066bis] [1]. Possible algorithms for language negotiation and
content selection are described. This document obsoletes portions of
[RFC 3066] [19].
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. The Language Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1 Basic Language Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.1 Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1.2 Lookup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 Extended Language Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2.1 Extended Range Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2.2 Extended Range Lookup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.3 Scored Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3 Meaning of Language Tags and Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4 Choosing Between Alternate Matching Schemes . . . . . . . 11
2.5 Considerations for Private Use Subtags . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.6 Length Considerations in Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4. Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6. Character Set Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
7.1 Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
7.2 Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
A. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . 21
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1. Introduction
Human beings on our planet have, past and present, used a number of
languages. There are many reasons why one would want to identify the
language used when presenting or requesting information.
Information about a user's language preferences commonly needs to be
identified so that appropriate processing can be applied. For
example, the user's language preferences in a browser can be used to
select web pages appropriately. A choice of language preference can
also be used to select among tools (such as dictionaries) to assist
in the processing or understanding of content in different languages.
Given a set of language identifiers, such as those defined in
RFC3066bis [1], various mechanisms can be envisioned for performing
language negotiation and tag matching. The suitability of a
particular mechanism to a particular application depends on the needs
of that application.
This document defines language ranges and syntax for specifying user
preferences in a request for language content. It also specifies
various schemes and mechanisms that can be used with language ranges
when matching or filtering content based on language tags.
The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [5].
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2. The Language Range
Language Tags are used to identify the language of some information
item or content. Applications that use language tags are often faced
with the problem of identifying sets of content that share certain
language attributes. For example, HTTP 1.1 [10] describes language
ranges in its discussion of the Accept-Language header (Section
14.4), which is used for selecting content from servers based on the
language of that content.
When selecting content according to its language, it is useful to
have a mechanism for identifying sets of language tags that share
specific attributes. This allows users to select or filter content
based on specific requirements. Such an identifier is called a
"Language Range".
2.1 Basic Language Range
A basic language range (such as described in RFC 3066 [19] and HTTP
1.1 [10]) is a set of languages whose tags all begin with the same
sequence of subtags. A basic language range can be represented by a
'language-range' tag, by using the definition from HTTP/1.1 [10] :
language-range = language-tag / "*"
That is, a language-range has the same syntax as a language-tag or is
the single character "*". This definition of language-range implies
that there is a semantic relationship between tags that share the
same prefix.
In particular, the set of language tags that match a specific
language-range might not all be mutually intelligible. The use of a
prefix when matching tags to language ranges does not imply that
language tags are assigned to languages in such a way that it is
always true that if a user understands a language with a certain tag,
then this user will also understand all languages with tags for which
this tag is a prefix. The prefix rule simply allows the use of
prefix tags if this is the case.
When working with tags and ranges you SHOULD also note the following:
1. Private-use and Extension subtags are normally orthogonal to
language tag fallback. Implementations SHOULD ignore
unrecognized private-use and extension subtags when performing
language tag fallback. Since these subtags are always at the end
of the sequence of subtags, they don't normally interfere with
the use of prefixes for matching in the schemes described below.
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2. Implementations that choose not to interpret one or more private-
use or extension subtags SHOULD NOT remove or modify these
extensions in content that they are processing. When a language
tag instance is to be used in a specific, known protocol, and is
not being passed through to other protocols, language tags MAY be
filtered to remove subtags and extensions that are not supported
by that protocol. Such filtering SHOULD be avoided, if possible,
since it removes information that might be relevant if services
on the other end of the protocol would make use of that
information.
3. Some applications of language tags might want or need to consider
extensions and private-use subtags when matching tags. If
extensions and private-use subtags are included in a matching or
filtering process that utilizes the one of the schemes described
in this document, then the implementation SHOULD canonicalize the
language tags and/or ranges before performing the matching. Note
that language tag processors that claim to be "well-formed"
processors as defined in [1] generally fall into this category.
There are two matching schemes that are commonly associated with
basic language ranges: matching and lookup.
2.1.1 Matching
Language tag matching is used to select all content that matches a
given prefix. In matching, the language range represents the least
specific tag which is an acceptable match and every piece of content
that matches is returned.
For example, if an application is applying a style to all content in
a web page in a particular language, it might use language tag
matching to select the content to which the style is applied.
A language-range matches a language-tag if it exactly equals the tag,
or if it exactly equals a prefix of the tag such that the first
character following the prefix is "-". (That is, the language-range
"en-de" matches the language tag "en-DE-boont", but not the language
tag "en-Deva".)
The special range "*" matches any tag. A protocol which uses
language ranges MAY specify additional rules about the semantics of
"*"; for instance, HTTP/1.1 specifies that the range "*" matches only
languages not matched by any other range within an "Accept-Language:"
header.
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2.1.2 Lookup
Content lookup is used to select the single information item that
best matches the language range for a given request. In lookup, the
language range represents the most specific tag which is an
acceptable match and only the closest matching item is returned.
For example, if an application inserts some dynamic content into a
web page, returning an empty string if there is no exact match is not
an option. Instead, the application "falls back".
When performing lookup, the language range is progressively truncated
from the end until a matching piece of content is located. For
example, starting with the range "zh-Hant-CN-x-wadegile", the lookup
would progressively search for content as shown below:
Range to match: zh-Hant-CN-x-wadegile
1. zh-Hant-CN-x-wadegile
2. zh-Hant-CN
3. zh-Hant
4. zh
5. (default content or the empty tag)
Figure 2: Default Fallback Pattern Example
This scheme allows some flexibility in finding content. It also
typically provides better results when data is not available at a
specific level of tag granularity or is sparsely populated (than if
the default language for the system or content were used).
2.2 Extended Language Range
Prefix matching using a Basic Language Range, as described above, is
not always the most appropriate way to access the information
contained in language tags when selecting or filtering content. Some
applications might wish to define a more granular matching scheme and
such a matching scheme requires the ability to specify the various
attributes of a language tag in the language range. An extended
language range can be represented by the following ABNF:
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extended-language-range = grandfathered / privateuse / range
range = ( lang [ "-" script ] [ "-" region ] *( "-" variant )
[ "-" privateuse ] )
lang = ( 2*8ALPHA *[ "-" extlang ] ) / "*"
extlang = 3ALPHA / "*"
script = 4ALPHA / "*"
region = 2ALPHA / 3DIGIT / "*"
variant = 5*8alphanum / ( DIGIT 3alphanum ) / "*"
privateuse = ( "x" / "X" ) 1*( "-" ( 1*8alphanum ) )
grandfathered = 1*3ALPHA 1*2( "-" ( 2*8alphanum ) )
alphanum = ( ALPHA / DIGIT )
In an extended language range, the identifier takes the form of a
series of subtags which must consist of well-formed subtags or the
special subtag "*". For example, the language range "en-*-US"
specifies a primary language of 'en', followed by any script subtag,
followed by the region subtag 'US'.
A field not present in the middle of an extended language range MAY
be treated as if the field contained a "*". For example, the range
"en-US" MAY be considered to be equivalent to the range "en-*-US".
There are several matching algorithms or schemes which can be applied
when matching extended language ranges to language tags.
2.2.1 Extended Range Matching
In extended range matching, the subtags in a language tag are
compared to the corresponding subtags in the extended language range.
A subtag is considered to match if it exactly matches the
corresponding subtag in the range or the range contains a subtag with
the value "*" (which matches all subtags, including the empty
subtag). Extended Range Matching is an extension of basic matching
(Section 2.1.1): the language range represents the least specific tag
which is an acceptable match.
By default all extensions and their subtags are ignored for extended
language range matching.
Private use subtags MAY be specified in the language range and MUST
NOT be ignored when matching.
Subtags not specified, including those at the end of the language
range, are assigned the value "*". This makes each range into a
prefix much like that used in basic language range matching. For
example, the extended language range "zh-*-CN" matches all of the
following tags because the unspecified variant field is expanded to
"*":
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zh-Hant-CN
zh-CN
zh-Hans-CN
zh-CN-x-wadegile
zh-Latn-CN-boont
2.2.2 Extended Range Lookup
In extended range lookup, the subtags in a language tag are compared
to the corresponding subtags in the extended language range. The
subtag is considered to match if it exactly matches the corresponding
subtag in the range or the range contains a subtag with the value "*"
(which matches all subtags, including the empty subtag). Extended
language range lookup is an extension of basic lookup
(Section 2.1.2): the language range represents the most specific tag
which will form an acceptable match.
Subtags not specified are assigned the value "*" prior to performing
tag matching. Unlike in extended range matching, however, fields at
the end of the range MUST NOT be expanded in this manner. For
example, "en-US" MUST NOT be considered to be the same as the range
"en-US-*". This allows ranges to be specific. The "*" wildcard MUST
be used at the end of the range to indicate that all tags with the
range as a prefix are allowable matches. That is, the range "zh-*"
matches the tags "zh-Hant" and "zh-Hant-CN", while the range "zh"
matches neither of those tags.
The wildcard "*" at the end of a range SHOULD be considered to match
any private use subtag sequences (making extended language range
lookup function exactly like extended range matching Section 2.2.1).
By default all extensions and their subtags SHOULD be ignored for
extended language range lookup. Private use subtags MAY be specified
in the language range and MUST NOT be ignored when performing lookup.
The wildcard "*" at the end of a range SHOULD be considered to match
any private use subtag sequences in addition to variants.
For example, the range "*-US" matches all of the following tags:
en-US
en-Latn-US
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en-US-r-extends (extensions are ignored)
fr-US
For example, the range "en-*-US" matches _none_ of the following
tags:
fr-US
en (missing region US)
en-Latn (missing region US)
en-Latn-US-scouse (variant field is present)
For example, the range "en-*" matches all of the following tags:
en-Latn
en-Latn-US
en-Latn-US-scouse
en-US
en-scouse
Note that the ability to be specific in extended range lookup can
make this matching scheme a more appropriate replacement for basic
matching than the extended range matching scheme.
2.2.3 Scored Matching
In the "scored matching" scheme, the extended language range and the
language tags are pre-normalized by mapping grandfathered and
obsolete tags into modern equivalents.
The language range and the language tags are normalized into
quadruples of the form (language, script, country, variant), where
extended language is considered part of language and x-private-codes
are considered part of the language if they are initial and part of
the variant if not initial. Missing components are set to "*". An
"*" pattern becomes the quadruple ("*", "*", "*", "*").
Each language tag being matched or filtered is assigned a "quality
value" such that higher values indicate better matches and lower
values indicate worse ones. If the language matches, add 8 to the
quality value. If the script matches, add 4 to the quality value.
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If the region matches, add 2 to the quality value. If the variant
matches, add 1 to the quality value. Elements of the quadruples are
considered to match if they are the same or if one of them is "*".
A value of 15 is a perfect match; 0 is no match at all. Different
values could be more or less appropriate for different applications
and implementations SHOULD probably allow users to choose the most
appropriate selection value.
2.3 Meaning of Language Tags and Ranges
A language tag defines a language as spoken (or written, signed or
otherwise signaled) by human beings for communication of information
to other human beings.
If a language tag B contains language tag A as a prefix, then B is
typically "narrower" or "more specific" than A. For example, "zh-
Hant-TW" is more specific than "zh-Hant".
This relationship is not guaranteed in all cases: specifically,
languages that begin with the same sequence of subtags are NOT
guaranteed to be mutually intelligible, although they might be.
For example, the tag "az" shares a prefix with both "az-Latn"
(Azerbaijani written using the Latin script) and "az-Cyrl"
(Azerbaijani written using the Cyrillic script). A person fluent in
one script might not be able to read the other, even though the text
might be otherwise identical. Content tagged as "az" most probably
is written in just one script and thus might not be intelligible to a
reader familiar with the other script.
Variant subtags in particular seem to represent specific divisions in
mutual understanding, since they often encode dialects or other
idiosyncratic variations within a language.
The relationship between the language tag and the information it
relates to is defined by the standard describing the context in which
it appears. Accordingly, this section can only give possible
examples of its usage.
o For a single information object, the associated language tags
might be interpreted as the set of languages that are necessary
for a complete comprehension of the complete object. Example:
Plain text documents.
o For an aggregation of information objects, the associated language
tags could be taken as the set of languages used inside components
of that aggregation. Examples: Document stores and libraries.
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o For information objects whose purpose is to provide alternatives,
the associated language tags could be regarded as a hint that the
content is provided in several languages, and that one has to
inspect each of the alternatives in order to find its language or
languages. In this case, the presence of multiple tags might not
mean that one needs to be multi-lingual to get complete
understanding of the document. Example: MIME multipart/
alternative.
o In markup languages, such as HTML and XML, language information
can be added to each part of the document identified by the markup
structure (including the whole document itself). For example, one
could write <span lang="FR">C'est la vie.</span> inside a
Norwegian document; the Norwegian-speaking user could then access
a French-Norwegian dictionary to find out what the marked section
meant. If the user were listening to that document through a
speech synthesis interface, this formation could be used to signal
the synthesizer to appropriately apply French text-to-speech
pronunciation rules to that span of text, instead of misapplying
the Norwegian rules.
2.4 Choosing Between Alternate Matching Schemes
Implementations MAY choose to implement different styles of matching
for different kinds of processing. For example, an implementation
could treat an absent script subtag as a "wildcard" field; thus
"az-AZ" would match "az-AZ", "az-Cyrl-AZ", "az-Latn-AZ", etc. but not
"az" (this is extended range lookup). If one item is to be chosen,
the implementation could pick among those matches based on other
information, such as the most likely script used in the language/
region in question or the script used by other content selected.
Because the primary language subtag cannot be absent in a language
tag, the 'UND' subtag is sometimes be used as a 'wildcard' in basic
matching. For example, in a query where you want to select all
language tags that contain 'Latn' as the script code and 'AZ' as the
region code, you could use the range "und-Latn-AZ". This requires an
implementation to examine the actual values of the subtags, though.
The matching schemes described elsewhere in this document are
designed such that implementations do not have to examine the values
or subtags supplied and, except for scored matching, they do not need
access to the Language Subtag Registry nor the use of valid subtags
in language tags or ranges. This has great benefit for speed and
simplicity of implementation.
Implementations might also wish to use semantic information external
to the langauge tags when performing fallback. For example, the
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primary language subtags 'nn' (Nynorsk Norwegian) and 'nb' (Bokmal
Norwegian) might both be usefully matched to the more general subtag
'no' (Norwegian). Or an application might infer that content labeled
"zh-CN" is morely likely to match the range "zh-Hans" than equivalent
content labeled "zh-TW".
2.5 Considerations for Private Use Subtags
Private-use subtags require private agreement between the parties
that intend to use or exchange language tags that use them and great
caution SHOULD be used in employing them in content or protocols
intended for general use. Private-use subtags are simply useless for
information exchange without prior arrangement.
The value and semantic meaning of private-use tags and of the subtags
used within such a language tag are not defined. Matching private
use tags using language ranges or extended language ranges can result
in unpredictable content being returned.
2.6 Length Considerations in Matching
RFC 3066 [19] did not provide an upper limit on the size of language
tags or ranges. RFC 3066 did define the semantics of particular
subtags in such a way that most language tags or ranges consisted of
language and region subtags with a combined total length of up to six
characters. Larger tags and ranges (in terms of both subtags and
characters) did exist, however.
[1] also does not impose a fixed upper limit on the number of subtags
in a language tag or range (and thus an upper bound on the size of
either). The syntax in that document suggests that, depending on the
specific language or range of languages, more subtags (and thus
characters) are sometimes necessary as a result. Length
considerations and their impact on the selection and processing of
tags are described in Section 2.1.1 of that document.
A matching implementation MAY choose to limit the length of the
language tags or ranges used in matching. Any such limitation SHOULD
be clearly documented, and such documentation SHOULD include the
disposition of any longer tags or ranges (for example, whether an
error value is generated or the language tag or range is truncated).
If truncation is permitted it MUST NOT permit a subtag to be divided,
since this changes the semantics of the subtag being matched and can
result in false positives or negatives.
Implementations that restrict storage SHOULD consider the impact of
tag or range truncation on the resulting matches. For example,
removing the "*" from the end of an extended language range (see
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Section 2.2) can greatly modify the set of returned matches. A
protocol that allows tags or ranges to be truncated at an arbitrary
limit, without giving any indication of what that limit is, has the
potential for causing harm by changing the meaning of values in
substantial ways.
In practice, most tags do not require additional subtags or
substantially more characters. Additional subtags sometimes add
useful distinguishing information, but extraneous subtags interfere
with the meaning, understanding, and especially matching of language
tags. Since language tags or ranges MAY be truncated by an
application or protocol that limits storage, when choosing language
tags or ranges users and applications SHOULD avoid adding subtags
that add no distinguishing value. In particular, users and
implementations SHOULD follow the 'Prefix' and 'Suppress-Script'
fields in the registry (defined in Section 3.6 of [1]): these fields
provide guidance on when specific additional subtags SHOULD (and
SHOULD NOT) be used.
Implementations MUST support a limit of at least 33 characters. This
limit includes at least one subtag of each non-extension, non-private
use type. When choosing a buffer limit, a length of at least 42
characters is strongly RECOMMENDED.
The practical limit on tags or ranges derived solely from registered
values is 42 characters. Implementations MUST be able to handle tags
and ranges of this length. Support for tags and ranges of at least
62 characters in length is RECOMMENDED. Implementations MAY support
longer values, including matching extensive sets of private use or
extension subtags.
Applications or protocols which have to truncate a tag MUST do so by
progressively removing subtags along with their preceding "-" from
the right side of the language tag until the tag is short enough for
the given buffer. If the resulting tag ends with a single-character
subtag, that subtag and its preceding "-" MUST also be removed. For
example:
Tag to truncate: zh-Hant-CN-variant1-a-extend1-x-wadegile-private1
1. zh-Hant-CN-variant1-a-extend1-x-wadegile
2. zh-Hant-CN-variant1-a-extend1
3. zh-Hant-CN-variant1
4. zh-Hant-CN
5. zh-Hant
6. zh
Figure 4: Example of Tag Truncation
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3. IANA Considerations
This document presents no new or existing considerations for IANA.
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4. Changes
This is the first version of this document.
The following changes were put into this document since draft-00:
Fixed text in the introduction that is no longer accurate.
Specifically, there no longer is a default matching algorithm.
(A.Phillips)
Fixed text in Section 2.1 which incorrectly discussed the default
fallback mechanism. (A.Phillips)
Minor changes to Section 2.3, in particular, the addition of the
'variant' paragraph and some tidying of the text. (A.Phillips)
Fixed a minor glitch in the ABNF caused by taking the output of
Bill Fenner's parser and not looking too closely at it (M. Patton)
Fixed some minor reference problems. (M.Patton)
Added Section 2.6 on length considerations in matching.
(R.Presuhn)
Copied various materials from the length considerations section of
the registry draft to keep the two documents in sync.
(A.Phillips)
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5. Security Considerations
The only security issue that has been raised with language tags since
the publication of RFC 1766, which stated that "Security issues are
believed to be irrelevant to this memo", is a concern with language
ranges used in content negotiation - that they might be used to infer
the nationality of the sender, and thus identify potential targets
for surveillance.
This is a special case of the general problem that anything you send
is visible to the receiving party. It is useful to be aware that
such concerns can exist in some cases.
The evaluation of the exact magnitude of the threat, and any possible
countermeasures, is left to each application protocol.
Although the specification of valid subtags for an extension MUST be
available over the Internet, implementations SHOULD NOT mechanically
depend on it being always accessible, to prevent denial-of-service
attacks.
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6. Character Set Considerations
The syntax in this document requires that language ranges use only
the characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and HYPHEN-MINUS legal in language
tags. These characters are present in most character sets, so
presentation of language tags should not have any character set
issues.
Rendering of characters based on the content of a language tag is not
addressed in this memo. Historically, some languages have relied on
the use of specific character sets or other information in order to
infer how a specific character should be rendered (notably this
applies to language and culture specific variations of Han ideographs
as used in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean). When language tags are
applied to spans of text, rendering engines sometimes use that
information in deciding which font to use in the absence of other
information, particularly where languages with distinct writing
traditions use the same characters.
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7. References
7.1 Normative References
[1] Phillips, A., Ed. and M. Davis, Ed., "Tags for the
Identification of Languages (Internet-Draft)", June 2005, <http
://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/
draft-ietf-ltru-registry-03.txt>.
[2] Hardcastle-Kille, S., "Mapping between X.400(1988) / ISO 10021
and RFC 822", RFC 1327, May 1992.
[3] Borenstein, N. and N. Freed, "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions) Part One: Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing
the Format of Internet Message Bodies", RFC 1521,
September 1993.
[4] Hovey, R. and S. Bradner, "The Organizations Involved in the
IETF Standards Process", BCP 11, RFC 2028, October 1996.
[5] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[6] Freed, N. and K. Moore, "MIME Parameter Value and Encoded Word
Extensions: Character Sets, Languages, and Continuations",
RFC 2231, November 1997.
[7] Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
[8] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 2396,
August 1998.
[9] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA
Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 2434,
October 1998.
[10] Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H., Masinter, L.,
Leach, P., and T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol --
HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616, June 1999.
[11] Carpenter, B., Baker, F., and M. Roberts, "Memorandum of
Understanding Concerning the Technical Work of the Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority", RFC 2860, June 2000.
[12] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646",
STD 63, RFC 3629, November 2003.
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7.2 Informative References
[13] International Organization for Standardization, "ISO 639-
1:2002, Codes for the representation of names of languages --
Part 1: Alpha-2 code", ISO Standard 639, 2002.
[14] International Organization for Standardization, "ISO 639-2:1998
- Codes for the representation of names of languages -- Part 2:
Alpha-3 code - edition 1", August 1988.
[15] ISO TC46/WG3, "ISO 15924:2003 (E/F) - Codes for the
representation of names of scripts", January 2004.
[16] International Organization for Standardization, "Codes for the
representation of names of countries, 3rd edition",
ISO Standard 3166, August 1988.
[17] Statistical Division, United Nations, "Standard Country or Area
Codes for Statistical Use", UN Standard Country or Area Codes
for Statistical Use, Revision 4 (United Nations publication,
Sales No. 98.XVII.9, June 1999.
[18] Alvestrand, H., "Tags for the Identification of Languages",
RFC 1766, March 1995.
[19] Alvestrand, H., "Tags for the Identification of Languages",
BCP 47, RFC 3066, January 2001.
[20] Klyne, G. and C. Newman, "Date and Time on the Internet:
Timestamps", RFC 3339, July 2002.
Authors' Addresses
Addison Phillips (editor)
Quest Software
Email: addison dot phillips at quest dot com
Mark Davis (editor)
IBM
Email: mark dot davis at ibm dot com
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Appendix A. Acknowledgements
Any list of contributors is bound to be incomplete; please regard the
following as only a selection from the group of people who have
contributed to make this document what it is today.
The contributors to RFC 3066 and RFC 1766, the precursors of this
document, made enormous contributions directly or indirectly to this
document and are generally responsible for the success of language
tags.
The following people (in alphabetical order) contributed to this
document or to RFCs 1766 and 3066:
Glenn Adams, Harald Tveit Alvestrand, Tim Berners-Lee, Marc Blanchet,
Nathaniel Borenstein, Eric Brunner, Sean M. Burke, Jeremy Carroll,
John Clews, Jim Conklin, Peter Constable, John Cowan, Mark Crispin,
Dave Crocker, Martin Duerst, Michael Everson, Doug Ewell, Ned Freed,
Tim Goodwin, Dirk-Willem van Gulik, Marion Gunn, Joel Halpren,
Elliotte Rusty Harold, Paul Hoffman, Richard Ishida, Olle Jarnefors,
Kent Karlsson, John Klensin, Alain LaBonte, Eric Mader, Keith Moore,
Chris Newman, Masataka Ohta, Michael S. Patton, Randy Presuhn, George
Rhoten, Markus Scherer, Keld Jorn Simonsen, Thierry Sourbier, Otto
Stolz, Tex Texin, Andrea Vine, Rhys Weatherley, Misha Wolf, Francois
Yergeau and many, many others.
Very special thanks must go to Harald Tveit Alvestrand, who
originated RFCs 1766 and 3066, and without whom this document would
not have been possible. Special thanks must go to Michael Everson,
who has served as language tag reviewer for almost the complete
period since the publication of RFC 1766. Special thanks to Doug
Ewell, for his production of the first complete subtag registry, and
his work in producing a test parser for verifying language tags.
For this particular document, John Cowan originated the scheme
described in Section 2.2.3. Mark Davis originated the scheme
described in the Section 2.1.2.
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