Re: A spec for showing language in MIME headers

[iacovou@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Danny Iacovou)]

Dana S Emery writes:
> 
> >   This discussion about linguistic details, language
> >   markings, language representation, and how we can tag
> >   everything is very interesting.
> >   
> >   However is it something which this group has a high
> >   degree of expertise in? 
> 
> We are the experts for MIME headers and 822 issues.

  I am going to attempt mind-reading....bear with me.

  I think what is being ask is "Do we have enough expertise to decide if

      Content-language: 

  is all that is needed? or do we have to do something like

	  Content-language:
      Content-language-dialect:

  or maybe even this

	  Content-language:
      Content-language-dialect:
      Content-language-Geographical-Region:
 
  or maybe even .............................. "


  To make the example less abstract. If I remember my linquistics correctly
  these are all valid:

   Content-language: American

   Content-language: American
   Content-language-dialect: Northern
   Content-language-Geographical-Region: East Coast/Pennsylvania

   Content-language: American    
   Content-language-dialect: Northern
   Content-language-Geographical-Region: Midest/Michigan

   Content-language: American    
   Content-language-dialect: Northern
   Content-language-Geographical-Region: West Coast/California


   Actually Content-language-Geographical-Region: headers are not correct 
   they should be limited to mining cities (or cities that started off as
   mining cities):

   Content-language: American    
   Content-language-dialect: Northern
   Content-language-Geographical-Region: East Coast/Pennsylvania/Pittsburg

   Given all this, isn't this enough:

   Content-language: American/Northern/East Coast/Pennsylvania/Pittsburg


   Dana, I do agree with you that all of this would be really coool to 
   include into MIME; however, I think we need to know what an appropriate
   breakdown would be - and to define the headers accordingly. The more I
   think about this the more cautious I become. 
   
   The above example is a very real problem, we hear it in our lives everyday.
   I would love to be able to send mail that when played back makes my words
   sound like a New Yorker (which I am - originally). But when you look at it
   you see that it is a very complicated problem - and this is only 20th c.
   American (not even English:-) . 
   
   If I get some time I will try and visit with a few linguistics profs. 
   they might have the answer and the answer might be trivial. In the mean
   time I don't this we should drop the matter, I think that it still must
   be solved (Glyphs aren't going to cut it in the example given above). 

   BTW: you do realize that as soon as a person writes a program that
		given an input file and a desired language can spit out a file  
        written in the universal linguistics language (which I have blank
        out of my memory - too much mind-reading earlier) and vice-versa
		the whole notion of Content-language* becomes obsolete.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neophytos Iacovou 
Honeywell Systems & Research Center                iacovou@src.honeywell.com
Minneapolis, Mn, 55418