language tag text in Part 1

All,

In regards to the text around language codes in part 1, right now we just say the code needs to follow RFC 5646. I have recently reread that RFC to make sure we would be okay. As all things in RFC land, this RFC allows for several weird cases for language tags and several types that are just weird. While I think we would be okay with just stating that it has to be a compliant RFC 5646 tag, I believe it might be better if we added some basic profile text to help people understand what it should be like.

This text would NOT exclude people from doing everything in the RFC, but it might help people generate more sane representations. I would propose the following text, or something like it.

"The primary language subtag SHOULD use the 2 character alpha tag as defined in section 2.2.1 of RFC 5646 and ISO 639-1:2002 and MAY also include a region subtag as defined in section 2.2.4 of RFC 5646. The region subtag, if included, SHOULD use the 2 character alpha as defined in ISO 3166-1."

I am curious to hear what others think.

Bret

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