[Indic-computing-users] Punjabi vs Panjabi debate.

[Guntupalli K. <kar...@fr...>]

Hi all,
 Offlate a debate has been going on in Gnome l10n circles as to how
'Punjabi' is to be written. Gnome has policy to follow ISO language
codes, where language code is 'pa' ,written as 'Panjabi' for Punjabi. 
 Other projects like KDE, SF.net, .. also follow same policy.

List of language codes is at
http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/englangn.html

 Right now Punjabi is not well supported, but when it does have
support (locale, font, input methods) , this point will be constantly
raised by users.
 It would be interesting to note that usage of 'Panjabi' is restricted
to compliance of ISO 639 codes or by those who are not aware of the
language name and come to know of it from ISO standards. 

 Some threads from Gnome-i18n
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-i18n/2003-February/msg00155.html
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-i18n/2003-February/msg00156.html

Its important that someone takes, this up with respective Punjabi
language bodies, Govt of Punjab, TDIL/ MIT GOI to persue the matter
with ISO to get the change done. 
I hope native speakers take this up (& I will keep making noises till
someone takes it up :), since later on when language is better
supported, it could grow into bigger debate. 

Regards,
Karunakar

-- 
A Reasonable man adapts himself to the world
An Unreasonable man tries to adapt the world to himself
So all progress in the world depends on the Unreasonable man - GB Shaw

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