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Date: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 12:31:09 +0100
To: iso15924@dkuug.dk
From: Michael Everson <everson@indigo.ie>
Subject: Re: Names of regions

Ar 23:09 +0000 1997-12-27, scr=EDobh John Clews:

>Among area groups of academics, the general designations are (from
>East to West, and with these spellings, word boundaries and
>capitalisations):
>
>East Asia
>Southeast Asia
>South Asia
>Central Asia

All of these terms were borrowed from one of the main sources for scripts
in the table
(http://www.indigo.ie/egt/standards/iso15924/document/n02.html), namely
Albertine Gaur's _A History of Writing_ (London: British Library, 1992), p.
215.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
"The [geographical location] is meant as a purely geographical aid and does
not relate to linguistic or other connections.

NME Near and Middle East (Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gulf States,
Egypt, North Africa, Crete, Cyprus)

EUR Europe (Western and Eastern)

AFR Africa (except those parts mentioned under NME)

AMK America (North and South America)

SA South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Sikkim, Bhutan,
Nepal, Tibet, Maldives)

SEA Southeast Asia (Burma, Thailand [Siam], Cambodia [Kampuchia], Laos,
Vietnam, the Southern Archipelago from Malaysia and Indonesia to the
islands of Java, Sumatra, Bali, Borneo, Celebes and the Philippines)

CNA Central Asia

=46E Far East (China, Korea, Japan)

WW World wide"
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

>Inner Asia is also used by some to describe Mongolia and/or Tibet (as
>apart from the predominant religious and linguistic Moslem/Turkic
>areas of Central Asia, but this term is not as widely used as the
>above.
>
>West Asia is widely accepted in organizations of the United Nations
>system, but this divides what we understand as Asia _only_ into the
>less helpful (and unequal) divisions of:
>
>West Asia, and
>Asia and Pacific (including Australasia/Oceania).
>
>Equally the UN has Africa as a single distinctive bloc,
>whereas from the script point of view, the long standing
>
>North Africa, and
>Sub-Saharan Africa
>
>are more helpful.
>
>America has relatively few scripts for ISO/TC46/SC2/WG8 to concern
>itself with, by comparison: the UN divides this into
>
>North America, and
>Latin American and Caribbean.
>
>(North America consists of only Bermuda, Canada, St. Pierre et
>Miquelon and United States, the rest of America is classed as
>Latin America and Caribbean).

I think Gaur's geographical classification is adequate to our needs (to
give us an idea where things are, as many of the 228 scripts listed are
little-known); I have taken Antoine's remark that the terms "Far East" and
"Near and Middle East" are a bit "europ=E9ano-centrique", and so have used
"East Asia" and "West Asia" which are more geographic. The latter term is
not so very adequate, but I am not so certain what would be a better one.

>> >Je pense aussi qu'il serait souhaitable dans le tableau d'indiquer une
>> >estimation de la date d'invention de chaque =E9criture, ainsi peut-=EAtr=
e
>> >que le moment o=F9 elle est tomb=E9e en d=E9su=E9tude ; sans tomber bien=
 s=FBr
>> >dans les querelles d'experts...
>>
>> C'est trop du travaille! Des r=E9f=E9rences sont donn=E9es.... Anyway I=
 am not
>> sure if this information is necessary to develop the standard.
>
>As it's more work, and as it's difficult to avoid academic
>differences on this, I agree with Michael - it may be best to avoid
>this - unless you would like to come up with a list Patrick??

Gaur does give dates and date ranges, but it would be a little problematic
to try to fit this information into the tables in ISO 15924 N02.

--
Michael Everson, Everson Gunn Teoranta ** http://www.indigo.ie/egt
15 Port Chaeimhghein =CDochtarach; Baile =C1tha Cliath 2; =C9ire/Ireland
Guth=E1n: +353 1 478-2597    Facsa: +353 1 478-2597 (by arrangement)
27 P=E1irc an Fh=E9ithlinn;  Baile an Bh=F3thair;  Co. =C1tha Cliath; =C9ire



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