Minority language entries (was Re: Additional language entries ingdm)

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

mån 2003-02-17 klockan 12.55 skrev Pablo Saratxaga:
> > +Bengali                        bn_BD.UTF-8,bn_BD
> > +Bengali (Indian)                       bn_IN.UTF-8,bn_IN
> > 
> > Don't know if a space is allowed there before the paranthesis. 
> > Should perhaps be "India" rather than "Indian".
> 
> Is there a difference in language between bn_BD and bn_IN ?
> Other languages that are used in several countries only have one
> entry in gdm (unless there are noticeable differences).

Afaik, it sets the locale, so I dont think "noticable differences" in
the language should be the only reason to have seperate entries. It
should be enough of a reason that a larger minority speaks that language
in that country, and that it has some kind of official status and use.

Consider the use of Swedish in Sweden (sv_SE) and in Finland (sv_FI). In
Finland, Swedish is only spoken by a 6% minority of the population (the
rest are Finnish-speaking), but it's also an official language in
Finland, and its status is protected by the constitution. So having a
"Swedish (Finland)" entry, which sets sv_FI as the locale and as we
currently have, makes sense. Swedish-speaking users in Finland might
expect the same level of support, with Swedish as the language together
with Finnish regional settings, as otherwise in society. So even though
the linguistic differences are minor (but not so with the accent :-), I
would expect a Swedish-speaking Finnish user to dislike using a sv_SE
locale, with SEK instead of EUR as the currency setting and all... :-)

I expected the situation to be similar for bn_IN, as it's also a
(semi)official language of India. Bengali speakers of India might want
to enjoy the same regional settings as other users in India.


Christian