Re: [idn] Document Status?

[John C Klensin <klensin@jck.com>]

--On Monday, September 02, 2002 12:25 PM +0900 YangWoo Ko
<yw@mrko.pe.kr> wrote:

> Within the context of Domain Name, can somebody teach me the
> benefit of using "script" instead of "language", or its
> reverse ? Can somebody teach me the benefit of using
> "multilingualization" instead of "internationalization" ? I am
> lost.

Let me try, with the understanding that there is great confusion
about these terms (i.e., you are not the only one who is lost)
and that they tend to cause arguments all out of proportion to
their value.

"multilingual" and its variants seem to be properly used only
when _language_ issues (syntax, methods of forming words or
phrases, legitimate word or phrase construction, etc.) are
involved.  Since there have been no serious proposals to
incorporate _language_ issues like these into the DNS (although
some proposals have assumed it is there already or will happen
by magic), the term is typically inappropriate for DNS contexts
(even though it is often used).

A "script" is a collection of characters used to write one or
more languages.  As James pointed out, some languages use more
than one script (e.g., there are some European and, I think,
African languages that can be written in different character
collections, although the language remains the same.   The use
of Hangul or Hanji to write Korean, or of Hiragana or Kanji to
write Japanese, may be another example of this, although it is
important to remember that analogies in these areas are never
exact and that over-using them often leads to trouble.  We also
have, as James again pointed out, the same script (sometimes
with small variations) use to write several different languages.
Arabic script is also used to write other languages, Roman-based
scripts are used to write German and French and several other
languages in addition to English and Italian, and so on.   So,
if all one can talk about is the characters being used (and
coded), without reference to the language involved, "script" is
probably appropriate.

"internationalization" is an extremely broad term, used to
describe, I believe, any attempt to get ones arms around this
mess and, in particular, make systems suitable for use by people
all over the world, regardless of the script or language they
normally use.

Does that help?

     john