From: Theo Veenker (Theo.Veenker@let.uu.nl)
Date: Mon Jul 11 2005 - 03:05:34 CDT
Mark Davis wrote:
> What CLDR does have is provision for some particular cases: for the use of
> different forms of months, depending on context: either stand-alone ("July")
> or within formats ("July 1, 1942"); for the use of currency formats that
> change according to the value of the number (see the formats for INR); and
> for exceptional titlecasing of language display names.
>
> It would be extremely complex to describe all the mechanisms used for
> forming arbitrary noun plurals in any particular language; and that does not
> speak to more complex declinations of nouns or adjectives. What is it
> exactly that you are looking for -- can you give an example?
I meant simple user interface messages like "Copied 1 file." or "Copied
2 files". As I said in my reply to my own question I mistakenly thought
the mechanism for selecting the appropriate message (depending on the
plurality) should be controlled by information from the CLDR. But that
doesn't make sense, it's the message generating system which selects the
appropriate message for the given plural form. In GNU gettext there are
8 rules (at least several years ago there where 8) for determining the
plural form for a given language (see below). So for each locale/language
one needs to know which rule should be used to select the appropriate
plural form. This is just one field, but it doesn't need to be in the
CLDR per se.
I do think the interface between a system for selecting user interface
messages and the CLDR should be seamless. Therefore I believe the CLDR
project should also provide a storage format for message catalogs and
a format specification for the messages themselves. However the GNU
gettext people will probably disagree.
BTW, are there any plans to include the 140 more or less standardized
color names in the CLDR?
Regards,
Theo
Plural form rules and the languages to which they apply
(source GNU gettext, not up to date):
Rule 0
one form:
n==arbitrary -> plural form 0
applies to:
Finno-Ugric family
Hungarian
Asian family
Japanese, Korean
Turkic/Altaic family
Turkish
Rule 1
two forms:
n==1 -> plural form 0
otherwise -> plural form 1
applies to:
Germanic family
Danish, Dutch, English, German, Norwegian, Swedish
Finno-Ugric family
Estonian, Finnish
Latin/Greek family
Greek
Semitic family
Hebrew
Romanic family
Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Artificial
Esperanto
Rule 2
two forms:
n==0 || n==1 -> plural form 0
otherwise -> plural form 1
applies to:
Romanic family
French, Brazilian Portuguese
Rule 3
three forms:
n%10==1 && n%100!=11 -> plural form 0
n!=0 -> plural form 1
otherwise -> plural form 2
applies to:
Baltic family
Latvian
Rule 4
three forms:
n==1 -> plural form 0
n==2 -> plural form 1
otherwise -> plural form 2
applies to:
Celtic
Gaeilge
Rule 5
three forms:
n%10==1 && n%100!=11 -> plural form 0
n%10>=2 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) -> plural form 1
otherwise -> plural form 2
applies to:
Baltic family
Lithuanian
Rule 6
three forms:
n%10==1 && n%100!=11 -> plural form 0
n%10>=2 && n%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) -> plural form 1
otherwise -> plural form 2
applies to:
Slavic family
Croatian, Czech, Russian, Slovak, Ukrainian
Rule 7
three forms:
n==1 -> plural form 0
n%10>=2 && n%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) -> plural form 1
otherwise -> plural form 2
applies to:
Slavic family
Polish
Rule 8
four forms:
n%100==1 -> plural form 0
n%100==2 -> plural form 1
n%100==3 || n%100==4 -> plural form 2
otherwise -> plural form 3
applies to:
Slavic family
Slovenian
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Theo Veenker" <Theo.Veenker@let.uu.nl>
> To: "unicode" <unicode@unicode.org>
> Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 07:49
> Subject: CLDR plural handling info?
>
>
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>In the CLDR 1.3 data there is no field describing which plural
>>handling method should be used when generating messages for the
>>given locale. Why?
>>
>>Is it because there are no user interface messages in the CLDR?
>>IMO it would be a good idea if the CLDR project in addition to
>>the LDML format would also provide a message catalog format.
>>But then of course plural handling data should be included in
>>the CLDR.
>>
>>Theo
>>
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