Re: Searching data: map countries to scripts

IMO, mapping scripts at the level of whole countries is, for many if
not most countries, too crude. In India --one example among many we
could name-- it would be much more informative to map at at least the
level of states and territories.

WRT figuring out language->script mappings, remember that some
languages use multiple scripts, and that the script used has changed
especially in the modern historical period due to the forces of
politics, colonialism, and nationalism.

Rather than trying to find an existing data source for what you want
to do, I think you will be much better off starting your own project
to research all of this on a country-by-country basis where you
investigate where the populations of language speakers and script
users live at the regional, territorial, state, and provincial levels.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On 8/20/12, Mark Davis ☕ <mark_at_macchiato.com> wrote:
> Cldr has both of those, at least for official and defacto-official
> languages.
>
> {phone}
> On Aug 20, 2012 4:03 PM, "Manuel Strehl" <boldewyn_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> > This might not work too well, since the ISO 15924 code elements you're
>> > thinking of are "Hira" and "Kana".
>>
>> This awkward moment... I'm trying to figure out, what I was thinking
>> of with "Hana".
>>
>> >> Of course, the mapping must be sensible in a way, that is, explain,
>> >> how the mapping is done. I'd be fine, I guess, with having all
>> >> official languages and important historic ones respected (disputable
>> >> cases, where larger minority languages are suppressed, may exist of
>> >> course).
>> >
>> >
>> > You've sort of defined your own problem: how to decide when minority
>> usage
>> > of a script within a country is "significant" or "important" or
>> "sensible."
>> > Remember, too, that "official languages" may not be what you expect;
>> > English, for example, is not defined as an official language in the US,
>> UK,
>> > Australia, or New Zealand.
>>
>> Yeah, that's practically a part of my problem. If I had a list of
>> country -> language maps and a list of language -> script maps, I
>> could work my way from there, but at the moment I have neither. (At
>> least in a program-digestible way. Figuring out the language -> script
>> part would be the easier task here, I guess.)
>>
>>
>
Received on Mon Aug 20 2012 - 10:15:37 CDT