Friday, June 25, 2004
Which alphabet do you use for a web address?
By Steven Lang, Highway Africa News Agency (HANA)
YASMINE HAMMAMET, TUNISIA. June 25, 2004 - Soon it will be possible to write an Internet address in Korean, German, Arabic and many other languages that do not use the Western alphabet. At the moment, you can write a web page using any script you choose, but the address of that page requires at least some knowledge of the alphabet used in Western Europe, the United States and some other countries.
At the moment it is not possible to write a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) – or web address unless you use the alphabet commonly used in English. For those accustomed to using the Western alphabet, it might not seem very important to use other scripts, but for those who prefer to write in languages other than English, this is a sore point. It is also logical that the address of a page should be written in the same language as the rest of the page.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, (ICANN) is the body responsible for coordinating domain name registries. It has come under fire recently for allegedly not allowing domain names that use non-English letters.
This issue, generally referred to as Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), is one of the many to be discussed under the Internet Governance umbrella at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
Critics say that ICANN is dragging its feet in formalizing new character sets for domain names. They argue that it is but a simple technical matter to establish the correct coding for each letter of any alphabet.
As it stands now, addresses that we usually type in, are instantly translated into a numerical code, or IP address, so that we can read it more easily. In other words, any address such as www.joeblogs.com is really nothing more than a string of numbers translated into letters to make it easier for us to remember.
The problem is that currently, there only exists an automated translation, or coding for letters from the Western alphabet. New protocols are required for other languages. The difficulty lies in establishing who will make decisions on orthography of languages? What if there are important differences between countries in the way languages are written?
ICANN, describing itself as a purely technical organization says that it does not have the capacity to decide on language standards, nor does it believe that linguistic decisions are part of its mandate. For this reason, ICANN feels aggrieved when it is accused of delaying IDNs.
Organisations that administer domain names in various countries such as Germany, Japan, Korea and others are already well on the way to fixing language tables for their domain name addresses. They have published tables for inspection and discussion on the ICANN web site, and it soon it will be possible to type in a URL in the Hebrew alphabet, or in German with an umlaut as well as many other languages.
By Steven Lang, Highway Africa News Agency (HANA)
YASMINE HAMMAMET, TUNISIA. June 25, 2004 - Soon it will be possible to write an Internet address in Korean, German, Arabic and many other languages that do not use the Western alphabet. At the moment, you can write a web page using any script you choose, but the address of that page requires at least some knowledge of the alphabet used in Western Europe, the United States and some other countries.
At the moment it is not possible to write a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) – or web address unless you use the alphabet commonly used in English. For those accustomed to using the Western alphabet, it might not seem very important to use other scripts, but for those who prefer to write in languages other than English, this is a sore point. It is also logical that the address of a page should be written in the same language as the rest of the page.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, (ICANN) is the body responsible for coordinating domain name registries. It has come under fire recently for allegedly not allowing domain names that use non-English letters.
This issue, generally referred to as Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), is one of the many to be discussed under the Internet Governance umbrella at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
Critics say that ICANN is dragging its feet in formalizing new character sets for domain names. They argue that it is but a simple technical matter to establish the correct coding for each letter of any alphabet.
As it stands now, addresses that we usually type in, are instantly translated into a numerical code, or IP address, so that we can read it more easily. In other words, any address such as www.joeblogs.com is really nothing more than a string of numbers translated into letters to make it easier for us to remember.
The problem is that currently, there only exists an automated translation, or coding for letters from the Western alphabet. New protocols are required for other languages. The difficulty lies in establishing who will make decisions on orthography of languages? What if there are important differences between countries in the way languages are written?
ICANN, describing itself as a purely technical organization says that it does not have the capacity to decide on language standards, nor does it believe that linguistic decisions are part of its mandate. For this reason, ICANN feels aggrieved when it is accused of delaying IDNs.
Organisations that administer domain names in various countries such as Germany, Japan, Korea and others are already well on the way to fixing language tables for their domain name addresses. They have published tables for inspection and discussion on the ICANN web site, and it soon it will be possible to type in a URL in the Hebrew alphabet, or in German with an umlaut as well as many other languages.
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