[bug-gettext] [bug #47838] Confusing "main dialect" statement for $LANGUAGE

[John Cowan]

Follow-up Comment #1, bug #47838 (project gettext):

In addition, the notion of a "main dialect" is an invitation to politically
motivated disputes.  Which is the "main dialect" of English, en_GB (by
history) or en_US (by population)?  Does it matter that most of the rest of
the anglophone world aligns in most respects with en_GB?

In BCP 47 the meaning of a primary language subtag unqualified by a region
subtag is simply "the specified language, regional variant not given".  For
some languages including English and Portuguese, there are no neutral variants
and implementers must choose, but specifying "en" signals a willingness to
accept _any_ variety of English.

Suggested text:

In the LANGUAGE environment variable, but not in the other environment
variables, ‘ll_CC’ combinations can be abbreviated  as ‘ll’ to denote
an unspecified regional variety of the language, or (in some cases) a variety
of the language which is not regionally identifiable.  This is dependent on
the presence of MO files for the specified domain.

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