On Wed, 29 Mar 2000, Hedberg Sten wrote:

> There might be a need for some diplomacy, but we must stick to our rules,
> decisions and sets.

We are particularly concerned with stability in the ISO language codes,
since these have been in use for many years in bibliographic applications.
We cannot change the ISO 639-2 codes to align with SIL codes for this
reason. However, when a new language is proposed for ISO 639-2 and it
meets the stated criteria, we can consider adopting the SIL code if it
fits the principles established for determining the code. I'm not sure how
often it will, since the SIL codes do not seem to be based on the
vernacular, but in some cases it will.

Ethnologue is certainly an important reference source in our work for
determining variant forms and more information about languages.

Rebecca