Dear Rebecca
I hope that you and others - particularly Haavard Hjulstad - on the
ISO 639 JAC will be able to help me with this one. I have just taken
a quick look at the resolutions in detail, and the following stands
out to me:
You wrote:
> Attached to this message is a file containing the resolutions from
> our ISO 639 JAC meeting on 17-18 Feb. 2000...
4.3.13.1 and 4.3.13.2 state:
> 13. Sami Languages/Northern Sami
>
> 1. Alpha-3 codes: change the definition of smi to Sami (other) and
> add sme for Northern Sami
>
> 2. Alpha-2 codes: change se (already in ISO 639-1) to be Northern
> Sami : Approved without the accent on Sami.
It appears that there is a rationale for doing exactly the same for
both existing codes (see the rationale below, which I quote from
Haavard Hjulstad) but not for doing one thing for ISO 639-1, and the
opposite for ISO 639-2.
In my own meeting notes, I have exactly the opposite listed,
particularly for ISO 639-2: if my record is wrong, please correct me,
but if it stands as it is,
the existing code in ISO 639-1 will represent _only_ Northern Sami, and
the existing code in ISO 639-2 will represent _everything_except_
Northern Sami.
My meeting notes say:
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Request Language ISO 639-1 ISO 639-2
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> se & smi Northern Sami Name change * Name change *
> ?? & sme Sami (other) New code New code
>
> * Previously used (in LC) for "Lapp", and previously (in ISO 639 and
> ISO 639-2) for "Sami languages."
>
> * Rationale: between 50% and 90% of all Sami publications are for
> Northern Sami. The previous situation was ambiguous, and the
> proposed name change for the existing codes was the solution which
> caused least need for changing earlier code allocations.
I look forward to clarification on this
Best regards
John Clews
--
John Clews, SESAME Computer Projects, 8 Avenue Rd, Harrogate, HG2 7PG
tel: 0171 412 7826 (day); 0171 272 8397 (evening); 01423 888 432 (w/e)
Email: [log in to unmask]
Committee Chair of ISO/TC46/SC2: Conversion of Written Languages;
Committee Member of ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC22/WG20: Internationalization;
Committee Member of CEN/TC304: Information and Communications
Technologies: European Localization Requirements
Committee Member of the Foundation for Endangered Languages;
Committee Member of ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC2: Coded Character Sets
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