Arsa John Clews:
> ...
> In formal terms 2-letter codes are basically the province of
> ISO/TC37, ISO/TC37/SC2 and ISO/TC37/SC2/WG1, and the ISO 639
> Maintenance Agency, and its not clear how much ISO/TC37, ISO/TC37/SC2
> and ISO/TC37/SC2/WG1 have delegated to the ISO 639 Joint Advisory
> Committee.
> ...
> John Clews
All of the above, plus the LOC/TC 46 groups formally responsible for ISO 639-2
requests have in practice, ceded/delegated all code-assigning decisions to the
ISO 639 JAC, which is probably the best way to achieve harmonization between
the two parts of ISO 639, and at the same time achieve maximum transparency
with regard to the actual processing of requests for codes needed.
My recommendation, as an Observer, is that ISO 639 JAC adopt the simple
protocol (standard in many EU-run systems), whereby applicants for [whatever]
are issued a numbered checklist of requirements, which list is returned to
them after their applications have been duly processed in line with published
protocols, with an X marking the specific point(s) on which they failed to
qualify.
I recommend all applicants for new ISO 639 JAC two- and/or three-letter codes
be personally issued precisely such responses, beginning with the Friulians,
that is, I recommend that Dr. Giorgio Cadorini of the Osservatori Regjonal de
Lenghe e de Culture Furlanis (OLF) in Italy to be sent a standard letter,
which will serve as a model to be used for all subsequent requesters.
I attach a sample ISO 639-2 response (a straight dump of page
<http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/criteria2.html> with numbers added),
to which one only need add, for the information of applicants, an X against
whichever of the 5 points listed their proposal failed to satisfy, and the
date on which the JAC took the relevant decison.
mg
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Criteria for ISO 639-2
The following criteria for defining new languages in ISO 639-2 has been established
by the ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee.
It is published in ISO 639-2, sections 4.1.1, 4.1.3, and A.2.1 and supplemented by
resolutions made by the Joint Advisory
Committee.
1. Number of documents.
The request for a new language code shall include evidence that one agency
holds 50 different documents in the language
or that five agencies hold a total of 50 different documents among them in the
language. Documents include all forms of
material and is not limited to text.
2. Collective codes.
If the criteria above are not met the language may be assigned a new or
existing collective language code. The words
languages or other as part of a language name indicates that a language code
is a collective one.
3. Scripts.
A single language code is normally provided for a language even though the
language is written in more than one script.
ISO DIS 15924 Codes for the representation of names of scripts is under
development by ISO/TC46/SC2.
4. Dialects.
A dialect of a language is usually represented by the same language code as
that used for the language. If the language is
assigned to a collective language code, the dialect is assigned to the same
collective language code. The difference
between dialects and languages will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
5. Orthography.
A language using more than one orthography is not given multiple language
codes.
ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee Home - ISO 639-1 Registration
Authority Home
--
Marion Gunn
Everson Gunn Teoranta
<http://www.egt.ie>
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