Dear ISO JAC members:

The ballot that was voted on recently requesting a 2-character language
code for Geez was unanimously rejected by the ISO JAC. The reasons given
were:

- According to expert information GEEZ is an 'old' language, which
today is only used for liturgy purposes in church. It is not used for
modern specialized/professional communication purposes. Therefore, it does not
qualify for inclusion in 639-1 according to the rules for two-letter
identifiers in the alpha-2 code. (Thank you, Christian, for these
well-stated comments)

- The changed status of RFC 1766 (i.e. the new RFC 3066)

- The alpha-2 list should have only a very limited number of historical
languages

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^ Rebecca S. Guenther ^^
^^ Chair, ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee ^^
^^ Senior Networking and Standards Specialist ^^
^^ Library of Congress ^^
^^ Washington, DC 20540-4402 ^^
^^ (202) 707-5092 (voice) (202) 707-0115 (FAX) ^^
^^ [log in to unmask] ^^
^^ ^^
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