Christian's email [originally quoted in Re: Walloon: resolution
needed] has raised some very useful points. Most importantly, he has
suggested that it is important to distinguish languages from
dialects.
NB: that has prompted me to identify 4 criteria (a) - (d) which
I think can be consistently applied both to existing codes, and
potential new codes, fairly simply.
In my view, any linguistic entity which meets _all_ of criteria (a) -
(d) (described below) should be accepted as a separate language, and
ideally allocated a code, while if less than all four are met, the
linguistic entity in question probably should not be accepted as a
separate language, or allocated a code.
If JAC members could look at the discussion below, and think of any
areas where there are cases where there are legitimate languages
which do not meet all of (a) - (d), I'd be grateful.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ISO JAC Voting Member List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
> Christian Galinski
> Sent: 18. januar 2002 00:13
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [JACVOTE] AW: [JACVOTE] AW: [JACVOTE] Ballot: Walloon
>
>
> May I reformulate my arguments:
>
> I did not approve inclusion in ISO 639-1 for the following reasons:
> If we include Walloon, we also have to include all kinds of variants for
> major languages, like
> enUS, enAU, enNZ, enUK etc.
> deAT, deDE, deCH, etc.
> not to mention Chinese, French, etc...
>
> On the other hand, we have cases, like Bosnian, Slowakian, etc. If
> I am wrong, please correct me.
I think you are wrong, so I am correcting you :-)
Let me explain why. I think that two things are being confused.
Hopefully the criteria proposed below will provide a means of
overcoming this.
Talking principally of written languages, and ignoring spoken
languages, helps solve this problem, and this is the approach taken
in both parts of ISO 639.
Using the proposed criteria, it is possible to distinguish
1. Separate languages, which have
(a) an established orthography,
(b) a separate usage,
(c) a separate language name and
(d) a body of works using that orthography over a significant
period of time, against
2. Dialects of any of the above, which don't have all four of
Critera (a) - (d).
Taking those criteria, this works so that
GROUP 1
1. Bosnian, Slovak, Nynorsk, Bokmaal, and Walloon all fit criteria
(a) - (d) while (a) - (d) do not apply to group 2 below.
GROUP 2
2.1 What you describe as enUS, enAU, enNZ, enUK etc., are all
described as English by their users, and it is difficult to pick
out even any language variants from a short sample. Even for
English as used in the US, the major differences are only some of
spelling (color/colour etc) and usage (carpark/parking lot) and
there is no mutual unintelligibility.
Similarly, what you describe as deAT, deDE, deCH, etc., are all
described as German by their users, and it is difficult to pick
out even any language variants from a short sample. Even for
German as used in Switzerland, the major differences are only some
of spelling (use of ESSZET/SHARP ESS or not) and usage
(Kartoffel/Erdapfel, etc) and there is no mutual
unintelligibility.
> not to mention Chinese, French, etc.
For Chinese, users of Hakka Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese
Chinese etc. all think of themselves as writing Chinese, and as
Chinese people. NB: it is normal practice in the People's
republic of China to subtitle TV historic dramas etc, so that the
drama can be followed in whatever part of China viewers are
watching. They are reading Chinese, even if they speak the same
written words using different pronunication and different
synonyms which predominate in their own (very large) areas.
Criteria (a) - (d) do not apply here.
French is a slightly different kettle of fish, but the same
criteria apply. There are various languages of France, some of
which have dialects. I would refer you to the JAC document N19
(February 2002) which lists several different language families.
It lists the main related _languages_ of metropolitan France as
Franco-provencal, Occitan, and French, and also lists various
dialects of each. Criteria (a) - (d) apply to each of
Franco-provencal, Occitan, and French.
However, criteria (a) - (d) do not apply to each of the dialects
listed (see below), though they do apply to at least Walloon.
NB: There is some work to do here, in both ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2.
Current Occitan and current Franco-provencale needs separate codes,
as they currently share only one code. Older provencale is not used
currently, but has a large written repertoire, and should retain the
code it has. Occitan is much less influenced by Italian than is
Franco-provencale.
For current languages, there should be three codes for three
languages (Occitan, Franco-Provencale and French). Users may need
guidance on distinguishing Occitan and Franco-Provencale, which may
be done by providing links to sample texts in those languages.
Dialects
I have not yet looked into the language/dialect status of linguistic
entities related to Occitan (JAC N19 lists Gascon, Languedocian,
Provencal, Auvergnat-Limousin, Alpin Dauphinois) but the (a) - (d)
criteria should be useful in sorting them out.
Similarly, I have not yet looked into the language/dialect status of
linguistic entities related to French (JAC N19 lists as langues d'oil
the entities Franc-Comtois, Walloon, Picard, Norman,
Poetevin-Saintongeais), Bourguignon-Morvandiau, and Lorraine). Again,
the (a) - (d) criteria should be useful in sorting them out.
Walloon is listed in 1, not in 2, as it meets criteria (a) - (d).
The JAC's recent decision on Walloon also fits in with this.
But anyway using (a) to (d) as criteria should enable the JAC to
apply consistent benchmarks that also fit in with existing practice
of ISO 639, ISO 639-2 and the various registrations already made both
both RAs and the JAC.
Are there any problems with that? I'd be glad to see comments.
Best regards
John Clews
--
John Clews,
Keytempo Limited (Information Management),
8 Avenue Rd, Harrogate, HG2 7PG
Email: [log in to unmask]
tel: +44 1423 888 432;
Committee Member of ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC22/WG20: Internationalization;
Committee Member of ISO/TC37/SC2/WG1: Language Codes
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