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Hallo Rebecca,
I just returned from Valencia and can provide you with authentic news about Valencian. I was confronted with the question already right at the airport: bilingual signs (in Castillian and Valencian) at the airport and throughout the highway and the city of Valencia.
Irrespective of scientific contemplations, Valenciano today is an officially recognized language in the Valencian region of Spain. Whether you consider this a dialect of Catalan or not, does not really count, if the Valencians themselves consider this as their own language (and insist on it).
This reminds me of another early discussion about such cases: we stated more or less that a language is, what people consider as a/their language (especially if this enjoys official recognition).
In this connection I see here
- a small problem for the alpha-2 code, if there is not sufficient evidence for documents written in specialized language (but I am sure this exists in Valenciano, as it is an official language there which has to be used in administration, at court, by police, etc.)
- no problem for the alpha-3 code, where there are enough letter combinations available.
If there is a request for a 3-letter code element, why not grant it (while trying to avoid a 2-letter code element for the reason of lack of urgent need).
Best regards
Christian
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee [mailto:[log in to unmask]]Im Auftrag
von Rebecca S. Guenther
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 13. März 2003 15:58
An: [log in to unmask]
Betreff: Re: A question about a language (fwd)
I received a request from this person for a language code for
Valencian (see below). He was pleased with my proposal to include the
language name with Catalan. I just wanted to let the JAC know that I plan
to do this and see if there are any objections.
Rebecca
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 11:56:23 -0500 (EST)
From: Rebecca S. Guenther <[log in to unmask]>
To: Tomas Miralles <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: A question about a language
We have considered Valencian a variant of Catalan and have included it in
that code. Sometimes when we discover this sort of omission we add that
language name to the list with the code assigned. Since this is a variant
and uses the code of Catalan, we could change to:
Catalan; Valencian cat
then in the "V" section we would add:
Valencian; Catalan cat
There is the alternative to fill out the form for a new language code, but
I think in this case the committee would still consider it a variant and
it is our policy to include it as I detailed above. The form is at:
http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/iso639-2form.html
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^ Rebecca S. Guenther ^^
^^ Chair, ISO 639-2 Maintenance Agency ^^
^^ Senior Networking and Standards Specialist ^^
^^ Library of Congress ^^
^^ Washington, DC 20540-4402 ^^
^^ (202) 707-5092 (voice) (202) 707-0115 (FAX) ^^
^^ [log in to unmask] ^^
^^ ^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
On Fri, 7 Mar 2003, Tomas Miralles wrote:
>
> Dear friends,
>
> I'm writing you because I have entered in your web about "codes for the
> representation of names of languages and I would like to know why my mother
> lenguage (valencian; a variant of catalan but independent of this,
> recognized in Spain by the Statuts) doesn't appear at list.
>
> Valencian have own history and great writers like Joanot Martorell.
> I would like that you gave me a code for valencian and if not, the reasons
> by witch do not appear valencian at list. I do not understand why appear a
> great number of lenguages spoken all arround the world and don't my
> lenguage.
>
> Please, excuse me for my poor english, I'm waiting for your reply,
> thanks you very much for your time.
>
> Bye
>
>
>
>
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