Dear ISO 639 JAC members:
You may recall the message that Havard sent a few months ago (see
below) about commenting on the draft of ISO 3166 (It appears that it is a
CD, not DIS according to the information I received from NISO.)
Below are the comments I submitted to NISO as the US member body of
ISO/TC46. I encourage others to do the same. Feel free to use any part of
this message. If some of you want to review the details of what was
included in the draft as "official languages" that would be helpful. I did
not do that.
From [log in to unmask] Thu Jul 21 11:24:14 2005
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 11:13:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: Rebecca S. Guenther <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc: [log in to unmask]
Subject: ISO/DIS 3166-1
I have some comments on ISO 3166 part 1 (Country codes) on behalf of the
ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee. I guess the best thing would be to
submit them as US comments. Others from our committee may submit these to
their member bodies (thanks to Havard Hjulstad for pointing this out).
Comments: Tables 9 and 10 of ISO CD 3166-1, include (as normative
information) language identifiers for "official languages". It is not
desirable to standardize this information in this way. The notion of
"official language" is not discussed in the document. The concepts related
to "language status" vary a lot between countries that have somehow
legalized the issue, and the actual implication of status as "official
language" or "national language" or "recognized minority language" etc.
(there are a lot more terms in circulation) varies a lot and may be of
great importance in many cases. Members of the ISO 639 Joint Advisory
Committee have also found errors in the tables, to be submitted as they
are found.
It is recommended that information (be it indeed right or wrong) about
"official languages" should be removed from ISO 3166-1, or at least
alternatively moved from the normative part to an informative annex.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^ Rebecca S. Guenther ^^
^^ Chair, ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee/ISO 639-2 ^^
^^ Registration Authority ^^
^^ 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 Thu, 21 Apr 2005, [iso-8859-1] Håvard Hjulstad wrote:
> Dear members of ISO/TC37/SC2/WG1 (language coding),
>
> As convener of WG1 I would like to draw your attention to ISO/DIS 3166-1
> "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions -
> Part 1: Country codes". DIS voting started on 2005-02-24 and terminates on
> 2005-07-24. It is ISO/TC46 that is responsible for the document.
>
> >From a language coding point of view it is reason to look at the document,
> and possibly to try to influence national commenting and voting.
>
> In particular you should take a look at the tables in chapter 9 and 10.
> These tables include (as normative information) language identifiers for
> "official languages". Personally I find it highly questionable that ISO
> "standardizes" this information. The notion of "official language" is not
> discussed in the document. The concepts related to "language status" vary a
> lot between countries that have somehow legalized the issue, and the actual
> implication of status as "official language" or "national language" or
> "recognized minority language" etc. (there are a lot more terms in
> circulation) varies a lot and may be of great importance in many cases. I
> have also detected errors in the tables (which I have included in the
> comments that our National Member Body plans to submit). Other will probably
> find more errors.
>
> I think "language coding people" should comment on the document through our
> National Member Bodies. My personal opinion is that information (be it
> indeed right or wrong) about "official languages" should be removed from ISO
> 3166-1, alternatively moved from the normative part to an informative annex.
> There is of course no need for TC37/SC2/WG1 to agree in any way on this;
> each member does as he/she thinks is best.
>
> Best regards,
> Håvard Hjulstad
> (convener TC37/SC2/WG1)
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Håvard Hjulstad
> Standard Norge / Standards Norway
> P.O.Box 242, NO-1326 Lysaker (Norway)
> +47 67838645 (direct) fax: +47 67838601
> http://www.standard.no/ <http://www.standard.no/>
> mailto:[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
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