Dear Havard:
It seems we need to have a more complete rationale for this decision,
given what they have done to try to get this approved.
I received a large package from l'Academia Valenciana de la Llengua with
much supporting evidence-- but in the end it still doesn't seem to meet
the criteria. I think we will need to prepare something with more
details. Also, I would want to send a written letter to the people who
sent me the package at that academy (no email was included).
Here is some analysis that Millie did after we looked at the contents of
the package:
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Rebecca:
I found some information of interest on the Web relating to the
issue of Catalan/Valencian. Apparently the official body in change of
language matters for Valencia is the Academia Valenciana de la
Llengua. The members of this body (according to Wikipedia) are appointed
by the local government so the opinion of the body could change according
to political policies and the political party in control.
Of particular interest is a document that was issued by the
Academia Valenciana de la Llengua in February 2005. I have attached a
printout of portions of the document. The Academia recognizes
"Valencian" as the legal and official designation of the local language,
but recognizes that other names are also used.
The following paragraphs are rough translations of the marked
portions of the document.
1) As is known, one sector of Valencian society considers that the
language of the Valencians is the same as the language that is spoken in
other parts of the former Kingdom of Aragon, while another sector
considers that it is a different language.
2) The language of the Valencians, from the point of view of philology, is
also the language that is shared by the communities of Catalonia, the
Balearic Islands and Andorra. The different speech forms of these
territories constitute a single language, that is to say a "linguistic
system".
The Academia recognizes that there are certain characteristics of
the language of Valencia that differ from the language used in other
places. However, it compares this situation to the usage of Portuguese in
Portugal and Brazil or the usage of English in various countries.
I noticed that the spelling in this document conforms to certain
"Catalan" usage. The dictionary of the Real Academia de Cultura
Valenciana which you provided uses a different spelling practice,
especially regarding the use of "ll" in words for collection,
collaboration, etc.
Since the Academia Valenciana de la Llengua is the official body
on language matters, I think we should follow its view that there is one
language used in Valencia, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. We
currently call that language "Catalan" and "Valencian" could be added as
another name for the same language.
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Havard: I'll send you the mail address to send such a letter.
Rebecca
On Tue, 19 Sep 2006, [iso-8859-1] Håvard Hjulstad wrote:
> Dear Sirs,
>
> It seems that we may not have properly informed you about the following:
> ISO 639 RAs Joint Advisory Committee (JAC) has decided not to encode
> Valencian in ISO 639-2 (or in ISO 639-3, which will be published
> soon).
>
> Best regards,
> Håvard Hjulstad
> (secretary of ISO 639 RAs-JAC)
>
> --------------------
> Håvard Hjulstad
> Standard Norge / Standards Norway
> direkte tel / direct tel: (+47) 67838645
> mailto:[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> http://www.standard.no/ <http://www.standard.no/>
> --------------------
>
>
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