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Dear Rebecca I hope that you and others - particularly Haavard Hjulstad - on the ISO 639 JAC will be able to help me with this one. I have just taken a quick look at the resolutions in detail, and the following stands out to me: You wrote: > Attached to this message is a file containing the resolutions from > our ISO 639 JAC meeting on 17-18 Feb. 2000... 4.3.13.1 and 4.3.13.2 state: > 13. Sami Languages/Northern Sami > > 1. Alpha-3 codes: change the definition of smi to Sami (other) and > add sme for Northern Sami > > 2. Alpha-2 codes: change se (already in ISO 639-1) to be Northern > Sami : Approved without the accent on Sami. It appears that there is a rationale for doing exactly the same for both existing codes (see the rationale below, which I quote from Haavard Hjulstad) but not for doing one thing for ISO 639-1, and the opposite for ISO 639-2. In my own meeting notes, I have exactly the opposite listed, particularly for ISO 639-2: if my record is wrong, please correct me, but if it stands as it is, the existing code in ISO 639-1 will represent _only_ Northern Sami, and the existing code in ISO 639-2 will represent _everything_except_ Northern Sami. My meeting notes say: > ------------------------------------------------------------ > Request Language ISO 639-1 ISO 639-2 > ------------------------------------------------------------ > > se & smi Northern Sami Name change * Name change * > ?? & sme Sami (other) New code New code > > * Previously used (in LC) for "Lapp", and previously (in ISO 639 and > ISO 639-2) for "Sami languages." > > * Rationale: between 50% and 90% of all Sami publications are for > Northern Sami. The previous situation was ambiguous, and the > proposed name change for the existing codes was the solution which > caused least need for changing earlier code allocations. I look forward to clarification on this Best regards John Clews -- John Clews, SESAME Computer Projects, 8 Avenue Rd, Harrogate, HG2 7PG tel: 0171 412 7826 (day); 0171 272 8397 (evening); 01423 888 432 (w/e) Email: [log in to unmask] Committee Chair of ISO/TC46/SC2: Conversion of Written Languages; Committee Member of ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC22/WG20: Internationalization; Committee Member of CEN/TC304: Information and Communications Technologies: European Localization Requirements Committee Member of the Foundation for Endangered Languages; Committee Member of ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC2: Coded Character Sets