 |
 |
ad (1) I agree with the proposal of a mechanism to collect data for a 'waiting list' or for the sake of more completeness (again I would like to refer to my comments regarding the need for rules for the selection of names of languages among a variety of names and their order in the code entries), but I would consider the suggestion of a four letter code as problematic for several reasons. It would almost certainly cause confusion - some would use it as 'authoritative'. ad (2) If we lay down the rules for 'coding' dialects etc. and leave the concrete handling of that to national registration agencies (NOT Maintenance Agency nor Registration Authority in the ISO meaning) this could be (possibly with the exception of problematic geographical areas where ethnic communities are split or struggling for independance) a practical solution to an array of problems, where a 'central' JAC might always run into conflict. We might then have to modify the rules for using country identifiers in combination with language identifiers as standardized now - which should not be a major problem, since it would clarify matters. rgds Christian -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee [mailto:[log in to unmask]]Im Auftrag von Håvard Hjulstad Gesendet am: 06 September 2000 14:07 An: [log in to unmask] Betreff: "Part 3" of 639 Dear colleagues, At the ISO/TC37/SC2 meeting in London in August it was decided to include in the Work Programme of TC37/SC2 a Preliminary Work Item on language coding. It has been referred to as "639-3", but it must be underlined that it has not been decided to publish anything as a Standard, let alone that this would be suitable for a Part 3 of 639. I was asked by the meeting to make concrete proposals before the next meeting of TC37/SC2. This is intended to be a first tossing-around of ideas toward this. I think that there should be two separate exercises: (1) Adding to the current 639-1 and 639-2 database information about additional languages, as well as (even more) alternative names for the items that are currently included. We might device "ad hoc" four-letter identifiers with little or no formalities. These items could serve both as a "waiting-list" for consideration by the JAC for inclusion in 639-2 (and possibly 639-1), and as a general source of linguistic information that might be useful in many respects, within TC37 and beyond. The data collected would NOT be published as standard. (2) Developing (hopefully as an International Standard) a mechanism for additional coding of languages, including geographical variants, historical variants, etc. I do not expect that we would standardize, e.g. identifiers for German dialects, but rather establish mechanisms for such identification. We already have country identifiers as possible additional language coding, but actually how to use 3166 is not well defined, and there are so many problems involved. I would be grateful for feedback on this general outline. Best regards, Håvard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Håvard Hjulstad mailto:[log in to unmask] Rådet for teknisk terminologi (Norwegian Council for Technical Terminology) Postboks 41 Blindern NO-0313 Oslo, Norway (besøksadresse/visiting address: Forskningsveien 3 B) tel: +47-23198040 faks: +47-23198041 http://www.rtt.org/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~