In a way IT IS stabilized.<br><br>see below <br><br><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-1">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-1</a><br><p><b>New ISO 639-1 codes are not added if an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-2">ISO 639-2</a> code exists, so systems that use ISO 639-1 and 639-2 codes, with 639-1 codes preferred, do not have to change existing codes.<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-1#cite_note-0"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup></b></p>

<p>If an ISO 639-2 code that covers a group of languages is used, it 
might be overridden for some specific languages by a new ISO 639-1 code.</p>

<table class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin: 1em auto 1em auto"><caption>ISO 639-1 codes added after RFC publication in January 2001</caption>
<tbody><tr>
<th>ISO 639-1</th>
<th>ISO 639-2</th>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Date added</th>
<th>Previously covered by</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>io</td>
<td>ido</td>
<td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ido">Ido</a></td>
<td>2002-01-15</td>
<td>art</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>wa</td>
<td>wln</td>
<td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walloon_language" title="Walloon language">Wallon</a></td>
<td>2002-01-29</td>
<td>roa</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>li</td>
<td>lim</td>
<td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limburgish" class="mw-redirect" title="Limburgish">Limburgish</a></td>
<td>2002-08-02</td>
<td>gem</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>ii</td>
<td>iii</td>
<td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_language" title="Yi language" class="mw-redirect">Sichuan Yi</a></td>
<td>2002-10-14</td>
<td>sit</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>an</td>
<td>arg</td>
<td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aragonese_language" title="Aragonese language">Aragonese</a></td>
<td>2002-12-23</td>
<td>roa</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>ht</td>
<td>hat</td>
<td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Creole" class="mw-redirect" title="Haitian Creole">Haitian Creole</a></td>
<td>2003-02-26</td>
<td>cpf</td></tr></tbody></table>I am not sure this was the best way to solve the problem...<br><br>In ISO 3166-1 each country or dependent entity has BOTH an alpha-2 and an alpha-3 code point.<br>In some cases it can be useful to use one and some cases to use the other one.<br>
<br>It seems (from the request that originated this discussion) that it may be the same for official (or administrative) languages of indenpendant countries.<br><br>If in ISO 639 things are frozen until the end of the world then...we&#39;ll have to wait for a long time !<br>
<br>Best regards<br><br>FD<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2011/4/18 Michael Everson <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a href="mailto:[log in to unmask]"><a href="/cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A3%3Dind1104%26L%3DISOJAC%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D156726%26B%3D--90e6ba5bbb1d56576f04a136ccbd%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3DISO-8859-1" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a></a>&gt;</span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Should ISO 639-1 be formally stabilized?<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Michael Everson * <a href="http://www.evertype.com/" target="_blank">http://www.evertype.com/</a><br>
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