Distinguishing Greek and Greek

[JFC (Jefsey) Morfin]

At 17:48 15/04/2005, L.Gillam wrote:


>On 15 April 2005 14:21 Jefsey Morfin declared:
>
> > ISO 639-3 pet idea is reference name in any language, who
> > care ... hmm! if
> > in English ... or autonyms (autonym for French being ...
> > "french"). Where
> > do you find the terms?
> >
> > Not really multitechnology: there are people here keeping
> > reminding that
> > most languages are not written. This is why you need an icon for them.
>
>I'm not sure whether this is an argument for or against 639-3, or
>for or against reference names.

Neither. More an observation that it is not easy. The list is actually an 
English list.

>I wonder, however, if Jefsey can
>think of a spoken language that cannot be named?

Please ... I just wonder how a person speaking a non written language can 
identified its script and its name written in that script.

>I think the "country flag" problem has been identified previously.

Flags are of interest only when a country has a national language and one 
wants to indicate that language in that country. This is one of the form of 
icon. But this is the same problem as the langtag: this is the same as the 
current bundled set of information (language+country). If you use the name 
of the language and the script, it is the same as a "en-Latn" langtag. That 
icon plus a flag would be like the en-Latn-UK langtag. etc.

jfc