ISO 639 JAC decision re mo/mol

[Rebecca S Guenther]

Dear Ihar Mahaniok:

Linguistically, Moldovan is a variant of the language also known as
Romanian, so it will use the same identifier (ro (639-1), ron (639-2/T,
rum (639-2/B)). Language identifiers are not intended to be
abbreviations of the language, although at times they are based on some
form of a particular language name. A script code could be added to
indicate the Cyrillic script. ISO 639-2 does not standardize language
names; it only standardizes the linguisitic entity by use of a language
identifier. The name Moldovan will be added to this identifier as a
variant name (The ISO 639 lists do not have "preferred" names, only
alternate names).
See also the description in Ethnologue:
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Moldova

Rebecca Guenther
Chair, ISO 639-2 Joint Advisory Committee

Rebecca S. Guenther                                                    
  
 Senior Networking and Standards Specialist                  
 Network Development and MARC Standards Office     
 Library of Congress   
 101 Independence Ave. SE                                       
 Washington, DC 20540                                                  
   
 Washington, DC 20540-4402                                          
 (202) 707-5092 (voice)    (202) 707-0115 (FAX)           
 rgue at loc.gov

>>> "Ihar Mahaniok" <mahaniok at gmail.com> 11/03/08 3:21 PM >>>
Hi all,

How is the official language of Transnistrian Moldovan Republic to be
identified from now on?
They use Moldovan in Cyrillic script, and both people and authorities
of this de-facto independent territory would definitely object calling
this language "Romanian".

Ihar

On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 11:43 AM, Håvard Hjulstad <HHj at standard.no>
wrote:
> The ISO 639 Registration Authorities' Joint Advisory Committee has
decided:
>
>
>
> The identifiers mo and mol are deprecated
>
> leaving ro and ron/rum the current language identifiers to be used
for the
> variant of the Romanian language also known as Moldavian and Moldovan
in
> English and moldave in French. (The identifier ron is used in the ISO
639-2
> T table; the identifier rum in the ISO 639-2 B table.)
>
>
>
> The identifiers mo and mol will not be assigned to different items,
and
> recordings using these identifiers will not be invalid.
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Håvard Hjulstad
>
>
>
> --------------------
>
> Håvard Hjulstad
>
>   Standard Norge / Standards Norway
>   Postboks 242, NO-1326 Lysaker
>   besøksadresse / visiting address: Strandveien 18
>
>   tel: (+47) 67838600  |  faks / fax: (+47) 67838601
>
>   direkte tel / direct tel: (+47) 67838645
>
>   hhj at standard.no 
>
>   http://www.standard.no/ 
>
> --------------------
>
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