Sign Languages and early 639 standards
Peter Constable
petercon at microsoft.com
Tue Oct 7 11:17:06 CEST 2008
From: ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no [mailto:ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no] On Behalf Of John Cowan
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2008 12:02 PM
> Chris Cox scripsit:
>> the absence of sign languages until 639-3 has IMO nothing to do with
>> recognition as languages but to do with the requirement for proof of some 50
>> published works in the language to qualify for a two or three letter
>> representation and name.
>
> The works need not be published...
Nonetheless, I think the gist of his suggested explanation is correct: ISO 639-1 and 639-2 were created to support particular needs, and nobody expressed a need in earlier periods to tag signed-language documents. That situation has definitely changed in the past decade.
Peter
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