Retired 639-3 codes

[Phillips, Addison]

> > The second reason was
> > that the time it took for the IETF to recognise the ISO-639-3 was
> > considered too long. The existing language policy requires an
> > ISO-639-3 code. When people want to have a Wikipedia for instance
> > in Latgalian, they have to ask for it and, they do.
> 
> There's no reason they couldn't have followed the rules of BCP 47,
> at least, and created private-use tags beginning with "x-" with
> subtags not exceeding 8 letters.

There are also the private use codes from ISO 639 (that do not require x-). And the registration mechanism for 5-8 letter primary language subtags for cases in which ISO 639 "gets it wrong". There is no reason to go about inventing subtags or tags that are invalid and I think Wikipedia is doing their users a disservice by not hewing to at least the tag formation rules of BCP 47. 

Addison

Addison Phillips
Globalization Architect -- Lab126

Internationalization is not a feature.
It is an architecture.