ISO 639-3 releases list of 2009 changes

[John Cowan]

Mark Davis â?? scripsit:

> The way we have it set up, it isn't for us to decide. But consumers of BCP47
> (like CLDR) do have to, if ISO continues to change languages into
> macrolanguages (will German be next?).

Very improbable, given the description of 'de(u)' in Ethnologue.
Though Ethnologue is no more immune to error than ISO 639 [*], it does
provide the denotation of the vast majority of 639-3 code elements, and
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=deu is clearly about
Standard German as spoken from Belgium to Kazakhstan, not any other kind
of German.  It would be a massive and unnecessary widening of the term
to turn it into a macrolanguage of any sort.

[*] For example, the 639-3/RA points out that Ethnologue is incorrect
in saying that the creole of Martinique is Guadelopean Creole French
'gcf'; in fact it is Saint Lucian Creole French 'acf'.  A proposal was
made this year to change the name of 'acf' to "Martiniquan Creole French"
on historical grounds, which the RA rejected as insufficiently helpful.

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