<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>On the grounds that a language is something that occurs in various dialects that are mutually understandable to each other, I think that there should continue to be just a single language tag for Sanskrit. Panini, Wackernagel, and Whitney all described the language in single treatises and referred to different dialects (including Vedic) within their treatises. While some modern linguists would not mind referring to Vedic as a different language from Classical Sanskrit, in traditional circles in India this would not go over well at all. A nice vague term like 'classical' is just what is needed for the standard Sanskrit, even better than the term, 'standard', since it is what has been used for the past couple of hundred years.</div><div>Yours,</div><div>Peter</div><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000FF">*********************************************************</font></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000FF">Peter M. Scharf (401) 863-2720 office</font></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000FF">Department of Classics (401) 863-2123 dept.</font></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000FF">Brown University</font></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000FF">PO Box 1856 (401) 863-7484 fax</font></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000FF">Providence, RI 02912 </font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000FF"> </font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000FF"> <a href="mailto:Scharf@brown.edu">Scharf@brown.edu</a></font></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000FF"><a href="http://www.research.brown.edu/research/profile.php?id=10044">http://www.research.brown.edu/research/profile.php?id=10044</a></font></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000FF"><a href="http://sanskritlibrary.org/">http://sanskritlibrary.org</a>/</font></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000FF">*********************************************************</font></div></div></div></span> </div><br><div><div>On 16 Jul. 2010, at 7:16 AM, Michael Everson wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>On 16 Jul 2010, at 11:23, Martin J. Dürst wrote:<br><br><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">In this case, then, I should reject all four of these requests (without prejudice) and encourage Peter Scharf to make an application to ISO 639 for their consideration first. Only if they fail to be accepted would subtags need to be assigned.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">I think what Peter meant was not that you ask everybody, for every variant, to first go to ISO 639-3, but that for the list given, and for other variants that contain the adjective "classical", you ask the submitter whether such a variant might not actually be better seen as a language in its own right (and therefore be sumbitted to ISO 639-3).<br></blockquote><br>In this case, however, I think it is clear that Vedic Sanskrit would probably merit a three-letter code of its own. That would give a single code for Sanskrit, and one for Vedic Sanskrit.<br><br>Then the question is, what is the relation between Epic Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit, and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit to "Sanskrit"? <br><br>I think that Peter Scharf should take this on board and make a determination as to what he should ask ISO 639 for. Then if there is anything left over we should consider what should be done in the context of subtags.<br><br>Michael Everson * <a href="http://www.evertype.com/">http://www.evertype.com/</a><br><br></div></blockquote></div><br></body></html>