Ietf-languages Digest, Vol 74, Issue 1
Debbie Garside
debbie at ictmarketing.co.uk
Mon Feb 23 11:52:03 CET 2009
Hi Anthony
ISO FDIS 639-6 will be published shortly (within 4-5 weeks)! The data
supporting the standard includes many additional sub-grouping codes and uses
the alpha4 code space for new entries into the ISO 639 family. I am sure
that the names we have used and the mixing of geographical and genetic
groupings etc. will also make you and your colleagues cringe - but there is
an old saying - you can please some of the people some of the time, and some
of the people all of the time but you cannot please all of the people all of
the time :-)
However, that said, we currently have 26,000 linguistic entities and this
will rise to 30,000+ when the project has been completed - later this year.
I am sure that this will keep linguists busy for a while and there will also
be scope for adding entities to ISO 639-6. ISO 639-6 incorporates ISO 639-3
and ISO 639-5 and is hierarchical in nature - mother/child/sibling
relationships.
It would have been nice to work with people on this but unfortunately a lack
of funds has meant that we could not provide the system for the public
verification process as was first planned. However, it is not too late and
if you send me your data I will endeavor to map it onto the standardized
data and change names as appropriate. Are you a splitter or a clumper :-)
I will let you (and everyone else) know when the code becomes available -
hopefully when the concept database comes on line later this year. GeoLang
Ltd is currently the proposed RA.
Kind regards
Debbie
Editor ISO FDIS 639-6
Debbie Garside
Managing Director
GeoLang Ltd
Corner House
Barn Street
Haverfordwest
Pembrokeshire SA61 1BW
Wales UK
Tel: 0044 1437 766441
Web: http://www.geolang.com
-----Original Message-----
From: ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no
[mailto:ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no] On Behalf Of Anthony Aristar
Sent: 21 February 2009 14:51
To: ietf-languages at alvestrand.no
Subject: Re: Ietf-languages Digest, Vol 74, Issue 1
Good to hear this, but unfortunately the ISO 639-5 standard is really a
problem.
First, it is, like the original 639-1, so small as to be relatively
useless. The fact that it can be expanded through the normal change
process is not very useful: it will take a *LONG* time to get
everything in that we as linguists need. I might note that, as of
today, we are using well over 2200 subgrouping codes in our MultiTree
project--and the number keeps going up-- and the 110 codes that are in
the 639-5 set are a twentieth of that, In addition, the code-set is a
mish-mash that is very reminiscent of the mess that ISO 639-1/2 were
before ISO 639-3 came along: it has geographical groupings mixed up
with genetic groupings, for example, and some of the names used are
enough to make linguists cringe.
Second, the use of Alpha-3 makes the codes easily confusable with ISO
639-3 . I know of at least one project that simply wont use them
because of this.
Anyway, we need a real set of subgrouping codes, but to my knowledge the
attempt to produce one has stalled...
--
**************************************
Anthony Aristar, Director, Institute for Language & Information Technology
Professor of Linguistics Moderator, LINGUIST Linguistics
Program
Dept. of English aristar at linguistlist.org
Eastern Michigan University 2000 Huron River Dr, Suite 104
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
U.S.A.
URL: http://linguistlist.org/aristar/
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. ISO 639-5 code list is available (Rebecca S Guenther)
> 2. Re: ISO 639-5 code list is available (Doug Ewell)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:19:50 -0500
> From: "Rebecca S Guenther" <rgue at loc.gov>
> Subject: ISO 639-5 code list is available
> To: <iso639 at dkuug.dk>, <ietf-languages at iana.org>
> Message-ID: <499EC83E020000680003F32E at ntgwgate.loc.gov>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
> The ISO 639-5 code list (Codes for the Representation of Names of
Languages. Part 5: Alpha-3 code for language families and groups) is now
available from the Library of Congress, which has been designated its
Registration authority:
> http://www.loc.gov:8081/standards/iso639-5/
>
> ISO 639-5 provides a code consisting of language code elements comprising
three-letter language identifiers for the representation of names of living
and extinct language families and groups.
>
> ISO 639-2 (Alpha-3 code) includes some language groups and language
families, but by no means a complete list. The purpose of the code elements
for language groups and language families in ISO 639-2 is to provide a means
to register the language of a document even when the individual language in
question is not included in the code table because it doesn't meet the
criteria for establishing a separate code. ISO 639-5 supplements the coding
of language groups and language families in ISO 639-2. However, the depth
and detail of coding in ISO 639-5 is intended to support the overall
language coding of the ISO 639 series of International Standards rather than
provide a scientific classification of the languages of the world.
>
> The list will be maintained by the ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee with
the Library of Congress as Registration Authority.
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:46:26 -0700
> From: "Doug Ewell" <doug at ewellic.org>
> Subject: Re: ISO 639-5 code list is available
> To: <ietf-languages at iana.org>
> Message-ID: <64B5831CBF164E66A1D2FC63D3CE3615 at DGBP7M81>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="utf-8";
> reply-type=original
>
> Rebecca S Guenther <rgue at loc dot gov> wrote:
>
>
>> The ISO 639-5 code list (Codes for the Representation of Names of
>> Languages. Part 5: Alpha-3 code for language families and groups) is
>> now available from the Library of Congress, which has been designated
>> its Registration authority:
>> http://www.loc.gov:8081/standards/iso639-5/
>>
>
> for (int i = 1; i <= 3; i++)
> Console.WriteLine("Hip hip hooray!");
>
> --
> Doug Ewell * Thornton, Colorado, USA * RFC 4645 * UTN #14
> http://www.ewellic.org
> http://www1.ietf.org/html.charters/ltru-charter.html
> http://www.alvestrand.no/mailman/listinfo/ietf-languages ?
>
>
>
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> End of Ietf-languages Digest, Vol 74, Issue 1
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