Language Variant subtags for Sanskrit

[Michael Everson]

On 16 Jul 2010, at 11:23, Martin J. Dürst wrote:

>> 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.
> 
> 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).

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.

Then the question is, what is the relation between Epic Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit, and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit to "Sanskrit"? 

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.

Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/