Re: ISO 639-3

> From: Gianni Vacca [mailto:xiongyaliren@...]

Before going further, this is rather off-topic for this list, so we need
to be prepared to take it offline if this goes much further or if people
complain.

> I am referring to the document titled
> 'IssuesToResolveISO639_v2a.pdf', which I downloaded
> from sil.org, and apparently written by you.
>
> Paragraph 4.10 is devoted to the Occitan language.

That document was initially prepared on very short notice, and I did not
have time to consult with any linguists with particular knowledge of
those languages. Nothing within it constitutes any decisions; everything
was simply a starting point for discussion and further investigation by
the members of the ISO 639/RA Joint Advisory Committee.

> -why did you look for input from a Frenchman about a
> language that has achieved official status in Spain
> (Catalonia) and in Italy (Piedmont, Calabria), and not
> in France?
> -why does a language fully recognised as _one_
> language and not as a 'family of languages' by
> academic studies about Romance languages, the Spanish
> State, the Italian State,the Regional governments of
> several French regions, the French Education
> Nationale, the French Delegation Generale a la Langue
> Francaise et aux Langues de France suddenly disappear
> because of the whim of one single organisation (SIL)?

It's not clear to me if all of these points were in relation to Occitan;
if not, then I don't know what situations you're referring to. Please
clarify if these points were not in relation to Occitan.

In the case of Occitan, the feedback obtained by the JAC supports a
decision not to list separate items under Occitan, so unless there is
further feedback to the contrary, I will be removing those entries from
the code table for ISO 639-3 after this round of balloting completes.

As for the analyses reflected in the SIL Ethnologue, I know that nothing
in there is a whim. There was *some* reasonable basis for every
decision. That does not mean every decision is accepted by all, or that
every decision was the best decision. It is a report of *on-going*
research that is recognized to be yet imperfect and incomplete.


Please let me know if you have further questions.


Peter Constable