SC22/WG20 N912
From:
Peter_Constable@sil.org
Sent:
Wednesday, February 13, 2002 5:59 PM
Subject: Analysis of ISO 639 and mappings
to SIL Ethnologue
In
connection to work that Gary Simons and I have been doing in interaction with
ISO/TC 37/SC 2/WG 1, we have added some new pages to the Ethnologue web site
that present an analysis we have done of the existing ISO 639 language codes
together with a proposed mapping of those codes to entries in the SIL
Ethnologue. Here are some relevant URLs:
- http://www.ethnologue.com/iso639/
-- entry point and intro (the following pages can be reached via links from
this page)
- http://www.ethnologue.com/iso639/codes.asp
-- a table of current ISO 639 codes, with links for each code to a report
showing our proposed mapping to Ethnologue entries
- http://www.ethnologue.com/iso639/analysis.asp
-- our analysis of ISO 639 codes
- http://www.ethnologue.com/iso639/An_analysis_of_ISO_639.pdf
-- a paper describing the principles by which we derived our proposed mapping
and some issues that arise from the analysis (this is the paper I presented at
IUC 20)
- http://www.ethnologue.com/codes/ --
information on the codes used in the Ethnologue, with links to downloadable
files containing core language data from the Ethnologue
From
the first page mentioned above, you will find links to downloadable files
containing the mapping data.
It
should be noted that our analysis and proposed mapping have not been approved
by ISO, though they are being given consideration. Some of the principles we
adopted in deciding on mappings may turn out to be different from what ISO
would want to adopt. We adopted those principles based on our understanding of
what would best suit the interests of TC 37 (though not necessarily TC 46 --
due mainly to the circumstance of which committee we happened to be interacting
with), and viewed them as a proposal for ISO to consider and revise as might be
needed.
- Peter
Non-Roman
Script Initiative, SIL International
7500 W.
Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
Tel: +1
972 708 7485
E-mail:
<peter_constable@sil.org>