Hi
Jumping in on this discussion, a few of us met with a group of linguists in
Tunisia who are revising the language codes to create a far more complex and
inclusive system that will include dialects, spoken and written forms, etc.
These linguists represent academic institutions in Europe and Japan, and are
acutely aware of the issues that come under discussion here.
I'll start by saying how pleased they were with the multilingualism of
Wikipedia. In fact, their study proved that we are the most linguistically diverse
site on the Internet. They want to work with us, and are developing a new
coding system for languages that will cover approx. 25,000 languages and
dialects. With their advice and support, I believe that in a short time we will be
able to resolve many of these issues once and for all. And they are extremely
interested in cooperating with us.
I will be communicating with them next week, and will report further.
Danny