[Foundation-l] Vandalism and small wikis

[Darko Bulatovic]

geni wrote:
> On 11/29/06, Darko Bulatovic <mail at itam.ws> wrote:
>   
>> geni wrote:
>>     
>>> Not so much. there are a number of different forms of English and yet
>>> it is accepted that there is only one language. In some areas "thou"
>>> still exists. In others colour is spelled color. What standisation
>>> there is is often not goverment mandated.
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> ---  in mayor cases  Academies( or similar institutions) are working on
>> language standardisation. So that are working under Goverment policy on
>> educational and science level. Freedom in that filed is also regulated
>> on Goverment level, so in any case it is political meter. On that level
>> I was talking about.
>>     
>
>
> Historically things have been somewhat different.
>
>   
>> Please check this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_(spelling)
>>
>> Part of text: This table gives the accepted spellings (following
>> *government *guidelines and major dictionaries).
>>     
>
> Governments at the present time are one of the few groups to produce
> enough material to need to create manuals of style. that does not mean
> they are required for standardisation of language
>
>   

Criteria for ISO 639-1

The following criteria for defining new languages in ISO 639-1 has been 
established by the ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee.

* Relation to ISO 639-2. Since ISO 639-1 is to remain a subset of ISO 
639-2, it must first satisfy the requirements for ISO 639-2 and also 
satisfy the following.
* Documentation.
o a significant body of existing documents (specialized texts, such as 
college or university textbooks, technical documentation manuals, 
specialized journals, subject-field related books, etc.) written in 
specialized languages
o a number of existing terminologies in various subject fields (e.g. 
technical dictionaries, specialized glossaries, vocabularies, etc. in 
printed or electronic form)
* Recommendation.A recommendation and support of a specialized authority 
(such as a standards organization, *governmental body*, linguistic 
institution, or *cultural organization*)
* Other considerations
o the number of speakers of the language community
o t*he recognized status of the language in one or more countries*
o the support of the request by *one or more official bodies*
* Collective codes. ISO 639-1 does not use collective codes. If these 
are necessary the alpha-3 code shall be used.

This document was revised on 22 Sept. 2006 as approved by the ISO 639 
Joint Advisory Committee on 10 June 2006. This replaces the published 
text in ISO 639-2, sections 4.1.1, 4.1.3, and A.2.1.

ISO 639-2 defines a proper subset of the totality of alpha-3 language 
identifiers in all parts of ISO 639. The primary applications for which 
ISO 639-2 is intended include libraries, archives and other 
documentation applications. Thus, the general criterion for inclusion of 
a language in ISO 639-2 is that there is a significant body of 
literature in the language or describing the language. In order to 
establish this, the following objective and subjective metrics will be 
applied.

* Number of documents.
The request for a new language identifier shall include evidence that 
one agency holds 50 different documents in the language or that five 
agencies hold a total of 50 different documents among them in the 
language. Documents include all forms of material and are not limited to 
text. This is a necessary requirement, but not sufficient in and of 
itself. In addition the following requirements will be considered.
* Size and variety of literature.
The size and variety of the literature in the language, be it written or 
oral, will be considered and should be documented in the proposal. The 
documentation may be in the form of reference to library holdings or
bibliographies or more general statements quantifying the literature and 
its variation.
** National or regional support*
The proposal should preferably be explicitly supported by a national or 
regional language authority or standardizing body. If such support for 
some reason is unobtainable, a recommendation from another authority or 
language organization will be taken into account.
* Formal or official status
If the language in question has some sort of "official" status, 
documentation of this status will greatly support the proposal. The 
assignment of formal status to languages is in no way consistently 
practiced throughout the world, *and the lack of such status is not a 
negative argument if other requirements are met.*
* Formal education
If the language is used as a means of instruction in formal education on 
any level, documentation of this use will support the proposal. Teaching 
of the language is also relevant, in particular if the teaching is 
extensive.

I think that give list of requirements for standardization so that we 
don't waste time in future discussion on this. I hope thios will clear 
up my reference to government and to political aspect of this story.

Regards,
darko Bulatovic
>
>