History: Language Code

Source of version: 2 (current)

__Lojban needs a language code !__

Constructed languages have language codes: Esperanto ''eo''/''epo'', Interlingua ''ia''/''ina'', Interlingue ''ie''/''ile''.

Extinct languages have language codes: Latin ''la''/''lat''.

Languages that almost no one can speak have languages codes: Aleut ''ale'', German ''de'', English ''en'' ;-)

Lojban needs a language code, too.

!!!Warning

Everything I have written might be wrong. Don't count on it! mi'e ((.iens.))

!!!Information

Examples: ''en'' for English, ''de'' for German, see [http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/englangn.html] for further examples
and [http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/codechanges.html] for current changes.

There are ISO 639-1 and [http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/|ISO 639-2].
The older ISO 639-1 allows 2-letter codes for languages, while the newer ISO 639-2 allows 3-letter codes. There is
ISO 3166-2, which allows other codes, too, but it is quite new. All W3C specifications are based on RFC 1766, which
is based on ISO 639-1. The newer RFC 3066 (based on ISO 639-2) allows 3-letter codes, but no W3C specification
refers to it (not yet).

FAQ for ISO 639: [http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/faq.html

Request] form for new language codes: [http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/iso639-2form.html

To] get a language code for Lojban we have to fullfill several criteria:
* Criteria for ISO 639-1: [http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/criteria1.html] and
* Criteria for ISO 639-2: [http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/criteria2.html

Apart] from that I know that several Linux projects use "art-lojban" as a language code. I don't know how this is
related to ISO 639.

mi'e ((.iens.))

I don't think we need an iso 639-1 code. Using lob or jbo seems better than loj to me. mi'e LaNorpan

!!!Suggestions

*ISO 639-2
**''loj'' (logji)
**''lob'', ''jbo'' (lojbo)
*ISO 639-1
**''lj''

I'm betting that ISO won't come looking at the wiki to see what we think the tag ought to be.

You're right, but I don't think that a single person should ask for a language code to be registered.
There has to be at least some kind of discussion. mi'e ((.iens.))

But we won't hold the discussion. If the registration authority decides that Lojban gets a tag, they have nice little committees that do that sort of thing for them.

!!!Why do we need one

Lojban can be parsed, but before you can parse it, you have to recognize, that it is Lojban. Just think
of the ''lang''-attribute in HTML or XML. mi'e ((.iens.))

!!!Why we don't need one

(Don't ask me. mi'e ((.iens.)))

---

John Cowan arranged for the IANA to register art-lojban : [http://www.iana.org/assignments/lang-tags/art-lojban] , This tag is what is currently used in the XML with Lojban I've been involved with (mi'e nitcion) . While it's not as official as the ISO registrations, it obviates the 50 publications in Library of Congress requirements, and gives us an unambiguous anchor for XML. It's good enough for me. :-)

---

Tuesday, 2 Sep 2003: ''jbo'' is now the official alpha-3 indentifier. ''art-lojban'' will be deprecated. (mi'e ((.iens.)))
History: Language Code

Source of version: 2 (current)

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