[Ura-list] ISO639-3: Any requests?

[Jeremy Bradley]

Dear colleagues,

I have found myself in an unexpected position where colleagues from SIL 
International have approached me about changes to language codes in 
ISO639-3 - specifically, they've received several requests to have a 
code added for Northwestern Mari, and wanted to know if that is a 
legitimate classification. In my interactions with the responsible 
person, I mentioned that the way Mari is handled is less than optimal, 
and ... she tells me that this can actually be fixed. I just need to 
tell her what changes she should request.

Before I request changes that would be unpopular in the wider scene on 
my own initiative, I wanted to ask if: ( a ) anyone has any objections 
to my suggestions regarding Mari given below, ( b ) anyone has any 
similar requests for other Uralic languages that I should pass on, while 
I have a live communication channel with the right person.

-----------------------

Currently, there are three codes for Mari:

chm - Mari (macrocode)
mrj - Western Mari
mhr - Eastern Mari

The labeling is not great as mhr first and foremost refers to the Meadow 
Mari literary standard (used primarily in the eastern parts of Mari El), 
and not the Eastern Mari dialects (spoken by the diaspora in and around 
the Ural mountains east of Mari El). Since the Eastern Mari diaspora 
does use the Meadow literary standard, Russian- and Mari-language 
sources in recent years make reference to "Meadow-Eastern Mari" when 
talking about the literary standard. This label could be adopted for 
mhr, while mrj could be renamed "Hill Mari" to match contemporary usage. 
("Western Mari" isn't as problematic as "Eastern Mari" as there is no 
ambiguity here, but it is still a somewhat dated nomenclature that 
doesn't represent usage by the speaker community.)

A new code could be created for Northwestern Mari as there is a distinct 
literary norm - it doesn't see much usage and has no official standing, 
but it exists. As there are no attempts to create a distinct literary 
norm for Eastern Mari (that I know of), the criteria for an own code are 
not currently met (there has to be either lacking mutual 
intelligibility, or a distinct literary norm, for there to be a code), 
and Meadow and Eastern Mari should currently stay subsumed under mhr.

-----------------------
All the best,
Jeremy


-- 
Jeremy Bradley, Ph.D.
University of Vienna

http://www.mari-language.com
jeremy.moss.bradley at univie.ac.at

Office address:
Institut EVSL
Abteilung Finno-Ugristik
Universität Wien
Campus AAKH, Hof 7-2
Spitalgasse 2-4
1090 Wien
AUSTRIA

Mobile: +43-664-99-31-788
Skype: jeremy.moss.bradley

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