[sw-l] Sign Language Codes

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
September 27, 2004

Dear SW List -
I forgot to attach the diagram to this message...so it is attached
now...It shows that our sgn code was apprvoed on February 18, 2000 by
the ISO...

Val ;-)


On Sep 27, 2004, at 9:19 AM, Valerie Sutton wrote:

> Take a look at the ISO-639-2 standardization tables on this web page:
> http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/codechanges.html
>
> This table lists the official three-letter language codes now
> established. Scroll down to find Sign Language. It is after Pali in
> the list...You will see the three-letter code
>
> sgn
>
> for Sign Language in general. It was approved in February 2000 (see
> attached)...
>
> That three-letter code became official because of us, the DAC and
> Michael Everson in Ireland, fighting for it. I feel proud that we
> could establish signed languages in general, as real languages, in the
> eyes of the ISO committee that creates these standardizations. Believe
> it or not, back in 2000, other members of the ISO did not believe that
> signed languages were real languages, and felt they did not deserve a
> language code, and we fought like tooth and nail to get it approved
> and we did! But the sgn language code is generic...it is representing
> all signed languages in general, and is not specific to any one signed
> language.



-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: sgn.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 3016 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/sw-l/attachments/20040927/65eb78f5/attachment.gif>
-------------- next part --------------