[sw-l] Re: Country and Language Codes, and standardization with ISO

Valerie Sutton sutton at SIGNWRITING.ORG
Thu Sep 30 16:33:11 UTC 2004


SignWriting List
September 30, 2004

Signuno wrote:
> Esperanto has had a code for a long time (which isn't
> surprising considering an ISO founder was I'm told an
> Esperanto speaker).  The two letter code is "eo" and
> the three letter code is "epo".  So I guess Everson
> would suggest using sgn-epo as he uses 2 letters for
> countries and 3 letters for languages.

Thank you for your messages. sgn-epo seems fine to me!

Regarding the Country-Code system that we have been using, like 
sgn-US....

Esperanto, Gestuno and Signuno are languages, or attempted languages, 
that have no country...hence no Country Code! However, there is a 
country code WO that represents "the world" or gloablization. Funny but 
true!

If the wo code is used as a language code, it represents this spoken 
language:

-----

WOLOF

[WOL] Senegal. 3,170,200 in Senegal (1998). Population total all 
countries 3,215,000 or more first language speakers (1998); 7,000,000 
including second language speakers (1999 WA). Alternate names: OUOLOF, 
YALLOF, WALAF, VOLOF, WARO-WARO.  Dialects: BAOL, CAYOR, DYOLOF 
(DJOLOF, JOLOF), LEBOU (LEBU), JANDER. Classification: Niger-Congo, 
Atlantic-Congo, Atlantic, Northern, Senegambian, Fula-Wolof, Wolof.


---

BUT - if the WO is used as a Country Code for patents and inventions, 
then it represents WORLD or GLOBE. See: 
http://www.dialogselect.com/intranet/forms/PatentCodes.html

That is why we temporarily used this code: sgn-WO, for international 
signs. If you go to this web page:

http://www.SignBank.org/signpuddle

You will see the icon of the world, and it says International 
Signs...that was supposed to be for the names of countries that are 
becoming internationally used, but that could be used for Gestuno and 
Signuno maybe? The Signuno code could be: sgn-WO-epo!

Just a thought...

Thanks for the discussion of codes!

Val ;-)
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