July 28th, 2017, 4:16 pm
As of August 30, 2017 at 8:00 PM CDT, the ISO 639-3 application for Solresol has been submitted. As such, the "working group" form has been closed to responses.
Before I start, sorry for the silence the last couple of weeks, but I've been working hard to get things ready for this announcement. It was worth the wait, though.
ISO 639 is a set of standards made by the International Organization for Standardization that exists name. label, and organize language and language groups. This year, ISO 639 celebrates its 50th birthday, having been originally approved in 1967. In that time, over 7,800 language and language groups, including living, extinct, ancient, historic, and constructed languages, have been added to ISO 639's "big list of languages" (ISO 639-3 to be specific). Solresol, having existed since about 1827, has been around for 190 years, and still does not have an ISO language code to show for the rounds it went around Europe in the 1800s and around the world in modern times. That's where we come in.
After looking through the various language code standards, and seeing their requirements, ISO 639-3 appears to be our target. To apply for an ISO 639-3 language code, we need to submit two forms (which I'll get into later) to SIL International, which is the administrator of ISO 639-3. ISO 639-3 applications follow an annual processing cycle that involves at least three months of public review of applications, ending with a final decision made at the end of the cycle, typically in January. If we work swiftly on the application, we may even have a language code this coming January. Having a language code would be invaluable, as it would allow us to create official Solresol translations of software, such as a Solresol Wikipedia*, Solresol translations for games, and even Solresol translations for the software that runs Sidosi!
To carry out this process, I would like to form a working group with other interested people. Everyone in the community will certainly have a voice and be able to give feedback as we go through the process, but this working group will work directly on the application forms, since their real names and email addresses will be publicly posted as part of the application. Having looked through several past ISO 639-3 applications, I believe a reasonable number of people for this working group would be five, not including myself. If you would like to join this working group, and do not mind your real name, email address, and possibly country being posted publicly, fill out this form. For everyone else, I have made clean copies of the two ISO 639-3 forms available for viewing, ISO 639-3 Change Request Form and ISO 639-3 Request for New Language Code Element.
One factor that SIL International will take into account in their application review will be the current usage of the language. Although the low number of users will not disqualify Solresol from a language code, showing current usage will reinforce the fact that Solresol is a living language, currently being worked on by us, and not an extinct language. To help our cause, I'm happy to announce the re-opening of the Sidosi Wiki! The Sidosi Wiki will not only serve as a knowledge base about Solresol, but will also be a Solresol-language wiki à la Wikipedia. Unfortunately, forum and wiki accounts are not integrated, but you can link to your Sidosi Wiki user page in your forum profile and link to your forum profile on your wiki user page.
So, with everything in this announcement, we have a lot to do! For those of you interested in directly working on the ISO 639-3 applications (and agreeing to have some personal information published), let me know through the form links above, and we can get started! If you don't want to be involved in the ISO 639-3 application process, edit that wiki (especially Solresol-language pages)! Better yet, everyone edit the wiki!
*There are some additional hurdles to creating a Solresol Wikipedia
Before I start, sorry for the silence the last couple of weeks, but I've been working hard to get things ready for this announcement. It was worth the wait, though.
ISO 639 is a set of standards made by the International Organization for Standardization that exists name. label, and organize language and language groups. This year, ISO 639 celebrates its 50th birthday, having been originally approved in 1967. In that time, over 7,800 language and language groups, including living, extinct, ancient, historic, and constructed languages, have been added to ISO 639's "big list of languages" (ISO 639-3 to be specific). Solresol, having existed since about 1827, has been around for 190 years, and still does not have an ISO language code to show for the rounds it went around Europe in the 1800s and around the world in modern times. That's where we come in.
After looking through the various language code standards, and seeing their requirements, ISO 639-3 appears to be our target. To apply for an ISO 639-3 language code, we need to submit two forms (which I'll get into later) to SIL International, which is the administrator of ISO 639-3. ISO 639-3 applications follow an annual processing cycle that involves at least three months of public review of applications, ending with a final decision made at the end of the cycle, typically in January. If we work swiftly on the application, we may even have a language code this coming January. Having a language code would be invaluable, as it would allow us to create official Solresol translations of software, such as a Solresol Wikipedia*, Solresol translations for games, and even Solresol translations for the software that runs Sidosi!
To carry out this process, I would like to form a working group with other interested people. Everyone in the community will certainly have a voice and be able to give feedback as we go through the process, but this working group will work directly on the application forms, since their real names and email addresses will be publicly posted as part of the application. Having looked through several past ISO 639-3 applications, I believe a reasonable number of people for this working group would be five, not including myself. If you would like to join this working group, and do not mind your real name, email address, and possibly country being posted publicly, fill out this form. For everyone else, I have made clean copies of the two ISO 639-3 forms available for viewing, ISO 639-3 Change Request Form and ISO 639-3 Request for New Language Code Element.
One factor that SIL International will take into account in their application review will be the current usage of the language. Although the low number of users will not disqualify Solresol from a language code, showing current usage will reinforce the fact that Solresol is a living language, currently being worked on by us, and not an extinct language. To help our cause, I'm happy to announce the re-opening of the Sidosi Wiki! The Sidosi Wiki will not only serve as a knowledge base about Solresol, but will also be a Solresol-language wiki à la Wikipedia. Unfortunately, forum and wiki accounts are not integrated, but you can link to your Sidosi Wiki user page in your forum profile and link to your forum profile on your wiki user page.
So, with everything in this announcement, we have a lot to do! For those of you interested in directly working on the ISO 639-3 applications (and agreeing to have some personal information published), let me know through the form links above, and we can get started! If you don't want to be involved in the ISO 639-3 application process, edit that wiki (especially Solresol-language pages)! Better yet, everyone edit the wiki!
*There are some additional hurdles to creating a Solresol Wikipedia