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virtual library of language resources”. OLAC facilitates sharing of
information on languages by “developing consensus on best current practice
for digital archiving of language resources”, and by “developing a network
of interoperating repositories and services for housing and accessing such
resources”. Currently 45 organizations are participating in OLAC and SIL is
an active contributor.
In 2010, OLAC achieved a significant milestone in making available the
OLAC Language Resource Catalog, a web-based search engine that accesses
information from the combined catalog of over 100,000 items of the 45
participating language archives. The search engine supports faceted search,
enabling a user to pinpoint resources based on various categories, or facets, of
information. This powerful tool illustrates the benefit of shared standards for
cataloging language archives. OLAC continues to invite other institutions to
link their language archives into this global resource.
Further information is available from the OLAC website: http://www.
language-archives.org/. The new search engine is available at: http://search.
language-archives.org/, and is linked from the OLAC home page.
Update on ISO 639-3 Standard Language Codes
The ISO 639 family of standards was expanded in February 2007 with the formal
adoption of ISO 639-3. This standard seeks to provide a comprehensive list of
human languages, including living, extinct, ancient, and constructed languages,
whether major or minor, written or unwritten. It provides a unique three-letter
code for each language along with limited meta-data about the language.
As the Registration Authority (RA) for Part 3 of the standard, SIL processes
requests for changes to the language codes. We receive and review requests for
adding new language codes and for changing existing ones according to criteria
defined in the standard. All update requests undergo a period of public review
before being acted upon in a yearly review cycle.
In 2010, thirty-seven requests were considered, recommending fifty explicit
changes in the code set. After a public review and comment process, 32 were
fully approved and 5 were rejected:
• 4 new language codes were created: 3 for living languages and 1 for an
extinct language.
• 19 language names were either changed, or additional name forms added.
• 1 language had another language variety merged into it.
• 8 language codes were retired: 2 language codes were merged and 4
language codes were split.
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