Re: [Ltru] Macrolanguage usage

Peter Constable 2008-05-25 23.50:

>> From: Leif Halvard Silli [mailto:lhs@malform.no]
>> > Please note very carefully: the definition of macrolanguage entails
>> that the range of varieties is treated as a single language in some
>> application context.
>>
>> Quoting 639-3: (http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/scope.asp#M)
>>
>> |...] considered distinct individual languages, yet in certain usage
>> contexts a single language identity for all is needed [...]
> ...
> 
>> > That does *not* entail that the encompassed varieties are mutually
>> > intelligible, or that there is any one encompassed variety that is
>> > intelligible to all the others...
>>
>> The strict definition might not entail this. But the empirical
>> investigation that lead a group of languages to be placed in a
>> Macrolanguage cathegory does most often entail it, it seems.
> 

> I think I know what the intent of the text in ISO 639-3 is
> better than anyone here, whether it reads the same way to all
> people or not. 

   [ ... ]

> comparison of ISO 639-2 and MARC with content being prepared for
> Ethnologue 15.

1. I suppose Ethnologue has som empirical basis?
2. Was it ISO 639-2 that came up with 'Macrolanguage'?

>> The fragment I quoted above mentions 3 typical situations for when the
>> Macrolanguage definition is suitable
> 

> "Typical situations in which this need can occur include the
> following..." These are three prototypical scenarios, but not the
> only scenarios. None of these three scenarios hold in several
> macrolanguage cases, including Quechuan, Zapotec, Cree, Ojibwa...

So, the typical examples that ISO 6369-3 mentions, are not 
typical, but exceptions. The largest, most well known, 
macrolanguages are to be ignored. And if there happens to be a 
large degree of inteligibility between them, then then it is an 
exceptional exception.

Ok. I better write it up in my fact book.

I just let it be known that I, unlike some others, have not taken 
part in this debate in the belief that all encompassed languages 
of a Macrolanguage are intelligible.
-- 
leif halvard silli
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