Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Languages/List of ISO 639-3 language codes used locally by Linguist List

Unassigned codes

The following codes do not have assignments at Linguist List as of 2013 Oct 01. They should be checked occasionally to see if any have been assigned. (Checked 20:03, 24 January 2015 (UTC))

Unassigned local-use codes

qaa qab qac qad qae qaf qag qai qak qal qam qan qap qaq qas qat qau qav qaw qba qbc qbd qbg qbi qbk qbl qbm qbo qbq qbr qbs qbu qbv qbw qbz qca qcf qcg qcj qck qcl qcn qcp qcq qcr qcw qcz qdb qdd qde qdf qdg qdm qdn qdo qdp qdq qdr qdx qdy qdz qec qed qeg qeh qej qek qel qem qen qeo (qeo-psh is an apparent typo for qe0-psh) qeu qev qew qex qfa qfb qfh qfl qfm qfn qfo qfp qft qfv qfw qga qgc qgf qgi qgm qgo qgr qgs qgt qgw qgx qhb qhe qhg qhh qhl qhn qhs qht qhu qhv qhw qhx qhz qia qib qid qie qif qig qih qii qik qim qio qip qis qit qiu qiw qix qiy qiz qjc qjd qje qjk qjo qjr qjs qju qjy qkb qkc qke qkf qkg qkh qki qkj qkk (residual notes) qkl qkm (residual notes) qko qkp qkq qks qku qkv qkx qla (residual notes) qld qle qlg qlh qli qlk qll (merged) qlm qln qlo qlp qlr qls qlt qlu qlx qmd qme qmf qmg qmh qmj qmn qmp (residual notes) qmq qmr qms qmt qmw qmz qnc qnd qnf qng qnh qnl qnm qno qnq qnr qns qnt qnu qnv qnw qnx qnz qoc qod qoe qof qog qoh qol qom qon qoo qoq qor qos qov qoy (merged) qpd qpf qph qpi qpn qpo qpq qps qpt qpu qpv qpw qpy qqb qqe qqf qqg qqi qqm qqn qqo qqp qqq qqs qqt qqu qqw qqy qra qrb qrd qrf qrg qrh qrk qrl qrm qrn qrq qrt qru qrw qry qsa qsc qsf qsh qsj qsl qsn qso qsp qsq qsr qsv qsy qtc qte qtf qtg qtn qtq qtr qts (residual notes) qtt qtu

New title for the article needed

The current title of the article is misleading. It is not primarily about the language codes that are reserved for local use, but specifically about how the Linguist List is using those codes. I'd suggest a title such as "List of ISO 639-3 language codes used locally by Linguist List". I'll wait for comments about this, and then after a couple weeks (if there is no objection) look into what is involved in renaming an article. If someone else who knows what they're doing wants to do it before then, that's fine with me. AlbertBickford (talk) 20:09, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

I oppose the move as proposed, because this isn't really about Linguist List and wouldn't be notable if it were. It just happens that Linguist List is the only org. I'm aware of that makes use of these codes. If other notable orgs or pubs do as well, then their conventions should be added in separate sections. If LingList really is the only one, then I still think the article should remain where it is, so that it may be expanded in the future if anyone else does decide to use them.

Think of it this way: Our articles are justified on the basis of WP:Notability. Obscure, in-house assignments in LingList are not notable, but ISO codes are. ListList is, however, probably worth a section within a more notable article, since they are public and we ref many of these codes in our language articles.

Another possibility would be to move it out of article namespace, alongside our lists of (pre)ISO codes from various editions of Ethnologue (e.g. Wikipedia:WikiProject Languages/Primary language names in Ethnologue 11.) The more I think about it, the more appropriate that seems. The contents of this article are not encyclopedic. So, maybe your title, but in WP namespace under the languages project?

One of the uses of this article is to have a destination if someone enters ISO 639:qah in the language-locator box (top of this article), so that people understand why the code they entered does not appear in the language box of the actual language article. (We should probably do something similar with retired codes. Currently they just link to the appropriate language article, but without any indication of why the reader ended up there.)

Since I drew up this article, and I doubt anyone but us else cares, I'll go ahead and move it. If you object for any reason, we can always move it back. — kwami (talk) 21:26, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

I like your idea of moving it, better than my original idea. I see your point that we want the article to be expandable in case other organizations start using the qaa-qtz codes, and then there is a natural place to put the information. And, since the codes themselves, as Linguist List uses them, are not notable, it makes a lot of sense to treat them like the pre-ISO SIL codes, which had some public circulation (through Ethnologue) but not the force of a standard. So, yes, please do go ahead and move it.

What happens with links to this page once it gets moved? Do they automatically redirect? Or do we have to go back, find them, and adjust them? AlbertBickford (talk) 22:13, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

There's a bot that will clean up any links that need redirecting within a day or two. AFAIK, it will not affect the links connecting to the appropriate anchors. (As it is now, you're taken directly to the code, not just to this page. That should stay the same, but should be checked in case of bugs.) — kwami (talk) 22:19, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Moved. Since it's to the languages project, I used the title you proposed. We can move it again if we expand it beyong linguist list, but then again we might want to make a separate page for each list. Since it's no longer in main space, it doesn't really matter, and anyway is more for people like us than for the general public. It'll probably be years before anything happens anyway. — kwami (talk) 22:29, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Great, thanks for doing that. I really like the idea that it is out of main space, as its former location in main space seemed to give these assignments a level of authority that they didn't have--or someone who didn't know much about this area might think so. I checked, and the links are already being redirected, although they haven't been updated at the source yet (e.g. ISO_639-3#Special_codes). AlbertBickford (talk) 23:29, 23 January 2015 (UTC)