THE MUST-HAVE; THE ISO CODE
I will start by saying that ISO stands for, International Standard Organization, in Spanish it would be something like, Organización Internacional de Normalización, this being the organisation dedicated to standardising many aspects of our lives and among which is that of languages, languages and their families so that each one has its own code that differentiates them from all the others and so that they can be used in all areas in a way that by just saying or writing a few letters we have enough to know which language we are referring to. The code that refers to languages is called ISO-639 and has two versions, 639-1 (Spanish, ES, French FR or Italian IT), and version 639-2 (Spanish, SPA, French FRENO/FRAY or Italian, ITA), and so on up to a total of languages and families that can be counted by the hundreds.
The ISO code is nowadays essential for any language that wants to be recognised at all levels, and as I had already said, there would have been no need for more articles, but this is not the case given that in a very short time the scope of use and repercussion of this ISO code has changed substantially, especially in the computer field and more specifically in the Internet field, a subject that I am very familiar with.
Let’s see. The aim of all companies working and operating on the Internet, and in all areas, is to always provide a better service than the competition, as it should be, to this way ensure monetary benefits and a greater number of potential users from whom to obtain as much information as possible. Thus, among other things, most of the Uep pages have started to detect the language in which your browser works, which by default is usually the language of your operating system, and thus offer you the possibility of translating Uep pages that are written in languages other than your browser’s language into the language of your browser. Up to this point, everything is a real delight, as there are many cases in which you are grateful when the browser asks you if you want to translate the web to be understood by you, given that language translators have reached a point where they have a spelling and grammatical randomness that is bordering on 100%. But things are just as wonderful when we come to a web written in Valencian, because our beloved Valencian language, the same one that had the first Golden Age of all Romance languages, still does not have its own ISO code, being included in the Catalan language as if the Valencian language was a daughter of the Catalan mother tongue, when the truth is that at the time when the Valencian language was living its Golden Age, the Catalan language still had no writers… neither good nor bad… But the thing is, we don’t have our own ISO code
to the Valencian language, when a browser arrives at a web page written in Valencian, it does not detect that it is written in Valencian, but in Catalan, and asks you if you want to translate the Catalan language into the language of your browser. What nonsense!
At first I found this effect alone in Internet Explorer, but now Firefox does it too. Google Chrome I haven’t detected it yet, but I imagine that in time it will, as will Opera, Safari and all browsers.
This language detection service, which seems to me to be an incredible advance to make the Internet more user-friendly, in the case of the Valencian language becomes a fatal trap that makes everyone understand in a clear way that Valencian does not exist, because it is all Catalan. Again, what nonsense!
On this point, it should be noted that the centenary Royal Academy of Valencian Culture (RACV) has asked for the ISO code to our Valencian language, and even though at the beginning there would have been no problem in granting it, in the end those who do not agree that the Valencian language should be what it has always been, an independent language, have caused it not to be granted its own code.
That is why from here I make a proclamation to our Valencian government and public institutions such as the Generalitat, Diputación and all the Town Councils of all the municipalities of our homeland, as well as to all the institutions and public or private entities that feel Valencian to unite to demand once and for all that dream ISO code that separated and differentiated us from any other way of speaking.
In this end we find as a case to take into account and as a case of study, the approach of the AVL, entity agreed to undo all the work done during many years in favour of the autochthonous Valencian to introduce the Catalan language in Valencia, we remember that the newspaper Levante EMV in the edition of April 6, 2002, offered to its readers an article titled, Pujol and Antich say that Ramon Llul is a historical achievement. The Catalan president celebrates that the AVL has adopted the Catalan orthography, and as they still call themselves defenders of the Valencian language, here they have a great opportunity to prove it, ask for the ISO code to the Valencian language and that it should once and for all be independent of any other way of speaking, and not to stop trying under any circumstances until they achieve it… and being supported by the Cortes as it is, if they wanted to… They could do it! For they have the power and, surely, the money enough to undertake this tasca and get it.
This is a proposal to all public or publicly owned institutions, and of course to all private institutions that wish to join the demand for their own independent ISO code to our beloved Valencian language, because it is simply IMPRESCINDIBLE… Will this proposal have an echo among the institutions that it should have? Time will tell…
Joan Benet Rodríguez i Manzanares (Article from 2006 in https://www.cardonavives.com/) 16 years ago!!
PS: GIF created with images from the “Kit de revalencianisació llingüística” of the observatoridelallenguavalenciana.org, available in the section of DOCUMENTS.
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