Toki Pona and ISO 639

[Evertype]

In 2007 an application to the ISO 639 Registration Authority to give a language code to Toki Pona was rejected, for the following reasons:

Registration Authority decision on Change Request no. 2007-011: reject requested creation of new identifier for Toki Pona

In consultation with Anthony Aristar of LinguistList, the ISO 639-3 Registration Authority has determined that the request for this new code element is premature. The propagation of a new constructed language is often a short-lived interest of limited scope; few constructed languages have lasting impact in the world community of languages to become more than mere novelties. Toki Pona seems to fit the novelty category, as an intentionally “minimalist” language. During 2007 there was some media interest in Toki Pona, in which its novel aspects were highlighted. If Toki Pona survives the next few years and continues to develop, both in applications and in user base, then the RA will be open to consider a new request for assignment of a code element for Toki Pona.

It has got back on the table. I'm an advisor to the 639 committee and I recently successfully got a code for Neo. I am supporting a code for Toki Pona.

[Kuti]

Thanks for supporting this
An ISO code would be great especially beacause toki pona has a lot of unofficial blogs or websites. For mine i had to use the "art" for artificial languages, and i really hope we could have a code. toki pona was born on internet and grows on internet, so it would be useful

[Jan KoAla]

Thanks for supporting the ISO 639!

Even though I'm new around here I'm glad to see progress on it.

[Jason]

Is there a way to support ISO code online? some poll or similar thing where we can invite more people?

[Evertype]

Is there a way to support ISO code online? some poll or similar thing where we can invite more people?

Not really.

[natan]

We are several years down the track now.
The fan/user base of Toki Pona has grown. (Or is that an assumption on my part?)
Is there any hope now of Toki Pona being granted an ISO code?
Or is that still a pipe dream?

[janKipo]

I don't think a mere number will make that much difference. tp has more associated people than several natural languages (though they may not have ISO code either) and a reasonable amount of press and a small but quality library. But it has no organization at all, just websites that call themselves tp something but are not connected, except possibly personally. So, there is no organization pushing for recognition. Nor are we owned, in some sense, by a big company, which might think an ISO worth having for their spawn (I don't know if any of these languages Na'vi, Klingon, Dothraki, etc. have ISO, either). In addition, the organization that gives out these labels is not very forthcoming (nor clear when it comes forth) with guidelines for what is actually needed to get a label. At a guess, behind all the facade, it is just some bureaucrat saying Yea or Nay, more or less on whim.

[jan Seloki]

I might be alone in feeling this way, but I'm not surprised. Toki pona would have much less appeal than other languages because it wouldn't be considered usable/useful to nearly as many people, so it's honestly easy for me to understand why an application wouldn't be accepted. I'm not sure why it would need an iso code anyway to be honest, because it uses the same characters as english, so why would it really need a code other than to use a custom keyboard?

[janKipo]

Well, of course there are several tp codes that need (or can use) custom keyboards, but tha has little to do wit tp. As for not being as useful, I am not sure what that is based on, since I use it for all sorts of things (not Philosophy nor Astrophysics yet but other fairly serious stuff). And, on the whole, it seems more useful that many natural languages of limited range on most constructed languages, since it is ope to going beyond its immediate home world. But I still don’t know why it needs or wants an ISO number.