Re: .lv? (was: RE: mathematics)

On Sat, 9 Dec 2000, And Rosta wrote:

> What's "lv"? Latvia?
Yes.

> I ask because it is, of course, Livagia
> in the world in which Livagia exists. I don't know what Latvia
> is. Hmm. If "lt" is (I guess) Lithuania,
Just so.

> then that only really
> leaves "lv" for Latvia, so Livagia would have to be "li" or
> "lg",
"li" = Liechtenstein, so "lg" = Livagia, I think.

> unless Latvia were "la" or Lithuania were "li" or "ln".
"la" = Laos; "ln" is unused, but there's no "n" in the native name
(Lietuva), so that seems not useful.  In general the native name forms
the basis for the abbreviation, thus "de" = Germany, "ch" = Switzerland
(Confoederatio Helvetica).

> Who was it that decided these 2-letter country codes?
The International Organization for Standards (ISO).

> Is there
> a list of them somewhere?
http://www.egt.ie/standards/iso3166/iso3166-1-en.html

> Were they first established before
> the break-up of the Soviet Union (which would mean that
> Livagia would have been assigned "lv" before Latvia became
> independent)?
Yes.  But some countries, notably including the U.S., never
recognized the incorporation of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia
into the U.S.S.R. in 1940.  Since Taiwan has a country code
despite the fact that no country recognizes it as a country,
it's not improbable that lv, lt, and ee were pre-assigned
*there* (though not so *here*, I think).

(I am, as it happens, part Estonian.)

Note that Belarus and Ukraine were U.N. members almost from the
beginning; this was supposed to be a Russian counterpart to
the presence of Commonwealth countries ("if the Ukraine is
part of the U.S.S.R., then Australia is part of the British
Empire").

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter