Recognizing Nalögo and Natügu as separate languages: Code-splitting in ISO 639-3

Without recognition as a separate language, a linguistic variety is invisible on the international stage, including that of language documentation and language development. This paper illustrates the open process for changing the ISO 639-3 code set, by discussing a code split initiated by Boerger. It delineates the criteria by which Nalögo [nlz] and Natügu [ntu] came to be recognized as distinct languages, each with its own code. These two varieties represent opposite ends of a dialect continuum on Santa Cruz Island in the Solomon Islands, which was originally represented by a single code [stc]. We provide the lexical, textual, and sociolinguistic evidence used to address the three criteria for categorizing separate languages in ISO 639-3: lack of mutual intelligibility, lack of a common literature, and separate ethno-linguistic identities. The textual evidence is an interlinearized written text of the same story, authored by the same person, in both Nalögo and Natügu, and published here for the first time. It is supplemented by wordlists in both languages. Natügu has already received considerable language development, and as a result of this split Nalögo is now positioned to receive further language development attention from both the Solomon Islands government and NGOs, thereby contributing toward the Nalögo community’s own language development goals.