There is the endangered languages list which may help in addressing some
of the language names/areas.  Sometimes, the political boundries do not
reflect the culture or linguistic groups (Africa is an excellent example
as is the sub-continent of India--and even the US).  I think the
endangered languages list is at coombs site in Australia.

On Tue, 15 Aug 1995, Boylan P wrote:

> There is an international documentation centre on the world's estimated
> 6,000 currently used languages under the Summer School of Linguistics at
> Dallas (presumably Univ. TX) which publishes regular listings.  My copy
> of further info. is currently with a research student working on minority
> languages and cultural policy in Barcelona so sorry I cannot sent exact
> details just at the moment - but someone else may be able to help with
> further info on Dallas and its classification etc. - otherwise I should
> be able to help when back from holiday in early September.
>
>
>
> Patrick Boylan
> Arts Policy & Management, City University, London
>
> ====================
>
>
> On Mon, 14 Aug 1995, Jennifer Punnett wrote:
>
> > At the Horniman Museum we are in the process of setting up a
> > computerised inventory of all of our collections (many of which are
> > ethnographic).   Many of the fields - museum number, object type,
> > method of acquisition, geo-political groupings have already been
> > established and are working well.
> >
> > I have been asked to create a controlled set of fields to contain info
> > relating to ethno-linguistic groupings (which must compliment the
> > existing geo-political groupings) and I am feeling a bit swamped.
> > At present, there are four controlled geo-political fields:
> >
> >         Continent       Sub-Continent           Country         Province
> > eg      Asia            South Asia              India           Assam
> >
> >
> > There is also a free, fifth field to contain any other geographical
> > info.
> >
> > For the ethno-linguistic groupings, I am envisiging a three-tier system:
> >
> >         Americas        NW Coast        Kwakiutl
> >         Africa          N Africa        Tuareg
> >
> > but I would like to know how other institutions have arranged this kind
> > of information before I go any further.
> >
> > -Do you think the above three levels are sensible?  Would they work?
> >
> > -Are there any 'ready-made' hierarchies available?
> >
> > -If so, how do I get hold of them?
> >
> > -What do you do with differing spellings - 'Asanti' and 'Ashanti'
> >
> > -How do you classify groupings such as 'Arab Culture Area'?
> >
> > If anyone has ANY suggestions, or general comments, I would be very
> > interested to hear from you.
> >
> > --
> > Jennifer Punnett, Documentation Assistant
> > The Horniman Museum & Gardens
> > 100 London Road, London SE23 3PQ, UK
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
>