This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2010) ISO 639 is the set of international standards that lists short codes of two to four letters for language names. It was also the name of the original standard, approved in 1967 (as ISO 639/R1) and withdrawn in 2002.2 The ISO 639 set consists of six different parts. Contents 1 Use of ISO 639 codes 1.1 Delimiting languages 2 The six parts of the standard 3 Characteristics of individual codes 4 Relations between the parts 5 Code space 5.1 Alpha-2 code space 5.2 Alpha-3 code space 5.3 Alpha-4 code space 6 See also 7 Notes & references 8 External links Use of ISO 639 codes The language codes defined in the several sections of ISO 639 are used for bibliographic purposes and, in computing and internet environments, as a key element of locale data. The codes also find use in various applications, such as Wikipedia URLs for its different language editions. Delimiting languages A multilingual page is contained by the CSS class "multilingual", with text in every language contained within the class "lang-xx", where xx is a lowercase ISO 639 two-letter or three-letter language code and the lang attribute. The lang attribute is contextually more correct, but the CSS required to hook into it is not supported by all browsers. If there is no two-letter code, the lowercase three-letter code is used. For text in an unknown language "und", (undetermined) is used. The six parts of the standard Standard Name (Codes for the representation of names of languages – ...) First edition Current No. in list ISO 639-1 Part 1: Alpha-2 code 1967 (as ISO 639) 2002 184 ISO 639-2 Part 2: Alpha-3 code 1998 1998 >450 ISO 639-3 Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages 2007 2007 7704 + local range ISO 639-4 Part 4: Implementation guidelines and general principles for language coding 2010-07-16 2010-07-16 (not a list) ISO 639-5 Part 5: Alpha-3 code for language families and groups 2008-05-15 2008-05-15 114 ISO 639-6 Part 6: Alpha-4 representation for comprehensive coverage of language variants 2009-11-17 2009-11-17  ?

Each part of the standard is maintained by a maintenance agency, which adds codes and changes the status of codes when needed. Characteristics of individual codes Scopes: Individual languages Macrolanguages (part 3) Collections of languages (part 1, 2, 5) (part 1 contains only 1 collection: bh; most collections are in part 2, and a few were added in part 5) Group Rest group Dialects Reserved for local use (part 2, 3) Special situations (part 2, 3) Types (for individual languages): Living languages (part 2, 3) (all macrolanguages are living languages3) Extinct languages (part 2, 3) (437,4 four in part 2 chb, chg, cop, sam; none in part 1) Ancient languages (part 1, 2, 3) (112,5 19 are in part 2; and 5 of them, namely ave, chu, lat, pli and san, also have a code in part 1: ae, cu, la, pi, sa) Historic languages (part 2, 3) (63,6 16 of them are in part 2, none has part 1 code) Constructed languages (part 2, 3) (19,7 9 in part 2: epo, ina, ile, ido, vol, afh, jbo, tlh, zbl; five in part 1: eo, ia, ie, io, vo) Bibliographic and terminology codes Bibliographic (part 2) Terminology (part 2) Relations between the parts The introduction to this section provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. Please help improve the article with a good introductory style. (October 2009) The first four columns contain codes for a representative of a specific type of relation between the parts of ISO 639. E.g. there are four elements that have a code in part 1, have a B/T code, and are macrolanguages per part 3. One representative of these four elements is "Persian" [fas]. ISO 639-1 ISO 639-2 ISO 639-3 ISO 639-5 # Description of example en eng eng (-) 132 185 in Part 1, subtract all special cases for Part 1 codes, 185-2-25-17-4-2-1-1-1=132 nb nob nob (-) 2 individual language, belongs to macrolanguage (nor), same code in Part 2 and has a code in Part 1. The two codes are: nob, non ar ara ara (M) (-) 25 Part 3 macro, 55 macro total, subtract special cases, 55-24-4-1-1=25 de ger/deu (B/T) deu (-) 15 22 elements where B and T differ. Subtract special cases, 22-1-4-2=15. cs cze/ces (B/T) ces (-) 1 Element with differing B/T code and the letters from the Part 1 code are not the first two letters of the T code. fa per/fas (B/T) fas (M) (-) 4 Part 3 macro; the four T codes are: fas, msa, sqi, zho hr scr/hrv (B/T) hrv (-) 2 Part 2 B deprecated, the two T codes are: hrv, srp. Deprecated 2008-06-28. no ("M") nor ("M") nor (M) (-) 1 Part 3 macro and containing languages have codes in Part 1, nor: non, nob; no: nn, nb bh bih (-)  ? 1 Bihari (bih) is marked as collective despite having an ISO 639-1 code which should only be for individual languages. The reason is that some individual Bihari languages received an ISO 639-2 code, which makes Bihari a language family for the purposes of ISO 639-2, but a single language for the purposes of ISO 639-1. The single are: bho, mai, mag sh (-) hbs (M) (-) 1 Part 3 macro, ISO 639-1 code deprecated, no part 2 code (bh) bho bho (-) 3 individual language code in Part 2 + 3, belongs not to a macrolanguage, in Part 1 covered by a code which has equivalent in Part 2 which is a collective. The three codes are: bho, mai, mag (bh) (bih) sck (-) individual language no code in Part 2, belongs not to a macrolanguage, in Part 1 covered by a code which has equivalent in Part 2 which is a collective. (-) car car car individual language in Part 2 and Part 3, but also included in Part 5 as a family89 (-) ast ast (-) individual language in Part 2 and Part 3, no code in Part 1 (-) bal bal (M) (-) 24 individual language in Part 2 and macro in Part 3, no code in Part 1 (-) mis mis  ? 1 special code: missing code (-) mul mul  ? 1 special code: multilingual content (-) und und  ? 1 special code: undetermined (-) zxx zxx  ? 1 special code: added 2006-01-11 to declare the absence of linguistic information (-) qaa qaa  ? 520 reserved for local use, range is qaa ... qtz (-) aus (-) aus regular group in Part 2 (-) afa (-) afa In Part 2 a rest group, i.e. same code but different languages included. In Part 2 "afa" refers to an Afro-Asiatic language that does not have an individual-language identifier in Part 2, and that does not fall into the rest groups "ber - Berber (Other)", "cus - Cushitic (Other)", or "sem - Semitic (Other)", all of which are Afro-Asiatic language groups. (ar) (ara "M") arb (-) individual language, belongs to macrolanguage (ara), in Part 2 covered by the macrolanguage code, in Part 1 also covered (-) (nic "R") aaa (-) in Part 2 best covered by a rest group, "Niger-Kodofanian (Other)" (-) (-) (-) sqj group not coded in Part 2 codes in Part 1 have one or two codes (B/T codes) in Part 2, every language that has two codes in Part 2 has one code in Part 1 one code: en -> eng two codes (#~23): de <-> ger/deu Part 2 has reserved codes and three special codes qaa ... qtz, mul, und, zxx individual languages in Part 2 have a code in Part 3 and have one or no code in Part 1 one code: eng -> eng -> en no code: ast -> ast -> (empty) collective codes in Part 2 have a code in Part 5 cover different languages: afa != afa cover same languages: aus = aus one collective code in Part 2 has a code in Part 1 bih -> bh some codes in Part 5 have no code in Part 2 sqj some codes (#~56) in Part 3 are macrolanguages, they may have no Part 2 code but a Part 1 codes and their containing languages have codes in Part 2 and Part 1 (#1): hbs <-> sh (deprecated) ; bos, hrv/scr, srp/scc -> bs, hr, sr a Part 2 code and a Part 1 code(#1), while their containing languages also have codes in Part 1 and Part 2: nor -> nor -> no ; non, nob -> non, nob -> nn, nb no Part 1 code (#several): two Part 2 codes (B/T) (#4): fas, msa, sqi, zho -> per/fas, may/msa, alb/sqi, chi/zho Code space Alpha-2 code space

"Alpha-2" codes (for codes composed of 2 letters of the basic Latin alphabet) are used in ISO 639-1. When codes for a wider range of languages were desired, more than 2 letter combinations could cover (a maximum of 262 = 676), ISO 639-2 was developed using Alpha-3 codes (though the latter was formally published first).citation needed Alpha-3 code space "Alpha-3" codes (for codes composed of 3 letters of the basic Latin alphabet) are used in ISO 639-2, ISO 639-3, and ISO 639-5. Mathematically, the upper limit for the number of languages and language collections that can be so represented is 263 = 17,576. The common use of Alpha-3 codes by three parts of ISO 639 requires some coordination within a larger system. Part 2 defines four special codes mul, und, mis, zxx, a reserved range qaa-qtz (20 × 26 = 520 codes) and has 23 double entries (the B/T codes). This sums up to 520 + 23 + 4 = 547 codes that cannot be used in part 3 to represent languages or in part 5 to represent language families or groups. The remainder is 17,576 – 547 = 17,029. There are somewhere around six or seven thousand languages on Earth today.10 So those 17,029 codes are adequate to assign a unique code to each language, although some languages may end up with arbitrary codes that sound nothing like the traditional name(s) of that language. Alpha-4 code space "Alpha-4" codes (for codes composed of 4 letters of the basic Latin alphabet) is proposed to be used in ISO 639-6. The upper limit for the number of languages and dialects that can be represented is 264 = 456,976. See also IETF language tags (based on ISO 639) ISO 3166 (codes for countries) ISO 15924 (codes for writing systems) ISO, SIL, and BCP language codes for constructed languages language code language families and languages list of languages list of official languages Notes & references ^ ISO/R 639:1967 ^ ISO 639:1988 ^ http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp?order=scope&letter=m ^ http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp?order=lang_type&letter=e ^ http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp?order=lang_type&letter=a ^ http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp?order=lang_type&letter=h ^ http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp?order=lang_type&letter=c ^ http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=car ^ http://www.loc.gov:8081/standards/iso639-5/id.php ^ http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=family External links ISO 639-1:2002 Official ISO 639 listclarification needed ISO 639-2 Registration Authority ISO 639-3 Registration Authority Common Locale Data Repository which contains translations of ISO 639 codes in other languages in an XML format. The CLDR survey tool also contains a more readable format of the data. ISO 639 and the Ethnologue ISO 639 Registration Authority Report, 2004–2005 ISO 639-2/RA Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages, US Library of Congress v · d · eISO 639 and ISO 639 macrolanguage    

ISO 639-1 list of codes languages ISO 639-2 list of codes languages ISO 639-3 list of codes languages ISO 639-4 — guidelines ISO 639-5 list of codes families/groups ISO 639-6 — variants v · d · eISO standards Lists: List of ISO standards · List of ISO romanizations · List of IEC standards Categories: Category:ISO standards · Category:OSI protocols 1 to 9999 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 6 · 7 · 9 · 16 · 31 (-0, -1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9, -10, -11, -12, -13) · 128 · 216 · 217 · 226 · 228 · 233 · 259 · 269 · 302 · 306 · 428 · 639 (-1, -2, -3, -5, -6) · 646 · 690 · 732 · 764 · 843 · 898 · 1000 · 1004 · 1007 · 1073-1 · 1413 · 1538 · 1745 · 2014 · 2015 · 2022 · 2108 · 2145 · 2146 · 2281 · 2709 · 2711 · 2788 · 3029 · 3103 · 3166 (-1, -2, -3) · 3297 · 3307 · 3602 · 3864 · 3901 · 3977 · 4031 · 4157 · 4217 · 5218 · 5775 · 5776 · 5964 · 6166 · 6344 · 6346 · 6425 · 6429 · 6438 · 6523 · 6709 · 7001 · 7002 · 7098 · 7185 · 7498 · 7736 · 7810 · 7811 · 7812 · 7813 · 7816 · 8000 · 8217 · 8571 · 8583 · 8601 · 8632 · 8652 · 8691 · 8807 · 8820-5 · 8859 (-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9, -10, -11, -12, -13, -14, -15, -16) · 8879 · 9000 · 9075 · 9126 · 9241 · 9362 · 9407 · 9506 · 9529 · 9564 · 9594 · 9660 · 9897 · 9945 · 9984 · 9985 · 9995 10000 to 19999 10006 · 10118-3 · 10160 · 10161 · 10165 · 10179 · 10206 · 10303 · 10303-11 · 10303-21 · 10303-22 · 10303-238 · 10303-28 · 10383 · 10487 · 10585 · 10589 · 10646 · 10664 · 10746 · 10861 · 10957 · 10962 · 10967 · 11073 · 11170 · 11179 · 11404 · 11544 · 11783 · 11784 · 11785 · 11801 · 11898 · 11940 · 11941 · 11941 (TR) · 11992 · 12006 · 12182:1998 · 12207 · 12234-2 · 13211 (-1, -2) · 13216 · 13250 · 13399 · 13406-2 · 13407 · 13450 · 13485 · 13490 · 13567 · 13568 · 13584 · 13616 · 14000 · 14031 · 14396 · 14443 · 14496-10 · 14496-14 · 14644 (-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9) · 14649 · 14651 · 14698 · 14698-2 · 14750 · 14882 · 14971 · 15022 · 15189 · 15288 · 15291 · 15292 · 15408 · 15444 · 15445 · 15438 · 15504 · 15511 · 15686 · 15693 · 15706 · 15706-2 · 15707 · 15897 · 15919 · 15924 · 15926 · 15926 WIP · 15930 · 16023 · 16262 · 16750 · 17024 · 17025 · 17369 · 17799 · 18000 · 18004 · 18014 · 18245 · 18629 · 18916 · 19005 · 19011 · 19092-1 · 19092-2 · 19114 · 19115 · 19125 · 19136 · 19439 · 19501:2005 · 19752 · 19757 · 19770 · 19775-1 · 19794-5 20000+ 20000 · 20022 · 21000 · 21047 · 21827:2002 · 22000 · 23270 · 23360 · 24613 · 24707 · 25178 · 26000 · 26300 · 26324 · 27000 series · 27000 · 27001 · 27002 · 27003 · 27004 · 27005 · 27006 · 27007 · 27729 · 27799 · 29199-2 · 29500 · 31000 · 32000 · 38500 · 42010 · 80000 See also: All articles beginning with "ISO"