ISO 639-2

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ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. The three-letter codes given for each language in this part of the standard are referred to as "Alpha-3" codes. There are 464 language codes in the list.

The U.S. Library of Congress is the registration authority for ISO 639-2 (referred to as ISO 639-2/RA). As registration authority, the LOC recieves and reviews proposed changes; they also have representation on the ISO 639-RA Joint Advisory Committee responsible for maintaining the ISO 639 code tables.

Work was begun on the ISO 693-2 standard in 1989, due to the fact that the ISO 639-1 standard, which gives two-letter codes for languages, would not be able to accommodate a sufficient number of languages. The ISO 693-2 standard was first released in 1998.

While most languages are given one code by the standard, twenty-three of the languages described have two three-letter codes, a "bibliographic" code (ISO 639-2/B), which is derived from the English name for the language and was a necessary legacy feature, and a "terminological" code (ISO 639-2/T), which is derived from the native name for the language. Each of these twenty-three languages are also included in the ISO 639-1 standard.

In addition, there are codes for special situations:

  • mis is listed as "miscellaneous languages"
  • mul (for multiple languages) is applied when several languages are used and it is not practical to specify all the appropriate language codes
  • The interval from qaa to qtz is reserved and is not used in the standard
  • und (for undetermined) is used in situations in which a language or languages must be indicated but the language cannot be identified.
  • zxx is listed in the code list as "no linguistic content" (added 2006-01-11)

Contents

[edit] Collective languages

Some ISO 639-2 codes that are commonly used for languages do not precisely represent a particular language or some related languages (as the above macrolanguages). They are regarded as collective languages (or collectives) and are excluded from ISO 639-3.

For a definition of macrolanguages and collective languages see [1].

Collective languages and their ISO 639-2 codes are:

[edit] not obviously a collective in 639-2

Bihari (bih) is marked as collective but on the other hand has an ISO 639-1 code (bh) which should only be for individual languages

[edit] obviously intending to cover several languages

  • art Artificial languages (Other)
  • afa Afro-Asiatic (Other)
  • tut Altaic (Other)
  • map Austronesian (Other)
  • bat Baltic (Other)
  • bnt Bantu (Other)
  • ber Berber (Other)
  • cau Caucasian (Other)
  • cai Central American Indian (Other)
  • crp Creoles and Pidgins (Other)
  • cpe Creoles and Pidgins, English-based (Other)
  • cpf Creoles and Pidgins, French-based (Other)
  • cpp Creoles and Pidgins, Portuguese-based (Other)
  • cus Cushitic (Other)
  • dra Dravidian (Other)
  • fiu Finno-Ugrian (Other)
  • gem Germanic (Other)
  • inc Indic (Other)
  • ine Indo-European (Other)
  • ira Iranian (Other)
  • khi Khoisan (Other)
  • mkh Mon-Khmer (Other)
  • nic Niger-Kordofanian (Other)
  • ssa Nilo-Saharan (Other)
  • nai North American Indian (Other)
  • paa Papuan (Other)
  • phi Philippine (Other)
  • roa Romance (Other)
  • smi Sami languages (Other)
  • sem Semitic (Other)
  • sit Sino-Tibetan (Other)
  • sla Slavic (Other)
  • sai South American Indian (Other)
  • tai Tai (Other)

Note also:

  • mis Miscellaneous Languages
  • mul Multiple Languages
  • und Undetermined
  • zxx No Linguistic Content

[edit] B and T codes

If possible ISO 15924 derives their codes from ISO 639-2 and where there are two codes the B code is favored.

ISO 639-3 uses the T code.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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