ISO 639-2
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) and is responsible for maintaining the standard and reviewing any proposed additions or changes.
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)
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:
not obviously a collective in 639-2
Bihari (bih) is marked as collective but on the other hand has an 639-1 code (bh) which should only be for individual languages
*
bad Banda*
bih Bihari (has a ISO 639-1 code)
*
btk Batak*
day Dayak*
him Himachali*
ijo Ijo*
kar Karen*
kro Kru*
nah Nahuatl*
son Songhai*
znd Zandeobviously 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
*
List of ISO 639-2 codes*
ISO 639-2/RA Homepage*
ISO 639-2/RA Change Notice*
Details at
Library of Congress website
