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). As registration authority, the LOC receives 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 639-2 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 639-2 standard was first released in 1998.

B and T codes

While most languages are given one code by the standard, twenty 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 languages is also included in the ISO 639-1 standard. (There were 22 B codes; scc and scr are now deprecated.)

In general the T codes are favored, e.g. ISO 639-3 uses ISO 639-2/T.

Contrary to that, ISO 15924 which, if possible, derives their codes from ISO 639-2, favours ISO 639-2/B.

Scopes and types

Scopes:

• Individual languages
• Macrolanguages
• Collections of languages
• Dialects
• Reserved for local use
• Special situations

Types (for individual languages):

• Living languages
• Extinct languages
• Ancient languages
• Historic languages
• Constructed languages

Special situations

There are codes for special situations:

• mis is listed as "uncoded 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)

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:

Not obviously a collective in 639-2

• bad Banda
• bih Bihari (has an ISO 639-1 code)
• btk Batak
• day Dayak
• him Himachali
• ijo Ijo
• kar Karen
• kro Kru
• nah Nahuatl
• son Songhai
• znd Zande

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. The reason is that 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.

Obviously intending to cover several languages

• art Artificial languages (Other)
• afa Afro-Asiatic (Other)
• alg Algonquian languages
• tut Altaic (Other)
• apa Apache languages
• aus Australian langauges
• map Austronesian (Other)
• bai Bamileke languages
• bat Baltic (Other)
• bnt Bantu (Other)
• ber Berber (Other)
• cau Caucasian (Other)
• cai Central American Indian (Other)
• cmc Chamic languages
• 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)
• iro Iroquoian languages
• khi Khoisan (Other)
• mkh Mon-Khmer (Other)
• mun Munda languages
• nic Niger-Kordofanian (Other)
• ssa Nilo-Saharan (Other)
• nai North American Indian (Other)
• nub Nubian languages
• oto Otomian languages
• paa Papuan (Other)
• phi Philippine (Other)
• pra Prakrit languages
• roa Romance (Other)
• sal Salishan languages
• sgn sign languages
• smi Sami languages (Other)
• sem Semitic (Other)
• sit Sino-Tibetan (Other)
• sla Slavic (Other)
• sai South American Indian (Other)
• tai Tai (Other)
• tup Tupi languages
• wak Wakashan languages
• wen Sorbian languages
• ypk Yupik languages

See also

• Language code

External links

• ISO 639-2/RA Homepage
• ISO 639-2/RA Change Notice
• Details at Library of Congress website