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Iso 639

 

Iso 639

ISO 639 is a set of standards by the language and language groups.

It was also the name of the original standard, approved in 1967 (as ISO 639/R)[1] and withdrawn in 2002.[2] The ISO 639 set consists of five parts.

Contents

  • The current and historical parts of the standard 1
  • Characteristics of individual codes 2
  • Relations between the parts 3
  • Code space 4
    • Alpha-2 code space 4.1
    • Alpha-3 code space 4.2
    • Alpha-4 code space 4.3
  • See also 5
  • Notes and references 6
  • External links 7

The current and historical parts of the standard

Standard Name (Codes for the representation of names of languages – ...) Registration Authority First edition Current No. in list
ISO 639-1 Part 1: Alpha-2 code Infoterm 1967 (as ISO 639) 2002 184
ISO 639-2 Part 2: Alpha-3 code Library of Congress 1998 1998 565 as of October 2015[3]
ISO 639-3 Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages Summer Institute of Linguistics International 2007 2007 7865 + local range as of October 2015[4]
ISO 639-4 Part 4: Implementation guidelines and general principles for language coding ISO/TC 37/SC 2 2010-07-16 2010-07-16 (not a list)
ISO 639-5 Part 5: Alpha-3 code for language families and groups Library of Congress 2008-05-15 2008-05-15 114
ISO 639-6 (withdrawn) Part 6: Alpha-4 representation for comprehensive coverage of language variants Geolang 2009-11-17 withdrawn 21,000+

Each part of the standard is maintained by a maintenance agency, which adds codes and changes the status of codes when needed. ISO 639-6 was withdrawn in 2014.[5]

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 languages)[6]
  • Extinct languages (part 2, 3) (437,[7] four in part 2 chb, chg, cop, sam; none in part 1)
  • Ancient languages (part 1, 2, 3) (112,[8] 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,[9] 16 of them are in part 2, none has part 1 code)
  • Constructed languages (part 2, 3) (19,[10] 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 different parts of ISO 639 are designed to work together, in such a way that no code means one thing in one part and something else in another. However, not all languages are in all parts, and there is a variety of different ways that specific languages and other elements are treated in the different parts. This depends, for example, whether a language is listed in parts 1 or 2, whether it has separate B/T codes in part 2, or is classified as a macrolanguage in part 3, and so forth.

These various treatments are detailed in the following chart. The first four columns contain codes for a representative language that exemplifies a specific type of relation between the parts of ISO 639. The last column provides an explanation of the relationship, and the "#" column indicates the number of elements that have that type of relationship. For example, there are four elements that have a code in part 1, have a B/T code, and are classified as macrolanguages in 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 Languages with one code in each part. (There 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 An individual language that belongs to macrolanguage (nor), with same code in Part 2 and also has a code in Part 1. The two codes are: nob, non
ar ara ara (M) (-) 25 Part 3 macro, 55 macrolanguages total, subtract special cases, 55-24-4-1-1=25
de ger/deu (B/T) deu (-) 15 Elements that have separate B and T codes in part 2, but not in any of the special cases in succeeding lines. 22 total, subtract special cases, 22-1-4-2=15.
cs cze/ces (B/T) ces (-) 1 An element with separate B/T codes 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 Macrolanguages in part 3 with separate B/T codes in part 2; the four T codes are: fas, msa, sqi, zho
hr scr/hrv (B/T) hrv (-) 2 Languages with separate B/T codes in part 2, but the B code is deprecated. The two T codes are: hrv, srp. Deprecated 2008-06-28.
no ("M") nor ("M") nor (M) (-) 1 Macrolanguages in part 3 which contain languages that 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 languages are: bho, mai, mag
sh (-) hbs (M) (-) 1 Macrolanguage in part 3, no part 2 code, part 1 code deprecated
(bh) bho bho (-) 3 Classified as individual languages in parts 2 & 3, do not belong to a macrolanguage, but in part 1 are covered by a code whose equivalent in part 2 is a collective. The three codes are: bho, mai, mag
(bh) (bih) sck (-) An individual language in part 3, no code in Part 2, does not belong to a macrolanguage, but in Part 1 is covered by a code whose equivalent in Part 2 is a collective.
(-) car car car An individual language in parts 2 & 3, but also included in Part 5 as a family[11][12]
(-) ast ast (-) An individual language in parts 2 & 3, no code in Part 1.
(-) bal bal (M) (-) 24 An individual language in Part 2 and macrolanguage in Part 3, no code in Part 1.
(-) mis mis ? 1 special code: uncoded language
(-) 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 (-) An individual language, belongs to a macrolanguage (ara) in part 3, covered by the macrolanguage code in Part 2, also covered in Part 1.
(-) (nic "R") aaa (-) No code in part 1, in Part 2 best covered by a rest group, "Niger-Kodofanian (Other)"
(-) (-) (-) sqj Languages not coded in parts 1 & 2

These differences are due to the following factors:

  • In ISO 639-2, two alternate codes are assigned to 22 languages, namely a bibliographic and a terminology code (B/T codes).[13] B codes have been added for historical reasons as large bibliographic systems had been using language codes which differed from the corresponding T codes. On the other hand, T codes have been chosen to be similar to the corresponding 2-character code in ISO 639-1.
    • For instance, the German language (Part 1: de) has two codes in Part 2: ger (T code) and deu (B code), whereas there is only one code in Part 2, eng, for the English language.
  • Part 2 has a reserved range and three special codes:
    • Codes qaa through qtz are reserved for local use.
    • There are three special codes: mul for "multiple languages", und for "undefined", and zxx for "no linguistic content, not applicable".
  • Individual languages in Part 2 always have a code in Part 3 but may or may not have a code in Part 1, as illustrated by the following examples:
    • Part 3 eng corresponds to Part 2 eng and Part 1 en
    • Part 3 ast corresponds to Part 2 ast but lacks a code in Part 1.
  • Collective codes in Part 2 have a code in Part 5, e.g. aus in Part 2 and Part 5, which stands for Australian languages.
  • 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 ISO 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).

Alpha-3 code space

"Alpha-3" codes (for codes composed of 3 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet) are used in ISO 639-2, ISO 639-3, and ISO 639-5. The number of languages and language groups 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.[14] 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 ISO basic Latin alphabet) were proposed to be used in ISO 639-6, which has been withdrawn. The upper limit for the number of languages and dialects that can be represented is 264 = 456,976.

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ "ISO/R 639:1967". Iso.org. 1988-03-01. Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  2. ^ "ISO 639:1988". Iso.org. Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  3. ^ "Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages: Alpha-3 codes arranged alphabetically by the English name of language". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2015-10-27. 
  4. ^ "ISO 639 code tables". Sil.org. Retrieved 2015-10-27. 
  5. ^ ISO 639-6:2009, ISO.
  6. ^ "ISO 639 code tables". Sil.org. Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  7. ^ "ISO 639 code tables". Sil.org. Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  8. ^ "ISO 639 code tables". Sil.org. Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  9. ^ "ISO 639 code tables". Sil.org. Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  10. ^ "ISO 639 code tables". Sil.org. Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  11. ^ "ISO 639 code sets". Sil.org. Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  12. ^ "ISO 639-5 Identifier : Codes for the representation of names of languages (ISO 639-5 Registration Authority - Library of Congress)". Loc.gov:8081. 2008-12-23. Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  13. ^ "ISO 639-2 &endash; Frequently Asked Questions". loc.gov. 2014-05-05. Retrieved 2014-12-12. 
  14. ^ "Statistical Summaries". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2012-08-05. 

External links

  • Official ISO 639-1/RA (Registration Authority) Infoterm
  • Official ISO 639-2/RA (Registration Authority) Library of Congress
  • Official ISO 639-3/RA (Registration Authority) SIL International
  • Official ISO 693-5/RA (Registration Authority) Library of Congress
  • Official ISO 639-6/RA (Registration Authority) Geolang
  • 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 ISO 639 macrolanguage
   
  • ISO 639-4
  • —
  • guidelines
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