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ISO 639-2:1998, Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code, 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 entries in the list of ISO 639-2 codes.
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; ISO 639-3 uses ISO 639-2/T. However, ISO 15924 derives its codes when possible from 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 language codes
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 language codes and are excluded from ISO 639-3. For a definition of macrolanguages and collective languages see [1].
The collective language codes in ISO 639-2 are listed below.
The following two codes are not (yet) identified as collective codes in ISO 639-2 (and ISO 639-5), but are identified as such by the ISO 639-3 registry:
Codes registered for 639-2 that are listed as collective codes in ISO 639-5 (and collective codes by name in ISO 639-2):
Special codes in ISO 639-2:
- und undetermined (language)
- mis uncoded language
- mul multiple languages
- zxx no linguistic content, not applicable
See also
External links
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