Language code

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A language code is a code that assigns letters or numbers as identifiers for languages. These codes are often used to organize library collections, to choose the correct localization and translations file in a computer file, and as a shorthand designation for forms.

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[edit] Difficulty in Language Codes

Language codes attempt to classify within the complex world of human languages, dialects, and variants. Most language codes make some compromises between general enough to be useful and complete enough to enable specific dialects.

For example, most people in Central America and South America speak Spanish. Spanish spoken in Mexico will be slightly different than Spanish spoken in Peru. Different regions of Mexico will have slightly different dialects and accents of Spanish. A language code scheme might group these all as "Spanish" for choosing a keyboard layout, most as "Spanish" for general usage, or separate each dialect to allow regional specific idioms.

[edit] Common Language Codes

Some common language codes include:

Language Code Source Code for English Code for Spanish
ISO 639 The original ISO standard, from 1967 to 2002 and now obsolete. It was replaced by ISO 639-1, ISO 639-2, and ISO 639-3. Sometimes used as a shorthand for the union of all 639 standard codes.
  • en - two letter code
  • eng - three letter code
  • enm - Middle English, ca. 1100-1500
  • ang - Old English, ca., 450-1100
  • cpe - other English-based Creoles and Pidgins
  • EN - English or American two letter capital code

(source: http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm)
  • esl - three letter code
  • spa - three letter code. Both esl and spa are correct.
  • ES - Spanish, two letter capital code
ISO 639-1 Two letter code system made official in 2002, containing 136 codes. Many systems use two letter ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2 three letter codes when no two letter code is applicable.
  • en

(from List of ISO_639-1 codes)
ISO 639-2 Three letter code system of 464 codes.
  • eng - three letter code
  • enm - Middle English, ca. 1100-1500
  • ang - Old English, ca., 450-1100
  • cpe - other English-based Creoles and Pidgins

(from List of ISO 639-2 codes)
ISO 639-3 An extension of ISO 639-2 to cover all known, living or dead, spoken or written languages in 7,589 entries.
  • eng - three letter code
  • enm - Middle English, ca. 1100-1500
  • aig - Antigua and Barbuda Creole English
  • ang - Old English, ca., 450-1100
  • svc - Vincentian Creole English
  • others

(From List of ISO 639-3 codes)
  • spa - Spanish language code for an Individual, Living language.
  • spq - Spanish, Loreto-Ucayali
  • ssp - Spanish sign language
  • others
Old SIL Codes Codes created for use in the publication, Ethnologue, listing languages. The publication now uses ISO 639-3 codes.   SPN
IETF language tag An IETF best practice, currently RFC 4646 and RFC 4647 for language tags easy to parse by computer. The tag system is extensible to region, dialect, and private designations.
  • en - English, as shortest ISO 639 code.
  • en-US - English as used in the United States (US is the ISO 3166-1 country code for the United States)
  • en-US-x-fandom - English with private subtag

(source http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4646.txt)
  • es - Spanish, as shortest ISO 639 code.
  • es-419 - Spanish appropriate for the Latin America and Caribbean region using the UN region code
Verbix Language Codes Constructed codes starting with OLD SIL codes and adding more information. http://www.verbix.com/languages/codes.asp    

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References


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