Language Codes: - Understanding ISO Language Abbreviations
Language codes, also known as ISO language codes, are standardized abbreviations that are used to represent different languages. These codes are created and maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and are used to identify and classify languages in a variety of applications.
In this article, we'll take a closer look at language codes and explore the purpose and significance of these codes, as well as how they are used in different contexts.
What are ISO Language Codes?
ISO language codes are a standardized system of abbreviations that are used to represent different languages. Each language is assigned a unique two-letter or three-letter code, which is based on the ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2 standards. These codes are designed to be short, simple, and easily recognizable, making them ideal for use in a variety of applications.
How are ISO Language Codes Used?
ISO language codes are used in a wide range of applications, including:
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Information Technology: Language codes are often used to identify the languages of websites, software, and digital content. This makes it possible to display content in the appropriate language, depending on the user's preferences or location.
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Internationalization and Localization: ISO language codes are used to identify the languages that are supported by a particular software application or website. This information can be used to provide localization services, such as translated user interfaces, help files, and documentation.
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Linguistics: ISO language codes are used by linguists and researchers to classify and categorize languages. This information can be used to study the relationships between languages, to trace their historical origins, and to understand their cultural significance.
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Education: ISO language codes are used in educational settings to identify the languages that are studied or taught. This information can be used to track student progress, to determine proficiency levels, and to provide appropriate resources and support.
A List of ISO Language Codes
Here is a list of ISO language codes, organized by alphabet:
| ISO language name | 639-1 | 639-2/T | 639-2/B | 639-3 |
| Abkhazian | ab | abk | abk | abk |
| Afar | aa | aar | aar | aar |
| Afrikaans | af | afr | afr | afr |
| Akan | ak | aka | aka | aka + 2 |
| Albanian | sq | sqi | alb | sqi + 4 |
| Amharic | am | amh | amh | amh |
| Arabic | ar | ara | ara | ara + 29 |
| Aragonese | an | arg | arg | arg |
| Armenian | hy | hye | arm | hye |
| Assamese | as | asm | asm | asm |
| Avaric | av | ava | ava | ava |
| Avestan | ae | ave | ave | ave |
| Aymara | ay | aym | aym | aym + 2 |
| Azerbaijani | az | aze | aze | aze + 2 |
| Bambara | bm | bam | bam | bam |
| Bashkir | ba | bak | bak | bak |
| Basque | eu | eus | baq | eus |
| Belarusian | be | bel | bel | bel |
| Bengali | bn | ben | ben | ben |
| Bislama | bi | bis | bis | bis |
| Bosnian | bs | bos | bos | bos |
| Breton | br | bre | bre | bre |
| Bulgarian | bg | bul | bul | bul |
| Burmese | my | mya | bur | mya |
| Catalan, Valencian | ca | cat | cat | cat |
| Chamorro | ch | cha | cha | cha |
| Chechen | ce | che | che | che |
| Chichewa, Chewa, Nyanja | ny | nya | nya | nya |
| Chinese | zh | zho | chi | zho + 16 |
| (Old) Church Slavonic, Old Slavonic | cu | chu | chu | chu |
| Chuvash | cv | chv | chv | chv |
| Cornish | kw | cor | cor | cor |
| Corsican | co | cos | cos | cos |
| Cree | cr | cre | cre | cre + 6 |
| Croatian | hr | hrv | hrv | hrv |
| Czech | cs | ces | cze | ces |
| Danish | da | dan | dan | dan |
| Divehi, Dhivehi, Maldivian | dv | div | div | div |
| Dutch, Flemish | nl | nld | dut | nld |
| Dzongkha | dz | dzo | dzo | dzo |
| English | en | eng | eng | eng |
| Esperanto | eo | epo | epo | epo |
| Estonian | et | est | est | est + 2 |
| Ewe | ee | ewe | ewe | ewe |
| Faroese | fo | fao | fao | fao |
| Fijian | fj | fij | fij | fij |
| Finnish | fi | fin | fin | fin |
| French | fr | fra | fre | fra |
| Western Frisian | fy | fry | fry | fry |
| Fulah | ff | ful | ful | ful + 9 |
| Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic | gd | gla | gla | gla |
| Galician | gl | glg | glg | glg |
| Ganda | lg | lug | lug | lug |
| Georgian | ka | kat | geo | kat |
| German | de | deu | ger | deu |
| Greek, Modern (1453–) | el | ell | gre | ell |
| Kalaallisut, Greenlandic | kl | kal | kal | kal |
| Guarani | gn | grn | grn | grn + 5 |
| Gujarati | gu | guj | guj | guj |
| Haitian, Haitian Creole | ht | hat | hat | hat |
| Hausa | ha | hau | hau | hau |
| Hebrew | he | heb | heb | heb |
| Herero | hz | her | her | her |
| Hindi | hi | hin | hin | hin |
| Hiri Motu | ho | hmo | hmo | hmo |
| Hungarian | hu | hun | hun | hun |
| Icelandic | is | isl | ice | isl |
| Ido | io | ido | ido | ido |
| Igbo | ig | ibo | ibo | ibo |
| Indonesian | id | ind | ind | ind |
| Interlingua (International Auxiliary Language Association) | ia | ina | ina | ina |
| Interlingue, Occidental | ie | ile | ile | ile |
| Inuktitut | iu | iku | iku | iku + 2 |
| Inupiaq | ik | ipk | ipk | ipk + 2 |
| Irish | ga | gle | gle | gle |
| Italian | it | ita | ita | ita |
| Japanese | ja | jpn | jpn | jpn |
| Javanese | jv | jav | jav | jav |
| Kannada | kn | kan | kan | kan |
| Kanuri | kr | kau | kau | kau + 3 |
| Kashmiri | ks | kas | kas | kas |
| Kazakh | kk | kaz | kaz | kaz |
| Central Khmer | km | khm | khm | khm |
| Kikuyu, Gikuyu | ki | kik | kik | kik |
| Kinyarwanda | rw | kin | kin | kin |
| Kirghiz, Kyrgyz | ky | kir | kir | kir |
| Komi | kv | kom | kom | kom + 2 |
| Kongo | kg | kon | kon | kon + 3 |
| Korean | ko | kor | kor | kor |
| Kuanyama, Kwanyama | kj | kua | kua | kua |
| Kurdish | ku | kur | kur | kur + 3 |
| Lao | lo | lao | lao | lao |
| Latin | la | lat | lat | lat |
| Latvian | lv | lav | lav | lav + 2 |
| Limburgan, Limburger, Limburgish | li | lim | lim | lim |
| Lingala | ln | lin | lin | lin |
| Lithuanian | lt | lit | lit | lit |
| Luba-Katanga | lu | lub | lub | lub |
| Luxembourgish, Letzeburgesch | lb | ltz | ltz | ltz |
| Macedonian | mk | mkd | mac | mkd |
| Malagasy | mg | mlg | mlg | mlg + 11 |
| Malay | ms | msa | may | msa + 36 |
| Malayalam | ml | mal | mal | mal |
| Maltese | mt | mlt | mlt | mlt |
| Manx | gv | glv | glv | glv |
| Maori | mi | mri | mao | mri |
| Marathi | mr | mar | mar | mar |
| Marshallese | mh | mah | mah | mah |
| Mongolian | mn | mon | mon | mon + 2 |
| Nauru | na | nau | nau | nau |
| Navajo, Navaho | nv | nav | nav | nav |
| North Ndebele | nd | nde | nde | nde |
| South Ndebele | nr | nbl | nbl | nbl |
| Ndonga | ng | ndo | ndo | ndo |
| Nepali | ne | nep | nep | nep + 2 |
| Norwegian | no | nor | nor | nor + 2 |
| Norwegian Bokmål | nb | nob | nob | nob |
| Norwegian Nynorsk | nn | nno | nno | nno |
| Sichuan Yi, Nuosu | ii | iii | iii | iii |
| Occitan | oc | oci | oci | oci |
| Ojibwa | oj | oji | oji | oji + 7 |
| Oriya | or | ori | ori | ori + 2 |
| Oromo | om | orm | orm | orm + 4 |
| Ossetian, Ossetic | os | oss | oss | oss |
| Pali | pi | pli | pli | pli |
| Pashto, Pushto | ps | pus | pus | pus + 3 |
| Persian | fa | fas | per | fas + 2 |
| Polish | pl | pol | pol | pol |
| Portuguese | pt | por | por | por |
| Punjabi, Panjabi | pa | pan | pan | pan |
| Quechua | qu | que | que | que + 43 |
| Romanian, Moldavian, Moldovan | ro | ron | rum | ron |
| Romansh | rm | roh | roh | roh |
| Rundi | rn | run | run | run |
| Russian | ru | rus | rus | rus |
| Northern Sami | se | sme | sme | sme |
| Samoan | sm | smo | smo | smo |
| Sango | sg | sag | sag | sag |
| Sanskrit | sa | san | san | san |
| Sardinian | sc | srd | srd | srd + 4 |
| Serbian | sr | srp | srp | srp |
| Shona | sn | sna | sna | sna |
| Sindhi | sd | snd | snd | snd |
| Sinhala, Sinhalese | si | sin | sin | sin |
| Slovak | sk | slk | slo | slk |
| Slovenian | sl | slv | slv | slv |
| Somali | so | som | som | som |
| Southern Sotho | st | sot | sot | sot |
| Spanish, Castilian | es | spa | spa | spa |
| Sundanese | su | sun | sun | sun |
| Swahili | sw | swa | swa | swa + 2 |
| Swati | ss | ssw | ssw | ssw |
| Swedish | sv | swe | swe | swe |
| Tagalog | tl | tgl | tgl | tgl |
| Tahitian | ty | tah | tah | tah |
| Tajik | tg | tgk | tgk | tgk |
| Tamil | ta | tam | tam | tam |
| Tatar | tt | tat | tat | tat |
| Telugu | te | tel | tel | tel |
| Thai | th | tha | tha | tha |
| Tibetan | bo | bod | tib | bod |
| Tigrinya | ti | tir | tir | tir |
| Tonga (Tonga Islands) | to | ton | ton | ton |
| Tsonga | ts | tso | tso | tso |
| Tswana | tn | tsn | tsn | tsn |
| Turkish | tr | tur | tur | tur |
| Turkmen | tk | tuk | tuk | tuk |
| Twi | tw | twi | twi | twi |
| Uighur, Uyghur | ug | uig | uig | uig |
| Ukrainian | uk | ukr | ukr | ukr |
| Urdu | ur | urd | urd | urd |
| Uzbek | uz | uzb | uzb | uzb + 2 |
| Venda | ve | ven | ven | ven |
| Vietnamese | vi | vie | vie | vie |
| Volapük | vo | vol | vol | vol |
| Walloon | wa | wln | wln | wln |
| Welsh | cy | cym | wel | cym |
| Wolof | wo | wol | wol | wol |
| Xhosa | xh | xho | xho | xho |
| Yiddish | yi | yid | yid | yid + 2 |
| Yoruba | yo | yor | yor | yor |
| Zhuang, Chuang | za | zha | zha | zha + 16 |
| Zulu | zu | zul | zul | zul |
| Zulu | zu | zul | zul | zul |
These are just a few examples of the many ISO language codes that are in use today. As the world becomes increasingly globalized, the importance of language codes continues to grow, making them an essential tool for communication and understanding between people from different cultures and backgrounds.
Conclusion
ISO language codes are a powerful tool for identifying and categorizing different languages. They are used in a wide range of applications, from information technology and internationalization to linguistics and education. By understanding the purpose and significance of language codes, we can appreciate the role they play in facilitating communication and fostering greater understanding between people from different cultures and backgrounds.