ISO 639-2
Encyclopedia : I : IS : ISO : 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) and is responsible for maintaining the standard and reviewing any proposed additions or changes.
Work was begun on the ISO 693-2 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 693-2 standard was first released in 1998.
While most languages are given one code by the standard, twenty-three 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-three languages are also included in the ISO 639-1 standard.
In addition, there are codes for special situations:
- mis is listed as "miscellaneous 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)
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