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37-555: ISO 639 is a standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) concerned with representation of languages and language groups . It currently consists of four sets (1-3, 5) of code, named after each part which formerly described respective set (part 4 was guidelines without its own coding system); a part 6 was published but withdrawn. It was first approved in 1967 as a single-part ISO Recommendation , ISO/R 639 , superseded in 2002 by part 1 of

74-531: A bit within their industries. Joseph Whitworth 's screw thread measurements were adopted as the first (unofficial) national standard by companies around the country in 1841 . It came to be known as the British Standard Whitworth , and was widely adopted in other countries. By the end of the 19th century differences in standards between companies were making trade increasingly difficult and strained. The Engineering Standards Committee

111-410: A book written in 2019 by Nicholas Rich and Tegwen Malik gives a very comprehensive overview of the history of standards, how ISO standards are drafted along with key ISO standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. A paper has been published explaining the differences between international standards and private standards . One of the most well established international standardization organizations

148-529: A code in Set 1, have a B/T code, and are classified as macrolanguages in Set 3. One representative of these four elements is "Persian" fa / per / fas . These differences are due to the following factors. In ISO 639 Set 2 , two distinct codes were assigned to 22 individual languages, namely a bibliographic and a terminology code (B/T codes). B codes were included for historical reasons because previous widely used bibliographic systems used language codes based on

185-556: A commission to oversee the process. By 1906 , his work was complete and he drew up a permanent constitution for the first international standards organization, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The body held its first meeting that year in London , with representatives from 14 countries. In honour of his contribution to electrical standardisation, Lord Kelvin was elected as

222-545: A large user base, doing some well established thing that between them is mutually incompatible. Establishing international standards is one way of preventing or overcoming this problem. To support this, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee published the "Six Principles" guiding members in the development of international standards. The implementation of standards in industry and commerce became highly important with

259-580: A larger system. Set 2 defines four special codes mis , mul , und , zxx , a reserved range qaa-qtz (20 × 26 = 520 codes) and has 20 double entries (the B/T codes), plus 2 entries with deprecated B-codes. This sums up to 520 + 22 + 4 = 546 codes that cannot be used in Set 3 to represent languages or in Set 5 to represent language families or groups. The remainder is 17,576 – 546 = 17,030. There are somewhere around six to seven thousand languages on Earth today. So those 17,030 codes are adequate to assign

296-457: A proposal to form a new global standards body. In October 1946 , ISA and UNSCC delegates from 25 countries met in London and agreed to join forces to create the International Organization for Standardization (ISO); the organization officially began operations in February 1947 . Global standards are also referred to as industry or private standards , which are designed and developed with

333-599: 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" 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 26 = 456,976. International standard International standards can be applied directly or adapted to meet local conditions. When adopted, they lead to

370-444: A variety of "scopes of denotation", or types of meaning and use, some of which are described in more detail below. For a definition of macrolanguages and collective languages, see ISO 639-3/RA: Scope of denotation for language identifiers . Individual languages are further classified as to type: Some ISO 639-2 codes that are commonly used for languages do not precisely represent a particular language or some related languages (as

407-509: A way that no code means one thing in one set and something else in another. However, not all languages are in all sets, and there is a variety of different ways that specific languages and other elements are treated in the different sets. This depends, for example, whether a language is listed in Sets 1 or 2, whether it has separate B/T codes in Set 2, or is classified as a macrolanguage in Set 3, and so forth. These various treatments are detailed in

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444-521: 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 and resembles the language's two-letter code in ISO 639-1. There were originally 22 B codes; scc and scr are now deprecated. In general the T codes are favored; ISO 639-3 uses ISO 639-2/T. The codes in ISO 639-2 have

481-440: Is identified as a collective code in ISO 639-2 but is (at present) missing from ISO 639-5: Codes registered for 639-2 that are listed as collective codes in ISO 639-5 (and collective codes by name in ISO 639-2): The interval from qaa to qtz is "reserved for local use" and is not used in ISO 639-2 nor in ISO 639-3 . These codes are typically used privately for languages not (yet) in either standard. Microsoft Windows uses

518-744: Is the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the United Nations which was founded on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Union. The ITU was initially focused on the standardization of telegraph signals, and later evolved to include telephony , radio and satellite communications, and other information and communication technology . By the mid to late 19th century , efforts were being made to standardize electrical measurement. An important figure

555-432: The English name for the language. In contrast, the Set 1 codes were based on the native name for the language, and there was also a strong desire to have Set 2 codes (T codes) for these languages which were similar to the corresponding 2-character code in Set 1. Individual languages in Set 2 always have a code in Set 3 (only the Set 2 terminology code is reused there) but may or may not have a code in Set 1, as illustrated by

592-425: The ISO 639-2 namespace that cover individual languages and groups were established as ISO 639-3 and ISO 639-5, respectively. There was also an attempt to code more precise language variants using four-letter identifiers as ISO 639-6, which was later withdrawn and to be reorganized under another framework, ISO 21636 . Relatively constant updates in parts of ISO 639 had been handled by each own authority in charge until

629-572: 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, because the ISO 639-1 standard, which uses only two-letter codes for languages, is not able to accommodate a sufficient number of languages. The ISO 639-2 standard was first released in 1998. In practice, ISO 639-2 has largely been superseded by ISO 639-3 (2007), which includes codes for all

666-951: The above macrolanguages). They are regarded as collective language codes and are excluded from ISO 639-3 . The collective language codes in ISO 639-2 are listed below. Some language groups are noted to be remainder groups, that is excluding languages with their own codes, while other are not. Remainder groups are afa , alg , art , ath , bat , ber , bnt , cai , cau , cel , crp , cus , dra , fiu , gem , inc , ine , ira , khi , kro , map , mis , mkh , mun , nai , nic , paa , roa , sai , sem , sio , sit , sla , ssa , tai and tut , while inclusive groups are apa , arn , arw , aus , bad , bai , bih , cad , car , chb , cmc , cpe , cpf , cpp , dua , hmn , iro , mno , mul , myn , nub , oto , phi , sgn , wak , wen , ypk and znd . The following code

703-513: The body's first President. The International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA) was founded in 1926 with a broader remit to enhance international cooperation for all technical standards and specifications. The body was suspended in 1942 during World War II . After the war, ISA was approached by the recently formed United Nations Standards Coordinating Committee (UNSCC) with

740-519: The creation of national standards that are either equivalent to or largely align with the international standards in technical content, though they may have: (i) editorial variations, such as differences in appearance, the use of symbols, measurement units, or the choice of a point over a comma as the decimal marker, and (ii) variations arising from conflicts with government regulations or industry-specific requirements, which may be influenced by factors such as climate, geography, technology, infrastructure, or

777-461: The current ISO 639 Set 1. Since then, the standard has been adopted as a fundamental technology of the rapidly expanding computer industry ( RFC 1766 ), leading to development of more expressive three-letter framework, published as ISO 639-2:1998, largely based on MARC codes for languages. The original two-letter system was redefined as ISO 639-1 in 2001. Seeking for more extensive support of languages for widening applications, separate supersets of

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814-428: The entire world in mind. Unlike international standards, these standards are not developed in international organizations or standards setting organizations (SSO) which follow a consensus process. Instead, these standards are developed by private sector entities, like NGOs and for-profit organizations, often without transparency, openness, or consensus considerations. ISO 639-2 ISO 639-2:1998 , Codes for

851-414: The following chart. In each group of rows (one for each scope of Set 3), the last four columns contain codes for a representative language that exemplifies a specific type of relation between the sets of ISO 639, the second column provides an explanation of the relationship, and the first column indicates the number of elements that have that type of relationship. For example, there are four elements that have

888-484: The following examples: Some codes (62) in Set 3 are macrolanguages. These are groups containing multiple individual languages that have a good mutual understanding and are commonly mixed or confused. Some macrolanguages developed a default standard form on one of their individual languages (e.g. Mandarin is implied by default for the Chinese macrolanguage, other individual languages may be still distinguished if needed but

925-442: The individual languages in ISO 639-2 plus many more. It also includes the special and reserved codes, and is designed not to conflict with ISO 639-2. ISO 639-3, however, does not include any of the collective languages in ISO 639-2; most of these are included in ISO 639-5 . 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

962-594: The lack of efficiency in this system and began to consider proposals for an international standard for electric engineering. In 1904 , Crompton represented Britain at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis as part of a delegation by the Institute of Electrical Engineers . He presented a paper on standardisation, which was so well received that he was asked to look into the formation of

999-521: The new series, ISO 639-1 , followed by additional parts. All existing parts of the series were consolidated into a single standard in 2023, largely based on the text of ISO 639-4. The language codes defined in the several sections of ISO 639 are used for bibliographic purposes and, in computing and internet environments, as a key element of locale data. The codes also find use in various applications, such as Misplaced Pages URLs for its different language editions. The early form of ISO's language coding system

1036-533: The onset of the Industrial Revolution and the need for high-precision machine tools and interchangeable parts . Henry Maudslay developed the first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe in 1800, which allowed for the standardisation of screw thread sizes for the first time. Maudslay's work, as well as the contributions of other engineers, accomplished a modest amount of industry standardization ; some companies' in-house standards spread

1073-622: The publication of ISO 639:2023, which harmonized and reunified the body text of former standards and brought about organizational change with a joint maintenance agency supervising all sets and issuing newsletters [1] . Each set 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, and not included in ISO 639:2023. Scopes: Types (for individual languages): Individual languages and macrolanguages with two distinct three-letter codes in Set 2: The different sets of ISO 639 are designed to work together, in such

1110-484: 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 487 entries in the list of ISO 639-2 codes . The US Library of Congress is the registration authority for ISO 639-2 (referred to as ISO 639-2/RA). As registration authority,

1147-399: The safety standards deemed necessary by the relevant authorities. International standards are one way to overcome technical barriers in international commerce caused by differences among technical regulations and standards developed independently and separately by each nation, national standards organization, or business. Technical barriers arise when different groups come together, each with

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1184-557: The specific code cmn for Mandarin is rarely used). Collective codes in Set 2 have a code in Set 5: e.g. aus in Sets 2 and 5, which stands for Australian languages . Sets 2 and 3 also have a reserved range and four special codes: Two-letter (formerly "Alpha-2") identifiers (for codes composed of 2 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet ) are used in Set 1 . When codes for a wider range of languages were desired, more than 2 letter combinations could cover (a maximum of 26 = 676), Set 2

1221-512: Was R. E. B. Crompton , who became concerned by the large range of different standards and systems used by electrical engineering companies and scientists in the early 20th century . Many companies had entered the market in the 1890s and all chose their own settings for voltage , frequency , current and even the symbols used on circuit diagrams. Adjacent buildings would have totally incompatible electrical systems simply because they had been fitted out by different companies. Crompton could see

1258-408: Was also allowed to use (the pre-1993 version of) UDC numeral auxiliaries to indicate languages. After decoupling the country code into ISO 3166 in 1974, the first edition of the standard ISO 639:1988 Code for the representation of names of languages was published with a framework of uniformly two-letter identifiers in lowercase Latin alphabets, mostly identical in format and vocabulary to that of

1295-435: Was developed using three-letter codes. (However, the latter was formally published first.) Three-letter (formerly "Alpha-3") identifiers (for codes composed of 3 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet ) are used in Set 2 , Set 3 , and Set 5 . The number of languages and language groups that can be so represented is 26 = 17,576. The common use of three-letter codes by three sets of ISO 639 requires some coordination within

1332-764: Was established in London in 1901 as the world's first national standards body. After the First World War , similar national bodies were established in other countries. The Deutsches Institut für Normung was set up in Germany in 1917 , followed by its counterparts, the American National Standard Institute and the French Commission Permanente de Standardisation , both in 1918 . There are not many books that cover standards in general, but

1369-437: Was manifested by ISO/R 639:1967 titled Symbols for Languages, Countries and Authorities , which aimed chiefly to regulate vocabularies signifying languages, countries, and standardization agencies of ISO member bodies. Its "language symbols" consisted of one- or two-letter variable-length identifiers in capitalized Latin alphabets, e.g. E or En for English; S , Sp , or Es for Spanish; and In for Indonesian. It

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