International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Latest
ISO 639-1:2002
Scope
This part of ISO 639 provides a code consisting of
language code elements comprising two-letter language
identifiers for the representation of names of
languages. The language identifiers according to this
part of ISO 639 were devised originally for use in terminology,
lexicography and linguistics, but may be
adopted for any application requiring the expression
of language in two-letter coded form, especially in
computerized systems. The alpha-2 code was devised
for practical use for most of the major languages
of the world that are not only most frequently represented
in the total body of the world’s literature, but
which also comprise a considerable volume of specialized
languages and terminologies. Additional language
identifiers are created when it becomes
apparent that a significant body of documentation
written in specialized languages and terminologies
exists. Languages designed exclusively for machine
use, such as computer-programming languages, are
not included in this code.
ISO 639-1:2002 Referenced Document
ISO 3166-1:1997 Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions - Part 1: Country codes
ISO 3166-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions - Part 2: Country subdivision code
ISO 3166-3:1999 Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions - Part 3: Code for formerly used names of countries
ISO 639-1:2002 history
2002ISO 639-1:2002 Codes for the representation of names of languages - Part 1: Alpha-2 code