Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages
Part 5: Alpha-3 code for language families and groups
Normative Text
1 Scope
This part of ISO 639 provides a code
consisting of language code elements comprising three-letter language identifiers
for the representation of names of living and extinct language families
and groups. Languages designed exclusively for machine use, such as computer-programming
languages, are not included in this code.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are
indispensable for the application of this document. For dated references,
only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition
of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 639-2:1998, Codes
for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code
3 Term and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the
following terms and definitions apply.
3.1 code
data transformed or represented in different forms according to a pre-established
set of rules
3.2 code element
individual entry in a code (3.1)
NOTE In the language code in this part of ISO 639,
each code element consists of a language identifier and the names of the language
family or group.
3.3 language identifier; language symbol
string of letters assigned to a linguistic unit for the purpose of uniquely
representing it
NOTE In the language code (3.1)
in this part of ISO 639, each language identifier is composed of three letters.
3.4
individual language
language that is distinctly different from another language
3.5
language family
two or more individual languages (3.4)
that are related to each other through having common ancestry
NOTE In exceptional cases a language family
may have only one individual language as a member.
3.6
language group
two or more individual languages (3.4)
that, for some purpose, may suitably be treated as a unit
3.7
remainder group
language group (3.6) with
the explicit exclusion of specified languages
NOTE 1 In
ISO 639-2, a typical example of a remainder group is “gem” = “Germanic (Other)”, which has the extension of all languages and language groups belonging to the
Germanic language family with the exception of all individual languages and
language groups within that family that have separate identifiers in ISO 639-2.
NOTE 2 See 4.2.
4 Application issues
4.1 Alpha-3 language
coding code space
The totality of language identifiers encoded
in all parts of ISO 639 constitutes one common code space. Each language identifier is uniquely defined
and has one intension only. (See 4.2 for a special case.)
4.2 Language identifiers that are
also included in ISO 639-2
ISO 639-2 contains a number
of language identifiers that denote language families (3.5) or language groups (3.6). Some of these identifiers denote the entire family or group, while other
identifiers are intended to denote any language (or a text or document in
a language) within a language family or language group that does not have
a specific language identifier as an individual language in ISO 639-2. These items are referred to as remainder groups (3.7).
Items that are remainder groups in ISO 639-2
have been renamed in this part of ISO 639 to conform to the naming convention of other families and groups, normally
by changing “(other)” to “languages” in English, and by deleting the word “autres” in French. These items are identified with the letter “r” in the “639-2” column of the tables. See Annex A for a separate list of these items as included in ISO 639-2.
There are currently 55 items that are
included in both ISO 639-2 and this part of ISO 639. Of these items, 20 items are identical in the two parts (e.g. “alg – Algonquian languages”). The remaining 35 items are intended to cover remainder groups in ISO 639-2 and entire language
groups in this part of ISO 639 (e.g. “afa – Afro-Asiatic (Other)” in ISO 639-2 and “afa – Afro-Asiatic languages” in this part of ISO 639).
According to the principles of ISO 639-2,
the identifier “afa” will be assigned only to a document or information in (or about) an Afro-Asiatic
language that does not have an individual-language identifier in Part 2, and that does not fall into the remainder groups “ber – Berber (Other)”, “cus – Cushitic (Other)”, or “sem – Semitic (Other)”, all of which are Afro-Asiatic language groups.
According to the principles of this part
of ISO 639, the identifier “afa” may be assigned to a document or information in (or about) any Afro-Asiatic
language. The use of “afa”, “sem”, or “ara” in a concrete case relating to Arabic, depends on the purpose of the encoding,
as specified in the implementation.
The use of identifiers from this part
of ISO 639 will depend on the purpose of the application. It is expected that user-defined
subsets of the items in this part of ISO 639 will frequently be used in combination with, for example, the totality or
defined subsets of ISO 639-2 or ISO 639-3.
4.3 Usage examples
The difference between an item as encoded
in ISO 639-2 [e.g. “gem: Germanic (Other)”] and as encoded in this part of ISO 639 (e.g. “gem: Germanic languages”) is considered an implementational issue.
Typical applications of the encoding of this part of ISO 639
include:
- encoding of linguistic items that relate to language
families or groups rather than to individual languages;
- identification of language families or groups that
are the objects of discussion in scientific texts or documents;
- retrieval of items that are encoded with language identifiers
denoting several individual languages constituting a language family
or group.
5 Maintenance of this language code
No separate organizational structure for
the maintenance of this part of ISO 639 is established.
The Registration Authority responsible
for the maintenance of ISO 639-2, the Library of Congress, will also be responsible for the maintenance
of this part of ISO 639.
The procedural rules that are given in
ISO 639‑2:1998 (4.2 and Annex A) apply to this part of ISO 639.
6 Language families and groups
Tables 1 to 4 contain
a list of language families and groups. The items that are included in ISO 639-2 have retained their alpha-3 identifier from ISO 639‑2. Other items have been assigned new alpha-3 identifiers that are not used (and
will not be used) for any other item in the ISO 639 series of International Standards.
The following tables are included:
- Table 1, ordered by English name;
- Table 2, ordered by French name;
- Table 3, ordered by identifier; and
- Table 4, ordered by hierarchy.
All tables have the following columns:
- “English name”;
- “French name”;
- “Ident”, being the language
identifier assigned to the language family or group;
- “639-2”, with one of
the letters “g” or “r” indicating that the language family or group is included in ISO 639-2 as a group (“g”) or a remainder group (“r”); see 4.2 and Annex A;
- “Hierarchy”, being
an indication of which other language families or groups the current
language family or group is a member of; and
- “Notes”, referring to
table notes at the end of Table 1.
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