The Library of Congress has been designated the Language Coding Agency (LCA) for Set 5 of the ISO 639 language standard under ISO639/MA-ToR, the Terms of Reference for the ISO 639 Maintenance Agency. Though Set 2 of ISO 639 includes some language groups and language families, it is by no means a complete list. The purpose of the code elements for language groups and language families in ISO 639-2 is to provide a means to register the language of a document even when the individual language in question is not included in the code table. Set 5 of ISO 639 supplements the coding of language groups and language families in ISO 639-2. However, the depth and detail of coding in ISO 639-5 is intended to support the overall language coding of the ISO 639 International Standard rather than provide a scientific classification of the languages of the world.
The ISO 639-5/LCA receives and reviews applications for requesting new three-letter language codes and for the change of existing ones according to criteria indicated in the International Standard, ISO 639:2023: Code for individual languages and language groups. It maintains an accurate list of information associated with registered language codes, processes updates of registered language codes, and distributes them on a regular basis to subscribers and other parties.
This is the official site of the ISO 639-5 Language Coding Agency and thus is the only one authorized by ISO. If you have questions concerning the language codes in Set 5 of ISO 639:2023 please contact us at: the language codes in Set 5 of ISO 639:2023, please contact us at:
Library of Congress
Network Development and MARC Standards Office
Washington, DC 20540-4402
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +1 202 707 6237
FAX: +1 202 707 0115
ISO 639-2 Language Coding Agency
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