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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 Wikipedia [[URL]]s for its different language editions.
==Alpha-2Gwelit code spaceivez==
*[[Kod yezh]]
"Alpha-2" codes (for codes composed of 2 letters of the [[Alphabets_derived_from_the_Latin#Basic_Latin_Alphabet|basic Latin alphabet]]) are used in [[ISO 639-1]]. Mathematically, the upper limit for the number of languages and language collections that can be so represented is 26 × 26 = 676. This is clearly insufficient to cover all languages, which led to the creation of [[ISO 639-2]] and the use of Alpha-3 codes. <!--This could be worded better, acknowledging that 639-1 existed before -2, though the latter was formally published first-->
*[[ISO 3166]] ( codeskodoù for countriesbroioù) ▼
*[[ISO 15924]] (kodoù evit [[daore-skrivañ|doareoù skrivañ]])
==Alpha-3 code space==
"Alpha-3" codes (for codes composed of 3 letters of the [[Alphabets_derived_from_the_Latin#Basic_Latin_Alphabet|basic Latin alphabet]]) are used in [[ISO 639-2]] and [[ISO 639-3]] and will eventually be used in [[ISO 639-5]]. Mathematically, the upper limit for the number of languages and language collections that can be so represented is 26 × 26 × 26 = 17,576.
The common use of Alpha-3 codes by three parts of ISO 639 requires some coordination within a larger system.
Part 2 defines four special codes <code>mul</code>, <code>und</code>, <code>mis</code>, <code>zxx</code>, a reserved range <code>qaa-qtz</code> (20 × 26 = 520 codes) and has 23 double entries (the B/T codes). This sums up to 520 + 23 + 4 = 547 codes that cannot be used in part 3 to represent languages or in part 5 to represent language families or groups.
The remainder is 17,576 – 547 = 17,029.
<!-- A further tighter upper limit can be calculated by subtracting the numbers of language collections from ISO 639-2. [Comment: This sentence appears in the article on ISO 639-3. If it is retained here, it might be rewritten to include in a broader overview of the Alpha-3 space. In general as I understand it, most 639-2 codes are also in 639-3, so the math here might be a little misleading.]-->
==Alpha-4 code space==
"Alpha-4" codes (for codes composed of 4 letters of the [[Alphabets_derived_from_the_Latin#Basic_Latin_Alphabet|basic Latin alphabet]]) will be used in [[ISO 639-6]]. Mathematically, the upper limit for the number of languages and dialects that can be so represented is 26 × 26 × 26 × 26 = 456,976.
==See also==
*[[list of ISO 639-1 codes]]
*[[list of ISO 639-2 codes]]
*[[list of ISO 639-3 codes]]
*[[language code]]
*[[language families and languages]]
*[[list of languages]]
*[[list of official languages]]
▲*[[ISO 3166]] (codes for countries)
*[[ISO 15924]] (codes for [[writing system]]s)
==External links==
*RFC 4646, ''Tags for Identifying Languages'', Best Current Practice, September 2006
*RFC 3066, ''Tags for the Identification of Languages'', Best Current Practice, January 2001—obsoleted by RFC 4646, above
*[http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/ ISO 639-2 Registration Authority]
*[http://fara.cs.uni-potsdam.de/~georgk/639.xml XML version] of the official ISO 639-2 HTML data from the [[Library of Congress]]
*[http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/ ISO 639-3 Registration Authority]
*[http://www.ethnologue.com/iso639/ ISO 639 and the Ethnologue]
*[http://www.prato.linux.it/~lmasetti/seriamente/index.php?sez=materiali&subsect=iso639 Language codes in English and Italian] with Perl scripts for parsing and PHP code
*[http://www.geolang.com GeoLang] — a linguistic research and standardization company working on the ISO 639-6 project
*[http://www.ictmarketing.co.uk ICT Marketing] — in collaboration with GeoLang and BSI on ISO 639-6 language coding project
*[http://www.bsi-global.com British Standards Institute]
*[http://eikenes.alvestrand.no/pipermail/ietf-languages/2003-November/001589.html explanation by Håvard Hjulstad]
[[Category:ISO standards|#00639]]
[[Category:ISO 639| ]]
[[Category:Identifiers]]
[[Category:Universal Identifiers]]
[[af:ISO 639]]
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