Language Code Sequence

To display a list of the language codes in alphabetical order, select:

In this section, the languages and their codes are listed alphabetically by the code. Only the name of the individual language or language group and the associated code are given. Discontinued codes are also listed in the language code sequence, identified by a hyphen ( - ) preceding the code. For more information, see Arrangement of the List.

NOTE: Tracings or references for variant forms of the language names are not included in the code sequence. Languages which are assigned a group code are not included. They are included in the Language Name Sequence section.

The language codes are three-character lowercase alphabetic strings usually based on the first three letters of the English form of the corresponding language name. The codes are varied where necessary to resolve conflicts. This list includes individual codes for most of the major languages of the modern and ancient world, e.g. Arabic, Chinese, English, Hindi, Latin, Tagalog, etc. These are the languages that are most frequently represented in the total body of the world's literature.

Usually only one code is provided for a given language, even if that language can be written in more than one set of characters. In a few cases however, separate codes are provided for the same spoken language written in different characters. In addition to codes for individual languages, the list also includes a number of codes for language groups. Group codes may be recognized by the fact that the name listed in association with the code does not represent an individual language, and includes either the generic term "languages" or the expression "(Other)," as opposed to names of individual languages which do not include these terms. For additional information, see Introduction.