ISO 639

ISO 639 language codes with names in English, French & German, provided in JSON, CSV, & a NodeJS module.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Information
3. Data & Formats
4. Examples
5. Node Module
6. JSON
7. CSV
8. Scrapers
9. Sources

Overview

JSON & CSV files can be found in data/

Information

This repository consists of all six four parts of the ISO 639 standard. Part 4 & 6 are not included because they are not relevant.

For a detailed description, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639

1. ISO 639-1 (Part 1): Alpha-2 codes (184 major languages)
2. ISO 639-2 (Part 2): Alpha-3 codes (485 languages + 20)
3. (WIP) ISO 639-3 (Part 3): Alpha-3 codes (? languages)
4. ISO 639-4 (Part 4): N/A
5. (WIP) ISO 639-5 (Part 5): Alpha-3 codes (language families and groups)
6. ISO 639-6 (Part 6): withdrawn

Data & Formats

For every JSON file, there is a beautified version (.json) & a minified version (.min.json).

For convenience & readability, JSON files are ordered by key alphabetically (i.e. chv always precedes chy).

Unless explicitly stated, CSV files with the same name as a JSON file will contain the same data, with the following qualifications:

• Array values are joined into a string. For example, see names (en/fr/de) in Part 2.
• Values which are marked optional for a JSON file will be treated as an empty string in the corresponding CSV file.

Part 1: Alpha-2 Codes for Major Languages

Part 1 contains two-digit alphabetical codes for 184 major languages.

data/iso_639-1.json is keyed by ISO 639-1 Alpha 2 code. Each value has:

• 639-2 (string): A mapping to the (terminological) ISO 639-2 code
• 639-2/B (string; optional): A mapping to the bibliographic ISO 639-2 code, where relevant.
• name (string): The name(s) of the language, in English.
• nativeName (string): The name(s) of the language, in the language itself.
• wikiUrl (string): A link the the Wikipedia article on the language.

Example

{
  ...
  "bo": {
    "639-1": "bo",
    "639-2": "bod",
    "639-2/B": "tib",
    "family": "Sino-Tibetan",
    "name": "Tibetan Standard, Tibetan, Central",
    "nativeName": "བོད་ཡིག",
    "wikiUrl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Tibetan"
  },
  ...
  "ru": {
    "639-1": "ru",
    "639-2": "rus",
    "family": "Indo-European",
    "name": "Russian",
    "nativeName": "Русский",
    "wikiUrl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language"
  },
  ...
}

Part 2: Alpha-3 Codes for More Languages

Part 2 contains three-digit alphabetical codes for 485 major languages. There are 20 additional entries for bibliographic codes (based upon the English name for the language).

Note, part 2 has been practically superceded by part 3.

data/iso_639-2.json is keyed by ISO 639-2 Alpha 3 code. Each value has:

• 639-1 (string; optional): A mapping to the ISO 639-1 code, if such exists.
• 639-2 (string): A mapping to the (terminological) ISO 639-2 code
• 639-2/B (string; optional): A mapping to the bibliographic ISO 639-2 code, where relevant.
• en (Array<string>): The names of the language, in English.
• fr (Array<string>): The names of the language, in French.
• de (Array<string>): The names of the language, in German.
• wikiUrl (string: optional): A link the the Wikipedia article on the language, unless the code is special (see below).

** Note: **

• The following special codes are:
  • Included: mis, mul, und, zxx
  • Excluded: qaa-qtz (a range reserved for local use) See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-2_codes]
• The German name for zgh has been manually added based upon a translation from English.
• The following errors exist in the sources:
  • The Library of Congress page incorrectly states that there are 21 additional entries for bibliographic codes while only listing 20. (Feb 2017)

Example

{
  ...
  "alb": {
    "639-1": "sq",
    "639-2": "sqi",
    "639-2/B": "alb",
    "de": [
      "Albanisch"
    ],
    "en": [
      "Albanian"
    ],
    "fr": [
      "albanais"
    ],
    "wikiUrl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_languages"
  },
  ...
  "chu": {
    "639-1": "cu",
    "639-2": "chu",
    "de": [
      "Kirchenslawisch"
    ],
    "en": [
      "Church Slavic",
      "Old Slavonic",
      "Church Slavonic",
      "Old Bulgarian",
      "Old Church Slavonic"
    ],
    "fr": [
      "slavon d'église",
      "vieux slave",
      "slavon liturgique",
      "vieux bulgare"
    ],
    "wikiUrl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Slavic_language"
  },
  ...
  "sqi": {
    ...
  }
  ...
}

Part 3: Alpha-3 Codes for Comprehensive Coverage of Languages

Part 3 contains three-digit alphabetical codes for ? major languages.

Part 4

Part 5: Alpha-3 Code for Language Families and Groups

Part 3 contains three-digit alphabetical codes for ? major languages.

Part 6

Examples

TODO

Node Module

npm install iso-639

This module is a work in progress. At present, it exposes two properties:

• iso_639_1: contains the contents of data/iso_639-1.json
• iso_639_2: contains the contents of data/iso_639-2.json

TODO

Scrapers

Data can be re-sourced using the scripts in scrapers/. Alternatively:

npm run scrape

Sources

Data is sourced from the following webpages:

• Part 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes
• Part 2:
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-2_codes
  • http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php
• Part 3: (WIP)
• Part 5: (WIP)