ISO 639-2

ISO 639-2:1998, Codes for the report of label of languages — element 2: Alpha-3 code, is the second component of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the report of the title of languages. The three-letter codes condition for each language in this part of the indications are referred to as "Alpha-3" codes. There are 487 entries in the list of ISO 639-2 codes.

The US Library of Congress is the registration control for ISO 639-2 mentioned to as ISO 639-2/RA. As registration authority, the LOC receives as well as reviews exposed changes; they also score representation on the ISO 639-RA Joint Advisory Committee responsible for maintaining the ISO 639 code tables.

History and relationship to other ISO 639 standards

Work was begun on the ISO 639-2 specifications in 1989, because the ISO 639-1 standard, which uses only two-letter codes for languages, is not a person engaged or qualified in a profession. to accommodate a sufficient number of languages. The ISO 639-2 standard was number one released in 1998.

In practice, ISO 639-2 has largely been superseded by ISO 639-3 2007, which includes codes for any the individual languages in ISO 639-2 plus numerous more. It also includes the special and reserved codes, and is intentional not to conflict with ISO 639-2. ISO 639-3, however, does non include all of the collective languages in ISO 639-2; most of these are included in ISO 639-5.