R: ISO 639 Language Codes

ISO_639 {ISOcodes} | R Documentation

## ISO 639 Language Codes

### Description

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) codes for the representation of languages. Consists of four parts, with more parts work in progress. ISO 639-1 consists of 185 two-letter (alpha-2) codes used to identify the world's major languages. ISO 639-2 has three-letter (alpha-3) codes for 485 languages. ISO 639-3 extends the ISO 639-2 alpha-3 codes with an aim to cover all known natural languages. ISO 639-5 defines alpha-3 codes for language families.

### Usage

    ISO_639_2
    ISO_639_3
    ISO_639_3_Retirements
    ISO_639_5

### Format

`ISO_639_2` is a character data frame with variables `Alpha_3_B` and `Alpha_3_T` (the ISO 639-2 bibliographic and terminological codes), `Alpha_2` (the corresponding ISO 639-1 alpha-2 code if available), and `Name` (the English name of the language).

`ISO_639_3` is a data frame with the following variables:

`Id`:

  a character vector with the ISO 639-3 3-letter (alpha-3) identifiers.

`Part2B`:

  a character vector with the equivalent ISO 639-2 B-code identifiers of the bibliographic applications code set (if existent).

`Part2T`:

  a character vector with the equivalent ISO 639-2 T-code identifiers of the terminology applications code set (if existent).

`Part1`:

  a character vector with the equivalent ISO 639-1 2-letter (alpha-2) identifiers (if existent).

`Scope`:

  a factor with levels `"I"` (Individual), `"M"` (Macrolanguage) and `"S"` (Special).

`Type`:

  a factor with levels `"L"` (Living languages), `"E"` (Extinct languages), `"A"` (Ancient languages), `"H"` (Historic languages), `"C"` (Constructed languages), and `"S"` (Special).

`Name`:

  a character vector with the reference language names.

`Comment`:

  a character vector with a comment relating to one or more of the other variables.

`Family`:

  a character vector with the generic English names of the languages' family or macrolanguage.

`eng`:

  a character vector with the language names in English.

`fra`:

  a character vector with the language names in French (if available).

`spa`:

  a character vector with the language names in Spanish (if available).

`zho`:

  a character vector with the language names in Chinese (if available).

`rus`:

  a character vector with the language names in Russian (if available).

`deu`:

  a character vector with the language names in German (if available).

Variables `Family` and `eng` to `deu` are extracted from the Wikipedia ISO 639-3 language codes pages.

`ISO_639_3_Retirements` is a data frame giving the languages retired from ISO 639-3, with variables:

`Id`:

  a character vector with the retired codes

`Ret_Reason`:

  a factor with levels `"C"` (change), `"D"` (duplicate), `"N"` (non-existent), `"S"` (split), and `"M"` (merge).

`Change_To`:

  a character vector which in the cases of C, D, and M gives the identifier to which all instances of the Id should be changed.

`Ret_Remedy`:

  a character vector with instructions for updating an instance of the retired (split) identifier.

`Effective`:

  a `Date` object giving the date the retirement became effective.

`ISO_639_5` is a data frame with the following variables:

`Id`

  a character vector with the 3-letter (alpha-3) ISO 639-5 identifiers.

`English_Name`

  the family names in English.

`French_Name`

  the family names in French.

`Part2`

  a factor indicating how the family relates to 639-2, with levels `"g"` (group: consists of several related languages), `"r"` (rest group: a group of several related languages, from which some specific languages have been excluded), or `""` (no 639-2 code).

`Hierarchy`

  an indication of which other language families or groups the current language family or group is a member of (given as 639-5 ids separated by : ).

### Details

While most languages are given one code by the ISO 639-2 standard, twenty-two of the languages described have two three-letter codes, a “bibliographic” code (ISO 639-2/B, B-code), which is derived from the English name for the language and was a necessary legacy feature, and a “terminological” code (ISO 639-2/T, T-code), which is derived from the native name for the language. The range qaa to qtz is reserved for local use.

ISO 639-3 is a superset of ISO 639-1 and of the individual languages in ISO 639-2. ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2 focused on major languages, most frequently represented in the total body of the world's literature. Since ISO 639-2 also includes language collections, whereas Part 3 does not, ISO 639-3 is not a superset of ISO 639-2. Where B and T codes exist in ISO 639-2, ISO 639-3 uses the T-codes.

ISO 639-2 contains codes for some individual and group languages and so any code in it is either in 639-3 or 639-5; 639-5 families may be missing from 639-2.

### Source

http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/ for ISO 639-2;
http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/download.asp for ISO 639-3;
http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-5/ for ISO 639-5.

### References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639

[Package ISOcodes version 2017.09.27 Index]