ISO 639-3 Language Code List

ISO 639-3 is an international standard that assigns three-letter codes to all human languages for identification purposes. It provides comprehensive coverage by including every known natural language, encompassing living, extinct, historical, constructed, and special languages. Currently, the standard covers more than 7,900 distinct languages.

This standard was created to provide a more detailed and comprehensive method for identifying languages that earlier standards like ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2 did not fully cover. It is widely used in linguistic research, language documentation, preservation efforts, and digital applications that require consistent and precise language tagging. The standard is actively maintained and regularly updated to reflect new linguistic discoveries and changes.

Common applications include linguistic databases, language archives, academic research, and software localization.

ISO 639-3 Language Code List

The language code table is shown below.