This page lists the ISO name and code representations of the most popular language locales.

1 Table of Language Locales

1.1 Notes

1.2 Conventions

1.3 Codes Reserved for Local Use

2 Normative References

Table of Language Locales

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Please refer to the official ISO web sites listed under the
Normative References section below.

For an explanation of the criteria that were followed for this table, see the section Conventions
below.

Language Name ISO 639-1 + ISO 3166-1 ISO 639-3

Abkhaz [Abkhazian] ab-GE abk

Acholi [Acoli] ach-UG ach

Afar aa-ET aar

Afrikaans af-ZA afr

Akan ak-GH aka

Albanian sq-AL sqi

Algonquin alg-CA alq

Amharic am-ET amh

Arabic (Egypt) ar-EG arz

Arabic (International) [Modern Standard] ar-XN arb

Arabic (Jordan) ar-JO ajp

Arabic (Saudi Arabia) ar-SA arb

Arabic (Sudan) ar-SD apd

Arabic (United Arab Emirates) ar-AE afb

Armenian hy-AM hye

Assamese as-IN asm

Azerbaijani az-AZ aze

Bali [Balinese] ban-IN ban

Balochi bal-PK bal

Bashkir ba-RU bak

Basque eu-ES eus

Belarusan [Belarusian] be-BY bel

Bengali (India) bn-IN ben

Bengali [Bangla] bn-BD ben

Bhojpuri bh-IN bho

Bislama bi-VU bis

Bosnian bs-BA bos

Breton br-FR bre

Bulgarian bg-BG bul

Burmese my-MM mya

Catalan ca-ES cat

Cebuano ceb-PH ceb

Chinese (Hong Kong) zh-HK yue

Chinese (Singapore) zh-SG cmn

Chinese [Simplified] zh(-Hans)-CN 1 cmn

Chinese [Traditional] zh(-Hant)-TW 1 cmn

Corsican (France) co-FR cos

Corsican (Italy) co-IT cos

Cree cr-CA cre

Creole (Haiti) ht-HT hat

Creoles and pidgins, English-based cpe

Croatian hr-HR hrv

Czech cs-CZ ces

Dagbani nic-GH dag

Danish da-DK dan

Dari fa-AF fas

Dhivehi [Maldivian] dv-MV div

Duala dua-CM dua

Dutch (Belgium) nl-BE vls

Dutch (The Netherlands) nl-NL nld

Dyula dyu-BF dyu

Dzongkha [Bhutanese] dz-BT dzo

Ebira [Igbira] igb-NG igb

Edo [Bini] bin-NG bin

Ejagham etu-NG etu

English (Australia) en-AU eng

English (Canada) en-CA eng

English (Ireland) en-IE eng

English (Jamaica) en-JM eng

English (Kenya) en-KE eng

English (Malawi) en-MW eng

English (New Zealand) en-NZ eng

English (Nigeria) en-NG eng

English (South Africa) en-ZA eng

English (United Kingdom) en-GB eng

English (United States) en-US eng

English (International) en-XN eng

Esperanto eo-XN epo

Estonian et-EE est

Ewe ee-GH ewe

Fanti fat-GH fat

Faroese fo-FO fao

Filipino [Pilipino] fil-PH fil

Finnish fi-FI fin

Flemish nl-BE vls

French (Algeria) fr-DZ fra

French (Belgium) fr-BE fra

French (Cameroon) fr-CM fra

French (Canada) fr-CA fra

French (DR Congo) fr-CD fra

French (France) fr-FR fra

French (Guinea) fr-GN fra

French (Ivory Coast) fr-CI fra

French (Luxembourg) fr-LU fra

French (Morocco) fr-MA fra

French (Switzerland) fr-CH fra

French (Togo) fr-TG fra

Frisian fy-NL fry

Ga gaa-GH gaa

Gaelic [Scottish] gd-GB gla

Galician [Gallegan] gl-ES glg

Georgian ka-GE kat

German (Austria) de-AT deu

German (Germany) de-DE deu

German (Liechtenstein) de-LI deu

German (Luxembourg) de-LU deu

German (Switzerland) de-CH deu

Greek el-GR ell

Greenlandic [Kalaallisut] kl-GL kal

Gujarati gu-IN guj

Hausa ha-NE hau

Hebrew he-IL heb

Hiligaynon hil-PH hil

Hindi hi-IN hin

Hindustani (Fiji) hi-FJ hif

Hiri Motu (Papua New Guinea) ho-PG hmo

Hmong hmn-LA hmn

Hungarian hu-HU hun

Icelandic is-IS isl

Igbo ig-NG ibo

Ilocano [Iloko] ilo-PH ilo

Indonesian [Bahasa] id-ID ind

Inuktitut (Nunavik) ike-CA-QC ike

Inuktitut (Nunavut) ike-CA-NU ike

Irish ga-IE gle

Isekiri [Itsekiri] its-NG its

Italian (Italy) it-IT ita

Italian (Switzerland) it-CH ita

Japanese ja-JP jpn

Javanese jv-ID jav

Jawe jaz-NC jaz

Kalanga kck-ZW kck

Kamba kam-KE kam

Kannada kn-IN kan

Kashmiri ks-IN kas

Kazakh kk-KZ kaz

Khmer [Cambodian] km-KH khm

K'iche' [Quiche] myn-GT quc

Kikuyu [Gikuyu] kik-KE kik

Kinyarwanda rw-RW kin

Kirghiz [Kyrgyz] ky-KG kir

Konkani kok-IN knn

Koongo [Kikongo] kg-CD kng

Korean ko-KR kor

Krio kri-SL kri

Kurdish, Central [Sorani] ku-IQ ckb

Kurdish, Northern [Kurmanji] ku-TR kmr

Lao lo-LA lao

Latin la-VA lat

Latvian lv-LV lav

Lingala ln-CG lin

Lithuanian lt-LT lit

Lombard roa-IT lmo

Lozi loz-ZM loz

Luba-Lulua [Tshiluba] lu-CD lua

Luganda lg-UG lug

Luo [Dholuo] luo-KE luo

Luxembourgish [Letzeburgesch] lb-LU ltz

Macedonian mk-MK mkd

Malagasy mg-MG mlg

Malay (Brunei) ms-BN msa

Malay (Malaysia) ms-MY msa

Malay (Singapore) ms-SG msa

Maltese mt-MT mlt

Mandinka [Mandingo] mnk-GM mnk

Manipuri [Meitei] mni-IN mni

Maori mi-NZ mri

Mapudungun arn-CL arn

Marathi mr-IN mar

Mina (India) myi-IN myi

Mohawk moh-CA moh

Mongolian mn-MN mon

Montenegrin srp-ME srp 2

Nama naq-NA naq

Navajo nv-US nav

Ndebele, Northern [Sindebele] nd-ZW nde

Ndebele, Southern nr-ZA nbl

Nepali ne-NP nep

Norwegian [Bokmål] nb-NO nob

Norwegian [Nynorsk] nn-NO nno

Nyanja ny-MW nya

Occitan oc-ES oci

Oromo om-ET orm

Orya [Oriya] or-IN ori

Pampanga (Philippines) pam-PH pam

Pangasinan pag-PH pag

Panjabi [Punjabi] pa-IN pan

Papiamento [Papiamentu] pap-AW pap

Pashto [Pushto] ps-AF pus

Persian 3 fa-IR fas

Polish pl-PL pol

Portuguese (Angola) pt-AO por

Portuguese (Brazil) pt-BR por

Portuguese (Mozambique) pt-MZ por

Portuguese (Portugal) pt-PT por

Pular fuf-GN fuf

Quechua qu-BO que

Romani, Vlax (Romania) rom-MK rmy

Romanian (Moldova) ro-MD ron

Romanian (Romania) ro-RO ron

Romansch rm-CH roh

Russian ru-RU rus

Saami [Lapp] se-NO smi

Samoan sm-WS smo

Sanskrit sa-IN san

Saraiki skr-PK skr

Scots sco-GB sco

Serbian [Cyrillic] sr-Cyrl-RS srp

Serbian [Latin] sr-Latn-RS srp

Shona sn-ZW sna

Shua shg-BW shg

Sign Language, British sgn-GB bfi

Sindhi sd-PK snd

Sinhala [Sinhalese] si-LK sin

Sissano sso-LS sso

Slovak sk-SK slk

Slovenian [Slovene] sl-SI slv

Somali so-SO som

Sotho, Northern [Pedi, Sepedi] nso-ZA nso

Sotho, Southern [Sesotho] st-LS sot

Spanish (Argentina) es-AR spa

Spanish (Bolivia) es-BO spa

Spanish (Chile) es-CL spa

Spanish (Colombia) es-CO spa

Spanish (Costa Rica) es-CR spa

Spanish (Dominican Republic) es-DO spa

Spanish (Ecuador) es-EC spa

Spanish (Guatemala) es-GT spa

Spanish (International) es-XN spa

Spanish (Latin America) es-XL spa

Spanish (Mexico) es-MX spa

Spanish (Panama) es-PA spa

Spanish (Peru) es-PE spa

Spanish (Puerto Rico) es-PR spa

Spanish (Spain) es-ES spa

Spanish (United States) es-US spa

Spanish (Uruguay) es-UY spa

Spanish (Venezuela) es-VE spa

Sundanese su-ID sun

Susu sus-GN sus

Swahili sw-KE swa

Swati [Swazi] ss-SZ ssw

Swedish (Finland) sv-FI swe

Swedish (Sweden) sv-SE swe

Sylheti syl-BD syl

Tagalog tl-PH tgl

Tajik tg-TJ tgk

Tamazight [Berber] ber-MA tzm

Tamil (India) ta-IN tam

Tamil (Malaysia) ta-MY tam

Tamil (Singapore) ta-SG tam

Tamil (Sri Lanka) ta-LK tam

Tatar tt-RU tat

Telugu te-IN tel

Tetela tll-CD tll

Tetum tet-TL tet

Thai th-TH tha

Tibetan bo-CN bod

Tigre tig-ER tig

Tigrinya [Tigrigna] ti-ER tir

Timne [Themne] tem-SL tem

Tiv tiv-NG tiv

Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) tpi-PG tpi

Tsonga ts-ZA tso

Tswana [Setswana] tn-BW tsn

Turkish tr-TR tur

Turkmen tk-TM tuk

Tuvaluan [Tuvalu] tvl-TV tvl

Twi tw-GH twi

Uighur [Uyghur] ug-CN uig

Ukrainian uk-UA ukr

 Urdu (India) ur-IN urd

Urdu (Pakistan) ur-PK urd

Uzbek uz-UZ uzb

Valencian ca-ES-V cat 4

Venda ve-ZA ven

Vietnamese vi-VN vie

Welsh cy-GB cym

Wolof wo-SN wol

Xhosa xh-ZA xho

Yiddish yi-IL yid

Yoruba yo-NG yor

Zulu zu-ZA zul

Notes

The use of the script subtags Hans and Hant is unnecessary when the language code zh for Chinese is
followed by the region code (CN for China and TW for Taiwan, respectively).

srp is the code for Serbian: ISO has not yet defined a separate code for Montenegrin.

The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has delivered a pronouncement in favor of "Persian"
and has rejected any usage of the word "Farsi." (See Persian or Farsi?.)

cat is the code for Catalan: ISO does not have a separate code for the Valencian variant of the Catalan
language. (In fact, a request to create a new code was rejected by ISO in 2006.)

Conventions

Language names are taken from from ISO 639-3 or from the Ethnologue, 15th edition.

Names in square brackets indicate alternative names for that language.

Names in round brackets indicate the country.

When an ISO 632-1 code does not exist, then the ISO 632-2 code is used instead. When the ISO 632-2
code does not exist, then the ISO 632-3 code is used instead.

ISO 639-2 recommends the use of the language codes in lower case.

ISO 3166 recommends that country codes are capitalized.

RFC 5646 - Tags for Identifying Languages - recommends the use of the character "-" (HYPHEN-MINUS)
to separate the primary language subtag from subsequent subtags.

RFC 5646 mandates that "[s]cript subtags MUST follow any primary and extended language subtags and
MUST precede any other type of subtag."
the script subtag must follow the language tag and preced any other subtag

XN and XL are not ISO country codes. Instead, they are user-assigned code elements as specified in
clause 8.1.3 of ISO 3166-1.

XN is used to identify a "Neutral" or "iNternational" locale. (The modifier "Mid-Atlantic" is not

recommended.)

XL is used to identify the region conventionally known as "Latin America." Alternatively, the United
Nations code 419 for "Latin America and the Caribbean" can be used.

Simplified and Traditional Chinese are conventionally identified according to the recommendation in ISO
639-2 FAQ, i.e., zh-CN and zh-TW, respectively.

Codes Reserved for Local Use

According to the ISO guideline from http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/scope.asp:

Identifiers qaa through qtz are reserved for local use, to be used in cases in which there is no suitable
existing code in ISO 639. There are no constraints as to scope of denotation. These identifiers may only
be used locally, and may not be used in interchange without a private agreement.

Normative References

ISO 632-1: 2002 - _Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 1: Alpha-2 code
(http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/).

ISO 632-2: 1998 - Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages Part 2: Alpha-3 code
(http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/).

ISO 632-3: 2007 - Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages Part 3: Alpha-3 code for
comprehensive coverage of languages (http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/default.asp).
ISO 3166-1: 2006 - Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions-Part 1:
Country codes (http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes/iso_3166_code_lists.htm).

ISO 15924: 2004 - Codes for the representation of names of scripts

(http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/codelists.html).

BCP 47 Language Tags - Tags for Identifying Languages (http://tools.ietf.org/rfc/bcp/bcp47.txt; includes

both RFC 5646 and RFC 4647).

For a good overview, see also the Wikipedia article IETF Language Tag.