IFLA Universal Bibliographic Control and International MARC Core Programme (UBCIM)

APPENDIX A: LANGUAGE CODES

Introduction

At the time of the creation of UNIMARC, the relevant ISO language code standard (ISO 639) was seen as insufficient for bibliographic purposes. The decision was made to use the USMARC code list for languages.

1998 saw the publication of ISO 639-2: Codes for the representation of names of languages: alpha-3 codes, developed by the TC37/SC2-TC46/SC4 Joint Working Group (JWG) of the International Organization for Standardization. There are two code sets in ISO 639-2; code set B (bibliographic) not code set T (terminology) should be used for UNIMARC databases. For the Library of Congress announcement see http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/iso639.html. With certain exceptions code set B is identical to the USMARC list. It will be adopted for UNIMARC.

A few of the codes in the ISO standard differ from the USMARC code list for languages and therefore from the previous version of this list.
For the Library of Congress announcement see http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/isochange_ann.html. It is intended that these differences be adopted for UNIMARC in the near future; this will make it ISO-compliant. There will be an announcement in ICBC (International Cataloguing and Bibliographic Control) and on the IFLA UBCIM web page (http://ifla.org/VI/3/ubcim.htm).

The name list includes the current coding followed by the new code in double brackets where there is a change, e.g.

Esperanto [esp] [[epo]]
Letzeburghesch Not yet assigned a code [[ltz]]
Volapük Assigned collective code [art] (Artificial (Other)) [[vol]]

The code list marks obsolescent codes with a minus sign, new codes with a plus sign, e.g.

epo (+) Esperanto
esk (-) Eskimo languages
esp (-) Esperanto
iku (+) Inuktitut
ipk (+) Inupiaq

Characteristics of the List

In general, this list includes languages represented in the major body of the published literature.

Inclusions

Only written languages are included in the list. Where one spoken language is written in two different sets of characters, both written languages were included in the list.

Languages Group

Some codes have been assigned to major language groups, e.g. Papuan-Australian or Niger-Congo, instead of assigning codes to every individual minor language. For example, Kewa will not be assigned a code of its own but will be included in the Papuan-Australian group and given the code for that group.

An ancient or old language form that does not have a unique code will be assigned the code for the major language group to which it belongs instead of the code for the modern form. For example, Old Swedish, a dead language, will be assigned the code for the language group Germanic, Other, instead of the code for Swedish (modern). This system will allow the ancient language records to be more readily accessed.

Criteria for Assignment of Discrete Codes

Three-letter mnemonic codes using the first three letters of the English form of the language name have been used in most cases. Exceptions were necessary for some languages because they share the same three initial letters, e.g. Arabic and Aramaic, Kannada and Kanuri, Malagasy and Malay. In the case of the modern and the older forms of some languages, the initial letters of each part of the language name were used to form the code. e.g. ‘gmh’ for German (Middle High) and ‘goh’ for German (Old High).

The code ‘mul’ for Multilingual was included for the purpose of providing the option of assigning a single code to accommodate a work containing several different languages, none of which predominates. The code ‘und’ for Undetermined has also been included for works in which the language cannot be determined. Language codes appear in UNIMARC records as lowercase alphabetic characters.

Provision for Change

Agencies wishing to add new codes to this list should approach the Library of Congress. "The Library of Congress has been designated the Registration Authority for ISO 639-2; after initial publication of the ISO list, future development of the list will be processed and reviewed by LC with guidance from the ISO Joint Advisory Committee (ISO 639/RA-JAC)" - http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/iso639.html.

If, as a result of such additions, there are codes both for individual languages and for the language group, the agency should indicate the options chosen in its Documentation to Accompany Exchange Tapes.

PART I: Language sequence

A-ch'ang Assigned collective code [kac] (Kachin)
Aba use Chiriguano
Abaknon Assigned collective code [phi] (Philippine (Other))
Abau Assigned collective code [paa] (Papuan-Australian (Other))
Abazin Assigned collective code [cau] (Caucasian (Other))
Abia use Aneme Wake
Abidji Assigned collective code [nic] (Niger-Kordofanian (Other))
Abigar use Nuer
Abkhazian Assigned collective code [cau] (Caucasian (Other)) [[abk]]
Abnaki Assigned collective code [alg] (Algonquian (Other))
Abo (Sudan) use Toposa
Abor Assigned collective code [sit] (Sino-Tibetan (Other))
Aborlan Tagbanwa use Tagbanua
Abua Assigned collective code [nic] (Niger-Kordofanian (Other))
Abujhmaria Assigned collective code [gon] (Gondi)
Abulas Assigned collective code [paa] (Papuan-Australian (Other))
Acadian (Louisiana) use Cajun French
Achagua Assigned collective code [sai] (South American Indian (Other))
Ach'ang use A-ch'ang
Ache use Guayaki
Achi, Cubulco use Cubulco Achi
Achi, Rabinal use Rabinal Achi
Achinese [ace] Acholi use Acoli
Achuale use Achuar
Achuar Assigned collective code [sai] (South American Indian (Other))
Achuara Jivaro use Achuar
Acoli [ach] Acra use Gã
Acuan-Shavante use Xavante
Adaiel use Afar
Adamawa use Fula
Adangme [ada] Adari use Harari
Adi use Abor
Adidji use Abidji
Adja use Aja
Adjaua use Yao
Adnyamatana use Wailpi
Adygei Assigned collective code [cau] (Caucasian (Other))
Aeta Negrito use Botolan Sambal
Afan use Oromo
Afar Assigned collective code [cus] (Cushitic (Other)) [[aar]]
Afenmai use Etsako
Afghan use Pushto