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About language subtags

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IANA subtag registry

Notes

1 Find. The description is the name of the subtag, ie. the language, region, etc. You can search on any part of a description (eg. eng gives results that include Bengali, English and Tengwar). Note that some languages may be spelled differently, eg. Panjabi yields three results, but Punjabi only one.

2 Look up. Looks up all forms of all subtags in the list, eg. it returns a language and extlang subtag for cmn. Subtags can be separated by commas, semicolons, hyphens, or spaces, eg. en; fr, ca, Bali-1901.
Only exact matches of subtags are returned, ie. ak doesn't match akk.
If there is no output for a tag, it was not a valid tag in the registry.

3 Check. Looks up all subtags in a language tag (ie. a hyphen-separated list of subtags) and reports problems, if there are any, eg. de-419-DE-alt and ms-cmn.
Warnings are also displayed to guide you in language choices. Example: ms-min-Latn.
If no errors or warnings are reported, the language tag should be ok, though there may be some rare corner cases that are not detected.

4  Green button with E on it provides links from language subtag entries to the SIL Ethnologue. This is useful when trying to find a language. If there is no page for a given language tag, such as nn, click on the result to reveal the full record; if there is a macrolanguage specified, eg. 'no', that will probably yield an ethnologue entry.

5  Lilac button with U on it provides links from script subtag entries to the most relevant Unicode script block in UniView.
In some cases, there are additional Unicode areas dedicated to the same script. These can usually be easily found alongside the current block in UniView's pull-down control.
Some very large blocks such as Han, Hangul and Egyptian Hieroglyphs are not linked to. Other scripts do not yet have Unicode blocks.

6 Grandfathered tags are pre-RFC 4646 registrations of tags that cannot be completely composed from the subtags in the current registry. If you search for a grandfathered tag it will be displayed in the results, and the subtags that are in the current registry will also be shown.

7 Redundant tags are pre-RFC 4646 registrations of tags that can now be formed by combining separate subtags from the current registry. They do not show up in search results.

8 Extension subtags are not supported in this version of the lookup tool.

 
ishida >> utilities

Language Subtag Lookup

The IANA Language Subtag Registry is where you find the subtags that can make up a BCP 47 language tag (separated by hyphens). In a short while I plan to link to guidelines for creating subtags, however, this tool already provides information to guide your choices and lets you check a language tag.

Click on the results to see the raw IANA data for a subtag.

This version has been updated to support the approximately 7800 new subtags, including extlang subtags, introduced in July 2009, and the tool now provides help in choosing subtags and a tag checker based on RFC 5646. Please report any bugs to me.

Find a subtag by searching for text in the descriptions See note 1.

Look up one or more subtags See note 2.

List all tags of the following type

Check a hyphen-separated tag See note 3.

Language Codes

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. bn Bengali

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. en English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. aig Antigua and Barbuda Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. akh Angal Heneng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. ang Old English (ca. 450-1100)

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. bah Bahamas Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. bav Vengo

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. bgy Benggoi

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. bng Benga

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. bqy Bengkala Sign Language

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. bvg Bonkeng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. bxc Molengue

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. bzj Belize Kriol English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. bzk Nicaragua Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. cpe English-based creoles and pidgins

Comment.    cpe represents a collection of languages. Although a collection subtag can be used in the absence of a more specific tag, you should check whether there is a more specific language subtag. Unfortunately, the registry does not offer any suggestions to assist with this.

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. cpi Chinese Pidgin English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. csc Catalan Sign Language, Lengua de señas catalana, Llengua de Signes Catalana

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. dez Dengese

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. dnk Dengka

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. enm Middle English (1100-1500)

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. enn Engenni

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. eno Enggano

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. enq Enga

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. fpe Fernando Po Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. gcl Grenadian Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. geg Gengle

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. gnr Gureng Gureng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. gul Sea Island Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. gyn Guyanese Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. hwc Hawai'i Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. icr Islander Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. itt Maeng Itneg

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. jam Jamaican Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. jeg Jeng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. kgc Kasseng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. kyq Kenga

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. ldh Lamja-Dengsa-Tola

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. leg Lengua

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. lej Lengola

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. lgi Lengilu

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. lgm Lega-Mwenga

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. lgr Lengo

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. lir Liberian English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. lse Lusengo

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. lsp Panamanian Sign Language, Lengua de Señas Panameñas

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. lwe Lewo Eleng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. mbh Mangseng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. mcb Machiguenga

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. mct Mengisa

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. mee Mengen

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. mgl Maleu-Kilenge

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. mgv Matengo

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. mhu Digaro-Mishmi, Darang Deng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. mrf Elseng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. mue Media Lengua

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. mxj Miju-Mishmi, Geman Deng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. ndg Ndengereko

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. nen Nengone

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. nhb Beng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. nkd Koireng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. nnl Northern Rengma Naga

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. not Nomatsiguenga

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. nre Southern Rengma Naga

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. nse Nsenga

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. nye Nyengo

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. pcj Parenga

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. peg Pengo

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. pgs Pangseng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. pkt Maleng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. pni Aoheng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. ren Rengao

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. sbh Sori-Harengan

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. sii Shom Peng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. sko Seko Tengah

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. snu Senggi, Viid

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. spk Sengo

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. ssz Sengseng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. stg Trieng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. sti Bulo Stieng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. stt Budeh Stieng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. svc Vincentian Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. szg Sengele

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. tch Turks And Caicos Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. tdf Talieng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. tes Tengger

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. tgh Tobagonian Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. tgr Tareng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. trf Trinidadian Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. twg Tereweng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. txi Ikpeng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. tye Kyenga

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. tyr Tai Daeng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. vic Virgin Islands Creole English

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. vkt Tenggarong Kutai Malay

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. vsv Valencian Sign Language, Llengua de signes valenciana

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. xkf Khengkha

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. xmg Mengaka

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. xok Xokleng

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. xte Ketengban

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. yrl Nhengatu

Look up in the SIL Ethnologue. ywu Wumeng Nasu

Extlang

bqy Bengkala Sign Language

Note.    Use as sgn-bqy, however is it usually preferable to use the bqy language subtag.

csc Catalan Sign Language, Lengua de señas catalana, Llengua de Signes Catalana

Note.    Use as sgn-csc, however is it usually preferable to use the csc language subtag.

lsp Panamanian Sign Language, Lengua de Señas Panameñas

Note.    Use as sgn-lsp, however is it usually preferable to use the lsp language subtag.

vkt Tenggarong Kutai Malay

Note.    Use as ms-vkt, however is it usually preferable to use the vkt language subtag.

vsv Valencian Sign Language, Llengua de signes valenciana

Note.    Use as sgn-vsv, however is it usually preferable to use the vsv language subtag.

Script Codes

Look up in UniView. Beng Bengali

Teng Tengwar

Grandfathered

en-GB-oed English, Oxford English Dictionary spelling

Variants

scotland Scottish Standard English

Note.    Should only be used in a language tag that already contains en.

Developed by: Richard Ishida.

Web app created 1 April 2007. Last update 2009-09-10 18:42 GMT

Copyright © 2007-2009 Richard Ishida.