Language Codes
Author: Mark Blackwood, follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
The language codes use the pattern of Alpha-3 (bibliographic) coding, Alpha-3 (terminology), and the Alpha-2 system, which means that an English language name is taken or the French by using | separator. In practice, translating code takes two or three letters for abbreviation, using either English language or native (endonyms) as the source.
In order to identify the language according to international standards, translation codes can be encoded with a help of either ISO 639-1 (also known as alpha-2 coding) or ISO 639-2 (alpha-3):
1. ISO 639-2 uses three-letter pattern abbreviations. Currently, there are 21 language exceptions that have more than two letters for bibliographic or technical purposes. It uses a "B" or "T" addition.
2. ISO 3166-1 is used for those geographical territories that have historical dependence or areas that are in a dispute. An example is Riau province of Indonesia, which has an ID-RI language translation code.
3. Another 3-letter coding is common for Chinese dialects. It is a 639-3 listing (SIL International).
4. If you encounter "S", it stands for a simplified language, while "T" addition means traditional writing.
Read also: Best French Canadian translation services: how to choose the most accurate?
The list below is updated once any changes are introduced. Make sure to check twice when translating codes.
|
Language |
Code |
|
Afrikaans |
af |
|
Albanian |
sq |
|
Arabic (Bahrain) |
ar-bh |
|
Arabic (Egypt) |
ar-eg |
|
Arabic (Qatar) |
ar-qa |
|
Arabic (Saudi Arabia) |
ar-sa |
|
Arabic (U.A.E.) |
ar-ae |
|
Basque |
eu |
|
Belarusian |
be |
|
Bulgarian |
bg |
|
Catalan |
ca |
|
Chinese (Hong Kong) |
zh-hk |
|
Chinese (PRC) |
zh-cn |
|
Chinese (Singapore) |
zh-sg |
|
Chinese (Taiwan) |
zh-tw |
|
Croatian |
hr |
|
Czech |
cs |
|
Danish |
da |
|
Dutch (Belgium) |
nl-be |
|
Dutch (Standard) |
nl |
|
English |
en |
|
English (Australia) |
en-au |
|
English (Belize) |
en-bz |
|
English (Canada) |
en-ca |
|
English (Ireland) |
en-ie |
|
English (New Zealand) |
en-nz |
|
English (South Africa) |
en-za |
|
English (United Kingdom) |
en-gb |
|
English (United States) |
en-us |
|
Estonian |
et |
|
Faeroese |
fo |
|
Farsi |
fa |
|
Finnish |
fi |
|
French (Belgium) |
fr-be |
|
French (Canada) |
fr-ca |
|
French (Standard) |
fr |
|
French (Switzerland) |
fr-ch |
|
Gaelic (Scotland) |
gd |
|
German (Austria) |
de-at |
|
German (Liechtenstein) |
de-li |
|
German (Luxembourg) |
de-lu |
|
German (Standard) |
de |
|
German (Switzerland) |
de-ch |
|
Greek |
el |
|
Hebrew |
he |
|
Hindi |
hi |
|
Hungarian |
hu |
|
Icelandic |
is |
|
Indonesian |
id |
|
Irish |
ga |
|
Italian (Standard) |
it |
|
Japanese |
ja |
|
Korean |
ko |
|
Kurdish |
ku |
|
Latvian |
lv |
|
Lithuanian |
lt |
|
Malayalam |
ml |
|
Malaysian |
ms |
|
Maltese |
mt |
|
Norwegian |
no |
|
Polish |
pl |
|
Portuguese (Brazil) |
pt-br |
|
Portuguese (Portugal) |
pt |
|
Punjabi |
pa |
|
Rhaeto-Romanic |
rm |
|
Romanian |
ro |
|
Russian |
ru |
|
Serbian |
sr |
|
Slovak |
sk |
|
Slovenian |
sl |
|
Sorbian |
sb |
|
Spanish (Argentina) |
es-ar |
|
Spanish (Bolivia) |
es-bo |
|
Spanish (Chile) |
es-cl |
|
Spanish (Colombia) |
es-co |
|
Spanish (Costa Rica) |
es-cr |
|
Spanish (Dominican Republic) |
es-do |
|
Spanish (Ecuador) |
es-ec |
|
Spanish (El Salvador) |
es-sv |
|
Spanish (Guatemala) |
es-gt |
|
Spanish (Honduras) |
es-hn |
|
Spanish (Mexico) |
es-mx |
|
Spanish (Nicaragua) |
es-ni |
|
Spanish (Panama) |
es-pa |
|
Spanish (Paraguay) |
es-py |
|
Spanish (Peru) |
es-pe |
|
Spanish (Puerto Rico) |
es-pr |
|
Spanish (Spain) |
es |
|
Spanish (Uruguay) |
es-uy |
|
Spanish (Venezuela) |
es-ve |
|
Swedish |
sv |
|
Swedish (Finland) |
sv-fi |
|
Thai |
th |
|
Tsonga |
ts |
|
Tswana |
tn |
|
Turkish |
tr |
|
Ukrainian |
uk |
|
Urdu |
ur |
|
Venda |
ve |
|
Vietnamese |
vi |
|
Welsh |
cy |
|
Xhosa |
xh |
|
Yiddish |
ji |
|
Zulu |
zu |
