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Each language is assigned a two-letter (set 1) and three-letter lowercase abbreviation (sets 2–5). [2] Part 1 of the standard, ISO 639-1 defines the two-letter codes, and Part 3 (2007), ISO 639-3, defines the three-letter codes, aiming to cover all known natural languages, largely superseding the ISO 639-2 three-letter code standard.
Where two ISO 639-2 codes are given in the table, the one with the asterisk is the bibliographic code (B code) and the other is the terminological code (T code). Entries in the Scope column distinguish: individual language; collections of languages connected, for example genetically or by region; macrolanguages. The Type column distinguishes:
A = ancient (extinct since ancient times), C = constructed, E = extinct (in recent times), H = historical (distinct from its modern form), L = living, S = special code; Retired codes are enclosed in (parentheses). The column Family contains the generic English name of the language's family or macrolanguage.
ISO 639-1:2002, Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 1: Alpha-2 code, is the first part of the ISO 639 series of international standards for language codes. Part 1 covers the registration of "set 1" two-letter codes. There are 183 two-letter codes registered as of June 2021. The registered codes cover the world's major ...
In China, letters of the English alphabet are pronounced somewhat differently because they have been adapted to the phonetics (i.e. the syllable structure) of the Chinese language. The knowledge of this spelling may be useful when spelling Western names, especially over the phone, as one may not be understood if the letters are pronounced as ...
Unlike letters in alphabets that reflect the sounds of speech, Chinese characters generally represent morphemes, the units of meaning in a language. Writing all of the frequently used vocabulary in a language requires roughly 2000–3000 characters; as of 2024 [update] , nearly 100 000 have been identified and included in The Unicode Standard .
Three-letter (formerly "Alpha-3") identifiers (for codes composed of 3 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet) are used in Set 2, Set 3, and Set 5. The number of languages and language groups that can be so represented is 26 3 = 17,576. The common use of three-letter codes by three sets of ISO 639 requires some coordination within a larger system.
zho is the ISO 639-3 language code for Chinese. Its ISO 639-1 code is zh. There are nineteen individual language codes assigned, most of which are not actually languages but rather groups of Sinitic languages distinguished by isoglosses: cdo – Min Dong Chinese; cjy – Jinyu Chinese; cmn – Mandarin Chinese; cnp – Northern Ping Chinese ...