[SGVLUG] Language codes (was Two Questions)

[Jeremy Leader]

Arthur Baldwin wrote:
> Does anybody know where to find a reasonably complete list of "language 
> codes"?
> ISO and IETF seem to be in "alpha stage" and they want over $100 for them.
<snip>

Are you asking about ISO-639?  The terms "alpha-2", "alpha-3", and "alpha-4" 
refer to codes using 2, 3, or 4 alphabetic characters per code, not to their 
maturity level (as distinguished from the meaning of "alpha" in terms like 
"alpha release").

The official ISO-639 info seems to be available online from the US Library of 
Congress at http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/.

IETF standards are also available free online; the most relevant one seems to be 
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5646, which has a status of "Best Current 
Practice", which usually means it's pretty mature (but generally less technical 
than "Internet Standards").

The IANA Language Subtag Registry seems to be online at 
http://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry (in a format described 
by rfc5646).

The W3C also has their (web-centric) take on language tags, with links to all of 
the above resources, at 
http://www.w3.org/International/articles/language-tags/Overview.en.php

> Arthur

-- 
Jeremy Leader
jleader at alumni.caltech.edu