Language codes
ISO 639-1, ISO 639-3 and BCP 47 locales, in one table you can filter.
Every time you declare a language in a file, in an HTML attribute or in an API call you end up needing its code. And several standards coexist: ISO 639-1 uses two letters (es, en, ja), ISO 639-3 uses three and covers far more languages, and BCP 47 combines language with region to tell variants apart: es-ES against es-MX, pt-PT against pt-BR, zh-Hans against zh-Hant.
Which one to use depends on where. The HTML lang attribute and the srclang of a subtitle track expect BCP 47. Subtitle files and most translation APIs are happy with the two letters of ISO 639-1. Linguistic databases use ISO 639-3 because two letters do not stretch to every language in the world.
This table brings the three together, plus the native name of each language. Search by English name, Spanish name, native name or straight by code, and click any code to copy it.
How to use it
- 01 Type a language name or a code into the search box.
- 02 The table filters as you type, across every column.
- 03 Click a code to copy it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between es and es-ES?
es identifies the Spanish language, full stop. es-ES narrows it to the variety spoken in Spain, as against es-MX or es-AR. Use the short form when the variant does not matter and the long one when it affects pronunciation, vocabulary or date and number formats.
Which code goes in the srclang of a subtitle?
A BCP 47 code. The two letters are enough (srclang="en") unless you want to flag the specific variant.
Why does Chinese have zh-Hans and zh-Hant?
Because the relevant distinction is not the region but the writing system: Hans is Simplified Chinese and Hant is Traditional. They are script subtags, not country ones.
Are all the languages in the world here?
No: the table lists the ones with a two-letter ISO 639-1 code, which is 184 of them. ISO 639-3 covers more than seven thousand and for that you need the official database.
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