ISO 639/MA works according to the Terms of Reference of the ISO 639/MA-ToR that outline the CR process and procedures following the harmonized principles, rules and guidelines for the selection and coding of individual languages or language groups specified in ISO 639:2023.
Three former Registration Authorities (RA), now called Language Coding Agencies (LCA), continue to host and maintain four sets of language identifiers (and related data) in the framework of ISO 639/MA. These Sets comprise (https://www.iso.org/iso-639-language-code):
- Set 1: two-letter language identifiers (originally as in ISO 639-1:2002) for major, mostly national individual languages; the data of Set 1 are publicly available at: http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/. The LCA for Set 1 is Infoterm.
- Set 2: three-letter language identifiers (originally as in ISO 639-2:1998) for a larger number of widely known individual languages (including all individual languages covered by Set 1) and a number of language groups; the LCA for Set 2 is the US Library of Congress, where the data of Set 2 are publicly available: http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/.
- Set 3: three-letter language identifiers (originally as in ISO 639-3:2007) covering all individual languages (including all individual languages covered by Set 2), including living, extinct and ancient or historical languages; the LCA for Set 3 is SIL International, where data are publicly available: https://iso639-3.sil.org.
- Set 5: three-letter language identifiers (originally as in ISO 639-5:2008) covering a larger set of language groups, living and extinct (including all language groups covered by Set 2); the US Library of Congress is also LCA for Set 5, whose data are publicly available: http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-5/.
* For legacy reasons, the sets are numbered in line with the Parts of the former ISO 639-series, where the sets were originally defined. For that reason, there is no "Set 4".
Change Requests (CR) concerning existing language code elements can be directed to the respective LCA or to the ISO 639/MA Secretariat: https://www.iso.org/maintenance_agencies.html. CRs shall be submitted using the Change Request form available at: https://standards.iso.org/iso/639/ed-2/en/.
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