ISO 639-6

From Open Progress

What is ISO 639-6? ISO 639-6 is a short form reference to the ISO 639 standard, Codes for the representation of the names of languages Part 6 Alpha-4 representation for the comprehensive coverage of language variants

This standard brings together all the representations provided by the other ISO 639 standard Parts 1, 2, 3 and 5 mapped to provide hierarchical sense to the progressive inclusion for identification of all variants of linguistic entity from the largest of all families of languages to the tightest of dialects whether written, spoken or signed. Added to these will be linguistic and user information such as scripts and geographical location. At some stage towards the completion of this mammoth task it is intended to research the value, capability and methodology for the addition of language “registers”. The publication of this standard (expected around mid 2008) is timely with the amazing increase in worldwide recognition and acceptance of the global village continuing to operate best as a multilingual, multicultural society made significantly more possible by advances in technology for multimodal multilingual communication. English as a Lingua Franca should not be thought of as a threat but a complement to this understanding. Please go to the Linguistic Research page of the WLDC site to gain an understanding of the important part that we envisage will be played by the WLDC in ensuring the utmost integrity and quality of the ISO 639-6 data.