History of ISO 639

ISO 639 and ISO 3166

When Eugen Wüster (1898-1977) became the Chairperson of ISO/TC 37 in 1951, he initiated a standardization activity about coding languages which resulted in Recommendation ISO/R 639:1967 Symbols for languages, countries and authorities. As Wüster was a pioneer of both up-and-coming fields of terminology science and information and documentation (I&D), the revision of this standard was coordinated with the development of the International Standard 3166 Codes for the representation of names of countries by ISO/TC 46 Information and documentation. In 1988, ISO/TC 37 published the 1^st edition of ISO 639 Code for the representation of names of languages coinciding with the issuance of the 3^rd edition of ISO 3166 by ISO/TC 46.

From 1997 to 1999, ISO 3166 was expanded into three parts, with ISO 3166-2 defining codes for subdivisions and ISO 3166-3 defining codes for former countries. The Maintenance Agency ISO 3166/MA was established for this purpose already in 1974. When ISO 639:1988 Code for the representation of names of languages started branching out into several parts after 1998, a coordination mechanism became imperative to coordinate the maintenance and updating activities of the Registration Authorities (RA) each installed for a part of the ISO 639 series. Thus, the Joint Advisory Committee for these RAs (ISO 639/RAs-JAC), was established in 1998 (when ISO 639:1988 was still under revision to become ISO 639-1:2002).

The former ISO 639 series

By 2009 until their withdrawal in 2023 the former standards of the ISO 639 series comprised:

• ISO 639-1:2002 en/fr Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 1: Alpha-2 code / Codes pour la représentation des noms de langue—Partie 1 : Code alpha-2
• ISO 639-2:1998 en/fr Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 2: Alpha-3 code / Codes pour la représentation des noms de langue—Partie 2 : Code alpha-3
• ISO 639-3:2007 en/fr Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages / Codes pour la représentation des noms de langue— Partie 3 : Code alpha-3 pour un traitement exhaustif des langues
• ISO 639-4:2010 en:Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 4: General principles of coding of the representation of names of languages and related entities, and application guidelines
• ISO 639-5:2008 en/fr Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 5: Alpha-3 code for language families and groups / Codes pour la représentation des noms de langue—Partie 5: Code alpha-3 pour les familles de langues et groupes de langues
• ISO 639-6:2009 en Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 6: Alpha-4 code for comprehensive coverage of language variants (withdrawn 2014)

ISO 639:2023 and ISO 639/MA

By 2023 the texts of ISO 639 parts 1, 2, 3, 5 and 4 have been extensively revised and combined into the 2^nd edition of ISO 639:2023 Code for individual languages and language groups (based on the revision of the former ISO 639-4:2010). The sets of language identifers (and related data) according to the Parts 1, 2, 3, and 5 of the former ISO 639 series are now called Set 1, Set 2, Set 3 and Set 5 (see ISO 639 Maintenance Agency).The three Registration Authorities, now called Language Coding Agencies (LCA), continue the regular maintenance and updating of their respective Set in the framework of ISO 639/MA, that operates on the basis of Terms of Reference (ISO 639/MA-ToR) approved by the ISO Technical Management Board (ISO/TMB).

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