How were the ISO 639 code lists developed?
ISO 639-1: Codes for the representation of names of languages: alpha-2 codes was developed by the ISO TC37/SC2 in 1988 for use in terminology, lexicography and linguistics. ISO 639-2: Codes for the representation of names of languages: alpha-3 codes was developed by the ISO TC37/SC2-TC46/SC4 Joint Working Group. Work on the standard was initiated in 1989 because of the inadequacy of the ISO 639-1 two-character code list to represent a sufficient number of languages for bibliographic and terminology needs. The list was largely based on the MARC Code List for Languages, which has been in wide use since 1968. ISO 639-3: In 2002, ISO TC37/SC2 invited SIL International (www.sil.org) to participate in the development of a new standard based on the language identifiers in the Ethnologue that would be a superset of ISO 639-2 and would provide identifiers for all known languages. In 2004 the proposed new standard, ISO/DIS 639-3 was released, incorporating identifiers for living languages from t
ISO 639-1: Codes for the representation of names of languages: alpha-2 codes was developed by the ISO TC37/SC2 in 1988 for use in terminology, lexicography and linguistics. ISO 639-2: Codes for the representation of names of languages: alpha-3 codes was developed by the ISO TC37/SC2-TC46/SC4 Joint Working Group. Work on the standard was initiated in 1989 because of the inadequacy of the ISO 639-1 two-character code list to represent a sufficient number of languages for bibliographic and terminology needs. The list was largely based on the MARC Code List for Languages, which has been in wide use since 1968. ISO 639-3: In 2002, ISO TC37/SC2 invited SIL International (www.sil.org) to participate in the development of a new standard based on the language identifiers in the Ethnologue that would be a superset of ISO 639-2 and would provide identifiers for all known languages. In 2004 the proposed new standard, ISO/DIS 639-3 was released, incorporating identifiers for living languages from t
