Language system tags (OpenType 1.6)
Language system tags identify the language systems supported in a OpenType Layout font. What is meant by a “language system” in this context is a set of typographic conventions for how text in a given script should be presented. Such conventions may be associated with particular languages, with particular genres of usage, with different publications, and other such factors. For example, particular glyph variants for certain characters may be required for particular languages, or for phonetic transcription or mathematical notation.
In principle, a given set of conventions may be shared across multiple scenarios. For instance, two different languages (perhaps unrelated) may happen to follow the same conventions. Language system tags can be registered on a perceived-need basis, however; as a result, there is no guarantee that each tag represents a distinct and unique set of conventions. Tags can, however, be registered with the intent of representing conventions that apply to multiple languages. In such cases, the documented description for the tag should reflect that intent.
It should also be noted that there may be more than one set of typographic conventions that apply to a given language.
Therefore, in several respects, language system tags do not correspond in a one-to-one manner with languages. Even so, many registered tags are intended to represent typographic conventions for a particular language. For cases in which a correlation exists between a tag and one or more languages, the language identities are documented here by reference to ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-3.*
If information is available to an application declaring the language of text content, then the application may make use of that to select a default language system tag to be applied when displaying that text. It is preferable, however, to give users control over the choice of language system tag to be used. (Depending on the application scenario, such control may be given to content authors, to content readers, or to both.)
*ISO 639-2 provides identifiers for individual languages as well as for certain collections of languages. ISO 639-3 provides identifiers for a far more comprehensive set of individual languages, though not for collections. Entities in ISO 639 that are referenced here may include any of the individual languages covered in ISO 639-2 or ISO 639-3, or to any of the collections covered in ISO 639-2.
All tags are 4-byte character strings composed of a limited set of ASCII characters in the 0x20-0x7E range. If a language system tag consists of three or less letters, the letters are followed by the requisite number of spaces (0x20), each consisting of a single byte.
Language System | Language System Tag | Corresponding ISO 639 ID (if applicable) |
---|---|---|
Abaza | ABA | abq |
Abkhazian | ABK | abk |
Adyghe | ADY | ady |
Afrikaans | AFK | afr |
Afar | AFR | aar |
Agaw | AGW | ahg |
Alsatian | ALS | gsw |
Altai | ALT | atv, alt |
Amharic | AMH | amh |
Phonetic transcription—Americanist conventions | APPH | |
Arabic | ARA | ara |
Aari | ARI | aiw |
Arakanese | ARK | mhv, rmz, rki |
Assamese | ASM | asm |
Athapaskan | ATH | apk, apj, apl, apm, apw, nav, bea, sek, bcr, caf, crx, clc, gwi, haa, chp, dgr, scs, xsl, srs, ing, hoi, koy, hup, ktw, mvb, wlk, coq, ctc, gce, tol, tuu, kkz, tgx, tht, aht, tfn, taa, tau, tcb, kuu, tce, ttm, txc |
Avar | AVR | ava |
Awadhi | AWA | awa |
Aymara | AYM | aym |
Azeri | AZE | aze |
Badaga | BAD | bfq |
Baghelkhandi | BAG | bfy |
Balkar | BAL | krc |
Baule | BAU | bci |
Berber | BBR | |
Bench | BCH | bcq |
Bible Cree | BCR | |
Belarussian | BEL | bel |
Bemba | BEM | bem |
Bengali | BEN | ben |
Bulgarian | BGR | bul |
Bhili | BHI | bhi, bhb |
Bhojpuri | BHO | bho |
Bikol | BIK | bik |
Bilen | BIL | byn |
Blackfoot | BKF | bla |
Balochi | BLI | bal |
Balante | BLN | bjt, ble |
Balti | BLT | bft |
Bambara | BMB | bam |
Bamileke | BML | |
Bosnian | BOS | bos |
Breton | BRE | bre |
Brahui | BRH | brh |
Braj Bhasha | BRI | bra |
Burmese | BRM | mya |
Bashkir | BSH | bak |
Beti | BTI | btb |
Catalan | CAT | cat |
Cebuano | CEB | ceb |
Chechen | CHE | che |
Chaha Gurage | CHG | sgw |
Chattisgarhi | CHH | hne |
Chichewa | CHI | nya |
Chukchi | CHK | ckt |
Chipewyan | CHP | chp |
Cherokee | CHR | chr |
Chuvash | CHU | chv |
Comorian | CMR | swb, wlc, wni, zdj |
Coptic | COP | cop |
Corsican | COS | cos |
Cree | CRE | cre |
Carrier | CRR | crx, caf |
Crimean Tatar | CRT | crh |
Church Slavonic | CSL | chu |
Czech | CSY | ces |
Danish | DAN | dan |
Dargwa | DAR | dar |
Woods Cree | DCR | cwd |
German | DEU | deu |
Dogri | DGR | doi |
Dhivehi | DHV (deprecated) | div |
Dhivehi | DIV | div |
Djerma | DJR | dje |
Dangme | DNG | ada |
Dinka | DNK | din |
Dari | DRI | prs |
Dungan | DUN | dng |
Dzongkha | DZN | dzo |
Ebira | EBI | igb |
Eastern Cree | ECR | crj, crl |
Edo | EDO | bin |
Efik | EFI | efi |
Greek | ELL | ell |
English | ENG | eng |
Erzya | ERZ | myv |
Spanish | ESP | spa |
Estonian | ETI | est |
Basque | EUQ | eus |
Evenki | EVK | evn |
Even | EVN | eve |
Ewe | EWE | ewe |
French Antillean | FAN | acf |
Farsi | FAR | fas |
Finnish | FIN | fin |
Fijian | FJI | fij |
Flemish | FLE | vls |
Forest Nenets | FNE | enf |
Fon | FON | fon |
Faroese | FOS | fao |
French | FRA | fra |
Frisian | FRI | fry |
Friulian | FRL | fur |
Futa | FTA | fuf |
Fulani | FUL | ful |
Ga | GAD | gaa |
Gaelic | GAE | gla |
Gagauz | GAG | gag |
Galician | GAL | glg |
Garshuni | GAR | |
Garhwali | GAW | gbm |
Ge’ez | GEZ | gez |
Gilyak | GIL | niv |
Gumuz | GMZ | guk |
Gondi | GON | gon |
Greenlandic | GRN | kal |
Garo | GRO | grt |
Guarani | GUA | grn |
Gujarati | GUJ | guj |
Haitian | HAI | hat |
Halam | HAL | flm |
Harauti | HAR | hoj |
Hausa | HAU | hau |
Hawaiin | HAW | haw |
Hammer-Banna | HBN | amf |
Hiligaynon | HIL | hil |
Hindi | HIN | hin |
High Mari | HMA | mrj |
Hindko | HND | hno, hnd |
Ho | HO | hoc |
Harari | HRI | har |
Croatian | HRV | hrv |
Hungarian | HUN | hun |
Armenian | HYE | hye |
Igbo | IBO | ibo |
Ijo | IJO | ijc |
Ilokano | ILO | ilo |
Indonesian | IND | ind |
Ingush | ING | inh |
Inuktitut | INU | iku |
Phonetic transcription—IPA conventions | IPPH | |
Irish | IRI | gle |
Irish Traditional | IRT | gle |
Icelandic | ISL | isl |
Inari Sami | ISM | smn |
Italian | ITA | ita |
Hebrew | IWR | heb |
Javanese | JAV | jav |
Yiddish | JII | yid |
Japanese | JAN | jpn |
Judezmo | JUD | lad |
Jula | JUL | dyu |
Kabardian | KAB | kbd |
Kachchi | KAC | kfr |
Kalenjin | KAL | kln |
Kannada | KAN | kan |
Karachay | KAR | krc |
Georgian | KAT | kat |
Kazakh | KAZ | kaz |
Kebena | KEB | ktb |
Khutsuri Georgian | KGE | kat |
Khakass | KHA | kjh |
Khanty-Kazim | KHK | kca |
Khmer | KHM | khm |
Khanty-Shurishkar | KHS | kca |
Khanty-Vakhi | KHV | kca |
Khowar | KHW | khw |
Kikuyu | KIK | kik |
Kirghiz | KIR | kir |
Kisii | KIS | kqs, kss |
Kokni | KKN | kex |
Kalmyk | KLM | xal |
Kamba | KMB | kam |
Kumaoni | KMN | kfy |
Komo | KMO | kmw |
Komso | KMS | kxc |
Kanuri | KNR | kau |
Kodagu | KOD | kfa |
Korean Old Hangul | KOH | okm |
Konkani | KOK | kok |
Kikongo | KON | ktu |
Komi-Permyak | KOP | koi |
Korean | KOR | kor |
Komi-Zyrian | KOZ | kpv |
Kpelle | KPL | kpe |
Krio | KRI | kri |
Karakalpak | KRK | kaa |
Karelian | KRL | krl |
Karaim | KRM | kdr |
Karen | KRN | kar |
Koorete | KRT | kqy |
Kashmiri | KSH | kas |
Khasi | KSI | kha |
Kildin Sami | KSM | sjd |
Kui | KUI | kxu |
Kulvi | KUL | kfx |
Kumyk | KUM | kum |
Kurdish | KUR | kur |
Kurukh | KUU | kru |
Kuy | KUY | kdt |
Koryak | KYK | kpy |
Ladin | LAD | lld |
Lahuli | LAH | bfu |
Lak | LAK | lbe |
Lambani | LAM | lmn |
Lao | LAO | lao |
Latin | LAT | lat |
Laz | LAZ | lzz |
L-Cree | LCR | crm |
Ladakhi | LDK | lbj |
Lezgi | LEZ | lez |
Lingala | LIN | lin |
Low Mari | LMA | mhr |
Limbu | LMB | lif |
Lomwe | LMW | ngl |
Lower Sorbian | LSB | dsb |
Lule Sami | LSM | smj |
Lithuanian | LTH | lit |
Luxembourgish | LTZ | ltz |
Luba | LUB | lua, lub |
Luganda | LUG | lug |
Luhya | LUH | luy |
Luo | LUO | luo |
Latvian | LVI | lav |
Majang | MAJ | mpe |
Makua | MAK | vmw |
Malayalam Traditional | MAL | mal |
Mansi | MAN | mns |
Mapudungun | MAP | arn |
Marathi | MAR | mar |
Marwari | MAW | mwr |
Mbundu | MBN | kmb |
Manchu | MCH | mnc |
Moose Cree | MCR | crm |
Mende | MDE | men |
Me’en | MEN | mym |
Mizo | MIZ | lus |
Macedonian | MKD | mkd |
Male | MLE | mdy |
Malagasy | MLG | mlg |
Malinke | MLN | mlq |
Malayalam Reformed | MLR | mal |
Malay | MLY | msa |
Mandinka | MND | mnk |
Mongolian | MNG | mon |
Manipuri | MNI | mni |
Maninka | MNK | man |
Manx Gaelic | MNX | glv |
Mohawk | MOH | moh |
Moksha | MOK | mdf |
Moldavian | MOL | mol |
Mon | MON | mnw |
Moroccan | MOR | |
Maori | MRI | mri |
Maithili | MTH | mai |
Maltese | MTS | mlt |
Mundari | MUN | unr |
Naga-Assamese | NAG | nag |
Nanai | NAN | gld |
Naskapi | NAS | nsk |
N-Cree | NCR | csw |
Ndebele | NDB | nbl, nde |
Ndonga | NDG | ndo |
Nepali | NEP | nep |
Newari | NEW | new |
Nagari | NGR | |
Norway House Cree | NHC | csw |
Nisi | NIS | dap |
Niuean | NIU | niu |
Nkole | NKL | nyn |
N’Ko | NKO | nqo |
Dutch | NLD | nld |
Nogai | NOG | nog |
Norwegian | NOR | nob |
Northern Sami | NSM | sme |
Northern Tai | NTA | nod |
Esperanto | NTO | epo |
Nynorsk | NYN | nno |
Occitan | OCI | oci |
Oji-Cree | OCR | ojs |
Ojibway | OJB | oji |
Odia(formerly Oriya) | ORI | ori |
Oromo | ORO | orm |
Ossetian | OSS | oss |
Palestinian Aramaic | PAA | sam |
Pali | PAL | pli |
Punjabi | PAN | pan |
Palpa | PAP | plp |
Pashto | PAS | pus |
Polytonic Greek | PGR | ell |
Filipino | PIL | fil |
Palaung | PLG | pce, rbb, pll |
Polish | PLK | pol |
Provencal | PRO | pro |
Portuguese | PTG | por |
Chin | QIN | bgr, cnh, cnw, czt, sez, tcp, csy, ctd, flm, pck, tcz, zom, cmr, dao, hlt, cka, cnk, mrh, mwg, cbl, cnb, csh |
Rajasthani | RAJ | raj |
R-Cree | RCR | atj |
Russian Buriat | RBU | bxr |
Riang | RIA | ria |
Rhaeto-Romanic | RMS | roh |
Romanian | ROM | ron |
Romany | ROY | rom |
Rusyn | RSY | rue |
Ruanda | RUA | kin |
Russian | RUS | rus |
Sadri | SAD | sck |
Sanskrit | SAN | san |
Santali | SAT | sat |
Sayisi | SAY | chp |
Sekota | SEK | xan |
Selkup | SEL | sel |
Sango | SGO | sag |
Shan | SHN | shn |
Sibe | SIB | sjo |
Sidamo | SID | sid |
Silte Gurage | SIG | xst |
Skolt Sami | SKS | sms |
Slovak | SKY | slk |
Slavey | SLA | scs |
Slovenian | SLV | slv |
Somali | SML | som |
Samoan | SMO | smo |
Sena | SNA | she |
Sindhi | SND | snd |
Sinhalese | SNH | sin |
Soninke | SNK | snk |
Sodo Gurage | SOG | gru |
Sotho | SOT | nso, sot |
Albanian | SQI | sqi |
Serbian | SRB | srp |
Saraiki | SRK | skr |
Serer | SRR | srr |
South Slavey | SSL | xsl |
Southern Sami | SSM | sma |
Suri | SUR | suq |
Svan | SVA | sva |
Swedish | SVE | swe |
Swadaya Aramaic | SWA | aii |
Swahili | SWK | swa |
Swazi | SWZ | ssw |
Sutu | SXT | ngo |
Syriac | SYR | syr |
Tabasaran | TAB | tab |
Tajiki | TAJ | tgk |
Tamil | TAM | tam |
Tatar | TAT | tat |
TH-Cree | TCR | cwd |
Telugu | TEL | tel |
Tongan | TGN | ton |
Tigre | TGR | tig |
Tigrinya | TGY | tir |
Thai | THA | tha |
Tahitian | THT | tah |
Tibetan | TIB | bod |
Turkmen | TKM | tuk |
Temne | TMN | tem |
Tswana | TNA | tsn |
Tundra Nenets | TNE | enh |
Tonga | TNG | toi |
Todo | TOD | xal |
Turkish | TRK | tur |
Tsonga | TSG | tso |
Turoyo Aramaic | TUA | tru |
Tulu | TUL | tcy |
Tuvin | TUV | tyv |
Twi | TWI | aka |
Udmurt | UDM | udm |
Ukrainian | UKR | ukr |
Urdu | URD | urd |
Upper Sorbian | USB | hsb |
Uyghur | UYG | uig |
Uzbek | UZB | uzb |
Venda | VEN | ven |
Vietnamese | VIT | vie |
Wa | WA | wbm |
Wagdi | WAG | wbr |
West-Cree | WCR | crk |
Welsh | WEL | cym |
Wolof | WLF | wol |
Tai Lue | XBD | khb |
Xhosa | XHS | xho |
Yakut | YAK | sah |
Yoruba | YBA | yor |
Y-Cree | YCR | |
Yi Classic | YIC | |
Yi Modern | YIM | iii |
Chinese Hong Kong | ZHH | zho |
Chinese Phonetic | ZHP | zho |
Chinese Simplified | ZHS | zho |
Chinese Traditional | ZHT | zho |
Zande | ZND | zne |
Zulu | ZUL | zul |
OpenType specification