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