Language system tags (OpenType 1.8.2)

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 range 0x20 to 0x7E. Spaces (0x20) may only occur as a trailing sequence within the tag. As a general convention, capital letters (0x41 to 0x5A) are used. If a language system tag consists of three or less visible letters, the letters are followed by the requisite number of spaces each consisting of a single byte, to complete a 4-byte tag.

In the following table, entries marked with an asterisk (“*”) have been added to the registry since the current OpenType version was published.

Language System Language System Tag Corresponding ISO 639 ID (if applicable)
Abaza ABA abq
Abkhazian ABK abk
Acholi ACH ach
Achi ACR acr
Adyghe ADY ady
Afrikaans AFK afr
Afar AFR aar
Agaw AGW ahg
Aiton AIO aio
Akan AKA aka
Alsatian ALS gsw
Altai ALT atv, alt
Amharic AMH amh
Anglo-Saxon ANG ang
Phonetic transcription—Americanist conventions APPH
Arabic ARA ara
Aragonese ARG arg
Aari ARI aiw
Rakhine ARK mhv, rmz, rki
Assamese ASM asm
Asturian AST ast
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
Torki AZB azb
Azerbaijani AZE aze
Badaga BAD bfq
Banda BAD0 bad
Baghelkhandi BAG bfy
Balkar BAL krc
Balinese BAN ban
Bavarian BAR bar
Baulé BAU bci
Batak Toba BBC bbc
Berber BBR
Bench BCH bcq
Bible Cree BCR
Bandjalang BDY bdy
Belarussian BEL bel
Bemba BEM bem
Bengali BEN ben
Haryanvi BGC bgc
Bagri BGQ bgq
Bulgarian BGR bul
Bhili BHI bhi, bhb
Bhojpuri BHO bho
Bikol BIK bik, bhk, bcl, bto, cts, bln
Bilen BIL byn
Bislama BIS bis

Kanauji

BJJ

bjj

Blackfoot BKF bla
Baluchi BLI bal
Pa’o Karen BLK blk
Balante BLN bjt, ble
Balti BLT bft
Bambara (Bamanankan) BMB bam
Bamileke BML
Bosnian BOS bos
Bishnupriya Manipuri BPY bpy
Breton BRE bre
Brahui BRH brh
Braj Bhasha BRI bra
Burmese BRM mya
Bodo BRX brx
Bashkir BSH bak
Burushaski BSK bsk
Beti BTI btb
Batak Simalungun BTS bts
Bugis BUG bug
Medumba BYV byv
Kaqchikel CAK cak
Catalan CAT cat
Zamboanga Chavacano CBK cbk
Chinantec CCHN cco, chj, chq, chz, cle, cnl, cnt, cpa, csa, cso, cte, ctl, cuc, cvn
Cebuano CEB ceb
Chechen CHE che
Chaha Gurage CHG sgw
Chattisgarhi CHH hne
Chichewa (Chewa, Nyanja) CHI nya
Chukchi CHK ckt
Chuukese CHK0 chk
Choctaw CHO cho
Chipewyan CHP chp
Cherokee CHR chr
Chamorro CHA cha
Chuvash CHU chv
Cheyenne CHY chy
Chiga CGG cgg
Western Cham CJA cja
Eastern Cham CJM cjm
Comorian CMR swb, wlc, wni, zdj
Coptic COP cop
Cornish COR cor
Corsican COS cos
Creoles CPP cpp
Cree CRE cre
Carrier CRR crx, caf
Crimean Tatar CRT crh
Kashubian CSB csb
Church Slavonic CSL chu
Czech CSY ces
Chittagonian CTG ctg
San Blas Kuna CUK cuk
Danish DAN dan
Dargwa DAR dar
Dayi DAX dax
Woods Cree DCR cwd
German DEU deu
Dogri DGO dgo
Dogri DGR doi
Dhangu DHG dhg
Divehi (Dhivehi, Maldivian) DHV (deprecated) div
Dimli DIQ diq
Divehi (Dhivehi, Maldivian) DIV div
Zarma DJR dje
Djambarrpuyngu DJR0 djr
Dangme DNG ada
Dan DNJ dnj
Dinka DNK din
Dari DRI prs
Dhuwal DUJ duj
Dungan DUN dng
Dzongkha DZN dzo
Ebira EBI igb
Eastern Cree ECR crj, crl
Edo EDO bin
Efik EFI efi
Greek ELL ell
Eastern Maninkakan EMK emk
English ENG eng
Erzya ERZ myv
Spanish ESP spa
Central Yupik ESU esu
Estonian ETI est
Basque EUQ eus
Evenki EVK evn
Even EVN eve
Ewe EWE ewe
French Antillean FAN acf
Fang FAN0 fan
Persian FAR fas
Fanti FAT fat
Finnish FIN fin
Fijian FJI fij
Dutch (Flemish) FLE vls
Fe’fe’ FMP fmp
Forest Nenets FNE enf
Fon FON fon
Faroese FOS fao
French FRA fra
Cajun French FRC frc
Frisian FRI fry
Friulian FRL fur
Arpitan FRP frp
Futa FTA fuf
Fulah FUL ful
Nigerian Fulfulde FUV fuv
Ga GAD gaa
Scottish Gaelic (Gaelic) GAE gla
Gagauz GAG gag
Galician GAL glg
Garshuni GAR
Garhwali GAW gbm
Ge’ez GEZ gez
Githabul GIH gih
Gilyak GIL niv
Kiribati (Gilbertese) GIL0 gil
Kpelle (Guinea) GKP gkp
Gilaki GLK glk
Gumuz GMZ guk
Gumatj GNN gnn
Gogo GOG gog
Gondi GON gon
Greenlandic GRN kal
Garo GRO grt
Guarani GUA grn
Wayuu GUC guc
Gupapuyngu GUF guf
Gujarati GUJ guj
Gusii GUZ guz
Haitian (Haitian Creole) HAI hat
Halam HAL flm
Harauti HAR hoj
Hausa HAU hau
Hawaiian HAW haw
Haya HAY hay
Hazaragi HAZ haz
Hammer-Banna HBN amf
Herero HER her
Hiligaynon HIL hil
Hindi HIN hin
High Mari HMA mrj
Hmong HMN hmn
Hiri Motu HMO hmo
Hindko HND hno, hnd
Ho HO hoc
Harari HRI har
Croatian HRV hrv
Hungarian HUN hun
Armenian HYE hye
Armenian East HYE0 hye
Iban IBA iba
Ibibio IBB ibb
Igbo IBO ibo
Ijo languages IJO ijc
Ido IDO ido
Interlingue ILE ile
Ilokano ILO ilo
Interlingua INA ina
Indonesian IND ind
Ingush ING inh
Inuktitut INU iku
Inupiat IPK ipk
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
Jamaican Creole JAM jam
Japanese JAN jpn
Javanese JAV jav
Lojban JBO jbo
Krymchak JCT jct
Yiddish JII yid
Ladino JUD lad
Jula JUL dyu
Kabardian KAB kbd
Kabyle KAB0 kab
Kachchi KAC kfr
Kalenjin KAL kln
Kannada KAN kan
Karachay KAR krc
Georgian KAT kat
Kazakh KAZ kaz
Makonde KDE kde
Kabuverdianu (Crioulo) KEA kea
Kebena KEB ktb
Kekchi KEK kek
Khutsuri Georgian KGE kat
Khakass KHA kjh
Khanty-Kazim KHK kca
Khmer KHM khm
Khanty-Shurishkar KHS kca
Khamti Shan KHT kht
Khanty-Vakhi KHV kca
Khowar KHW khw
Kikuyu (Gikuyu) KIK kik
Kirghiz (Kyrgyz) KIR kir
Kisii KIS kqs, kss
Kirmanjki KIU kiu
Southern Kiwai KJD kjd
Eastern Pwo Karen KJP kjp
Kokni KKN kex
Kalmyk KLM xal
Kamba KMB kam
Kumaoni KMN kfy
Komo KMO kmw
Komso KMS kxc
Khorasani Turkic KMZ kmz
Kanuri KNR kau
Kodagu KOD kfa
Korean Old Hangul KOH okm
Konkani KOK kok
Kikongo KON ktu
Komi KOM kom
Kongo KON0 kon
Komi-Permyak KOP koi
Korean KOR kor
Kosraean KOS kos
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
Ripuarian KSH0 ksh
Khasi KSI kha
Kildin Sami KSM sjd
S’gaw Karen KSW ksw
Kuanyama KUA kua
Kui KUI kxu
Kulvi KUL kfx
Kumyk KUM kum
Kurdish KUR kur
Kurukh KUU kru
Kuy KUY kdt
Koryak KYK kpy
Western Kayah KYU kyu
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
Ligurian LIJ lij
Limburgish LIM lim
Lingala LIN lin
Lisu LIS lis
Lampung LJP ljp
Laki LKI lki
Low Mari LMA mhr
Limbu LMB lif
Lombard LMO lmo
Lomwe LMW ngl
Loma LOM lom
Luri LRC lrc, luz, bqi, zum
Lower Sorbian LSB dsb
Lule Sami LSM smj
Lithuanian LTH lit
Luxembourgish LTZ ltz
Luba-Lulua LUA lua
Luba-Katanga LUB lub
Ganda LUG lug
Luyia LUH luy
Luo LUO luo
Latvian LVI lav
Madura MAD mad
Magahi MAG mag
Marshallese MAH mah
Majang MAJ mpe
Makhuwa MAK vmw
Malayalam MAL mal
Mam MAM mam
Mansi MAN mns
Mapudungun MAP arn
Marathi MAR mar
Marwari MAW mwr, dhd, rwr, mve, wry, mtr, swv
Mbundu MBN kmb
Mbo MBO mbo
Manchu MCH mnc
Moose Cree MCR crm
Mende MDE men
Mandar MDR mdr
Me’en MEN mym
Meru MER mer
Morisyen MFE mfe
Minangkabau MIN min
Mizo MIZ lus
Macedonian MKD mkd
Makasar MKR mak
Kituba MKW mkw
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, mnk, myq, mku, msc, emk, mwk, mlq
Manx MNX glv
Mohawk MOH moh
Moksha MOK mdf
Moldavian MOL mol
Mon MON mnw
Moroccan MOR
Mossi MOS mos
Maori MRI mri
Maithili MTH mai
Maltese MTS mlt
Mundari MUN unr
Muscogee MUS mus
Mirandese MWL mwl
Hmong Daw MWW mww
Mayan MYN myn
Mazanderani MZN mzn
Naga-Assamese NAG nag
Nahuatl NAH nah
Nanai NAN gld
Neapolitan NAP nap
Naskapi NAS nsk
Nauruan NAU nau
Navajo NAV nav
N-Cree NCR csw
Ndebele NDB nbl, nde
Ndau NDC ndc
Ndonga NDG ndo
Low Saxon NDS nds
Nepali NEP nep
Newari NEW new
Ngbaka NGA nga
Nagari NGR
Norway House Cree NHC csw
Nisi NIS dap
Niuean NIU niu
Nyankole NKL nyn
N’Ko NKO nqo
Dutch NLD nld
Nimadi NOE noe
Nogai NOG nog
Norwegian NOR nob
Novial NOV nov
Northern Sami NSM sme
Sotho, Northern NSO nso
Northern Tai NTA nod
Esperanto NTO epo
Nyamwezi NYM nym
Norwegian Nynorsk (Nynorsk, Norwegian) NYN nno
Mbembe Tigon NZA nza
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
Pangasinan PAG pag
Pali PAL pli
Pampangan PAM pam
Punjabi PAN pan
Palpa PAP plp
Papiamentu PAP0 pap
Pashto PAS pus
Palauan PAU pau
Bouyei PCC pcc
Picard PCD pcd
Pennsylvania German PDC pdc
Polytonic Greek PGR ell
Phake PHK phk
Norfolk PIH pih
Filipino PIL fil
Palaung PLG pce, rbb, pll
Polish PLK pol
Piemontese PMS pms
Western Panjabi PNB pnb
Pocomchi POH poh
Pohnpeian PON pon
Provencal PRO pro
Portuguese PTG por
Western Pwo Karen PWO pwo
Chin QIN bgr, cnh, cnw, czt, sez, tcp, csy, ctd, flm, pck, tcz, zom, cmr, dao, hlt, cka, cnk, mrh, cbl, cnb, csh
K’iche’ QUC quc
Quechua (Bolivia) QUH quh
Quechua QUZ quz
Quechua (Ecuador) QVI qvi
Quechua (Peru) QWH qwh
Rajasthani RAJ raj
Rarotongan RAR rar
Russian Buriat RBU bxr
R-Cree RCR atj
Rejang REJ rej
Riang RIA ria
Tarifit RIF rif
Ritarungo RIT rit
Arakwal RKW rkw
Romansh RMS roh
Vlax Romani RMY rmy
Romanian ROM ron
Romany ROY rom
Rusyn RSY rue
Rotuman RTM rtm
Kinyarwanda RUA kin
Rundi RUN run
Aromanian RUP rup
Russian RUS rus
Sadri SAD sck
Sanskrit SAN san
Sasak SAS sas
Santali SAT sat
Sayisi SAY chp
Sicilian SCN scn
Scots SCO sco
Sekota SEK xan
Selkup SEL sel
Old Irish SGA sga
Sango SGO sag
Samogitian SGS sgs
Tachelhit SHI shi
Shan SHN shn
Sibe SIB sjo
Sidamo SID sid
Silte Gurage SIG xst
Skolt Sami SKS sms
Slovak SKY slk
North Slavey SCS scs
Slavey SLA scs, xsl
Slovenian SLV slv
Somali SML som
Samoan SMO smo
Sena SNA seh
Shona SNA0 sna
Sindhi SND snd
Sinhala (Sinhalese) SNH sin
Soninke SNK snk
Sodo Gurage SOG gru
Songe SOP sop
Sotho, Southern SOT sot
Albanian SQI sqi
Serbian SRB srp
Sardinian SRD srd
Saraiki SRK skr
Serer SRR srr
South Slavey SSL xsl
Southern Sami SSM sma
Saterland Frisian STQ stq
Sukuma SUK suk
Sundanese SUN sun
Suri SUR suq
Svan SVA sva
Swedish SVE swe
Swadaya Aramaic SWA aii
Swahili SWK swa
Swati SWZ ssw
Sutu SXT ngo
Upper Saxon SXU sxu
Sylheti SYL syl
Syriac SYR aii, amw, cld, syc, syr, tru
Syriac, Estrangela script-variant (equivalent to ISO 15924 'Syre') SYRE syc, syr
Syriac, Western script-variant (equivalent to ISO 15924 'Syrj') SYRJ syc, syr
Syriac, Eastern script-variant (equivalent to ISO 15924 'Syrn') SYRN syc, syr
Silesian SZL szl
Tabasaran TAB tab
Tajiki TAJ tgk
Tamil TAM tam
Tatar TAT tat
TH-Cree TCR cwd
Dehong Dai TDD tdd
Telugu TEL tel
Tetum TET tet
Tagalog TGL tgl
Tongan TGN ton
Tigre TGR tig
Tigrinya TGY tir
Thai THA tha
Tahitian THT tah
Tibetan TIB bod
Tiv TIV tiv
Turkmen TKM tuk
Tamashek TMH tmh
Temne TMN tem
Tswana TNA tsn
Tundra Nenets TNE enh
Tonga TNG toi
Todo TOD xal
Toma TOD0 tod
Tok Pisin TPI tpi
Turkish TRK tur
Tsonga TSG tso
Turoyo Aramaic TUA tru
Tulu TUM tum
Tumbuka TUL tcy
Tuvin TUV tyv
Tuvalu TVL tvl
Twi TWI aka
Tày TYZ tyz
Tamazight TZM tzm
Tzotzil TZO tzo
Udmurt UDM udm
Ukrainian UKR ukr
Umbundu UMB umb
Urdu URD urd
Upper Sorbian USB hsb
Uyghur UYG uig
Uzbek UZB uzb
Venetian VEC vec
Venda VEN ven
Vietnamese VIT vie
Volapük VOL vol
Võro VRO vro
Wa WA wbm
Wagdi WAG wbr
Waray-Waray WAR war
West-Cree WCR crk
Welsh WEL cym
Walloon WLN wln
Wolof WLF wol
Mewati WTM wtm
XBD khb
Xhosa XHS xho
Minjangbal XJB xjb
Soga XOG xog
Kpelle (Liberia) XPE xpe
Sakha YAK sah
Yao YAO yao
Yapese YAP yap
Yoruba YBA yor
Y-Cree YCR cre
Yi Classic YIC
Yi Modern YIM iii
Zealandic ZEA zea
Standard Morrocan Tamazigh ZGH zgh
Zhuang ZHA zha
Chinese, Hong Kong SAR ZHH zho
Chinese Phonetic ZHP zho
Chinese Simplified ZHS zho
Chinese Traditional ZHT zho
Zande ZND zne
Zulu ZUL zul
Zazaki ZZA zza