iso639-lang

iso639-lang is a simple library to handle the ISO 639 series of international standards for language codes.

>>> from iso639 import Lang
>>> Lang("fr")
Lang(name='French', pt1='fr', pt2b='fre', pt2t='fra', pt3='fra', pt5='')

iso639-lang allows you to switch from one language code to another easily. There’s no need to manually download or parse data files, just use the Lang class!

ISO 639-1, ISO 639-2, ISO 639-3 and ISO 639-5 parts are all supported.

Installing iso639-lang and Supported Versions

iso639-lang is available on PyPI:

$ pip install iso639-lang

iso639-lang supports Python 3.6+.

Usage

Handling language codes with iso639-lang is very simple.

Begin by importing the Lang class:

>>> from iso639 import Lang

Lang is instantiable with any ISO 639 language code or name. For example, let’s try to get the ISO 639 codes for French:

>>> lg = Lang("French")
>>> lg.name
'French'
>>> lg.pt1
'fr'
>>> lg.pt2b
'fre'
>>> lg.pt2t
'fra'
>>> lg.pt3
'fra'
>>> lg.pt5
''

An instance of Lang can be modified.

>>> lg.pt1 = 'de'
>>> lg.name
'German'

Lang instances are comparable to each other.

>>> other_lg = Lang("deu")
>>> lg == other_lg
True

You can easily get the macrolanguage of an individual language.

>>> lg = Lang("Wu Chinese")
>>> lg.macro()
Lang(name='Chinese', pt1='zh', pt2b='chi', pt2t='zho', pt3='zho', pt5='')

Conversely, you can also list all the individual languages that share a common macrolanguage.

>>> lg = Lang("Persian")
>>> lg.individuals()
[Lang(name='Iranian Persian', pt1='', pt2b='', pt2t='', pt3='pes', pt5=''), 
Lang(name='Dari', pt1='', pt2b='', pt2t='', pt3='prs', pt5='')]

When an invalid language value is passed to Lang, an InvalidLanguageValue exception is raised.

>>> from iso639.exceptions import InvalidLanguageValue
>>> try:
...     Lang("foobar")
... except InvalidLanguageValue as e:
...     e.msg
... 
"'foobar' not supported by ISO 639"

When an deprecated language value is passed to Lang, a DeprecatedLanguageValue exception is raised.

>>> from iso639.exceptions import DeprecatedLanguageValue
>>> try:
...     Lang("gsc")
... except DeprecatedLanguageValue as e:
...     lg = Lang(e.change_to)
...     f"{e.name} replaced by {lg.name}"
...
'Gascon replaced by Occitan (post 1500)'

Data included in iso639-lang

As of May 12, 2021, iso639-lang is based on the latest official code tables provided by the ISO 639 registration authorities.