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LANGUAGE CODES

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LANGUAGE CODES

487 rows in ISO 639-2; 183 languages also have a two-letter code and 20 have two three-letter ones — and the tag is always the shortest

Built as a memo rather than a table: the thing worth hanging it up for reads across the room, with the full reference in smaller type below it.

Three sizes in one archive — from a sheet on the fridge to a poster on the wall.

StandardUS$1.50

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Payment and email are handled by Paddle. The download link arrives by email — no account, no password.

Formats
A4 · A3 · A2
What you get
Print-ready PDFs, one per size, with every letterform converted to outlines — nothing to install, nothing to shift.
Subject
code · reference · study

The left-hand code in a row is the one a tag carries; the three-letter codes stand beside it for reference. An arrow points to the replacement.

DEPRECATED BEFORE IT WAS LISTED

4 language subtags in the tag registry carry a deprecation date earlier than the date they were added: in → id, iw → he, ji → yi, jw → jv. They were replaced on 1989-01-01 and 2001-08-13, and added on 2005-10-16.

RFC 5646 §3.1.6 states the reason plainly: some subtags were deprecated before the registry was created. And §3.4 forbids changing either the subtag or the date it was added — which is why a tag written back then still reads today.

On the sheet

  • The left-hand code in a row is the one a tag carries; the three-letter codes stand beside it for reference. An arrow points to the replacement.
  • Colour carries meaning, but meaning never rests on colour alone — the sheet reads in black and white.
  • Nothing about how it was made: the sheet carries only what the reader needs.

Printing

  • Three sizes in the archive: A4 — 210×297 mm, A3 — 297×420 mm, A2 — 420×594 mm.
  • All text is converted to outlines. No fonts to install, and nothing shifts on another machine.
  • White background and sparing fills — it prints on a home printer without draining the cartridge.
  • Margins of at least 10 mm: a home printer cannot print to the edge.
  • No stroke thinner than 0.3 mm, so nothing disappears in print.

Why the numbers can be trusted. Every countable number here is computed from data rather than typed in, and the sheet must pass 10 independent checks before it is allowed to build — how many items there are, the order they come in, and the claim in the highlighted box itself. If one fails, there is no file.

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