A macrolanguage is a group of mutually intelligible speech varieties, or dialect continuum, that have no traditional name in common, and which may be considered distinct languages by their speakers. Macrolanguages are used as a book-keeping mechanism for the ISO 639 international standard of language codes. Macrolanguages are established to assist mapping between different sets of ISO language codes. Specifically, there may be a many-to-one correspondence between ISO 639-3, intended to identify all the thousands of languages of the world, and either of two other sets, ISO 639-1, established to identify languages in computer systems, and ISO 639-2, which encodes a few hundred languages for library cataloguing and bibliographic purposes. When such many-to-one ISO 639-2 codes are included in an ISO 639-3 context, they are called "macrolanguages" to distinguish them from the corresponding individual languages of ISO 639-3.ISO 639-3: Scope of denotation for language identifiers: Macrolanguages According to the ISO,
ISO 639-3 is curated by SIL International; ISO 639-2 is curated by the Library of Congress (USA).
The mapping often has the implication that it covers borderline cases where two language varieties may be considered strongly divergent dialects of the same language or very closely related languages (dialect continua); it may also encompass situations when there are language varieties that are considered to be varieties of the same language on the grounds of ethnic, cultural, and political considerations, rather than linguistic reasons. However, this is not its primary function and the classification is not evenly applied.
For example, Chinese is a macrolanguage encompassing many languages that are not mutually intelligible, but the languages "Standard German", "Bavarian German", and other closely related languages do not form a macrolanguage, despite being more mutually intelligible. Other examples include Tajiki not being part of the Persian macrolanguage despite sharing much lexicon, and Urdu and Hindi not forming a macrolanguage despite forming a mutually intelligible dialect continuum. All dialects of Hindi are considered separate languages. Basically, ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-3 use different criteria for dividing language varieties into languages, 639-2 uses shared writing systems and literature more whereas 639-3 focuses on mutual intelligibility and shared lexicon. The macrolanguages exist within the ISO 639-3 code set to make mapping between the two sets easier.
The use of macrolanguages was applied in Ethnologue, starting in the 16th edition.Lewis, M. Paul, ed. (2009). Ethnologue. Dallas: SIL International. The most recent registered macrolanguage is Sanskrit with code san, adopted in 15 December 2023, though it already existed as individual language for several years.
, there are fifty-nine language codes in ISO 639-2 that are counted as macrolanguages in ISO 639-3. Some of the macrolanguages had no individual language (as defined by 639-3) in ISO 639-2, e.g. "ara" (Arabic), but ISO 639-3 recognizes different varieties of Arabic as separate languages under some circumstances. Others, like "nor" (Norwegian) had their two individual parts (nno Nynorsk, nob Bokmål) already in 639-2. That means some languages (e.g. "arb" Standard Arabic) that were considered by ISO 639-2 to be dialects of one language ("ara") are now in ISO 639-3 in certain contexts considered to be individual languages themselves. This is an attempt to deal with varieties that may be linguistically distinct from each other, but are treated by their speakers as forms of the same language, e.g. in cases of diglossia. For example,
Generic Arabic, 639-2 Standard Arabic, 639-3
ISO 639-2 also includes codes for collections of languages; these are not the same as macrolanguages. These collections of languages are excluded from ISO 639-3, because they never refer to individual languages. Most such codes are included in ISO 639-5.
Types of macrolanguages
elements that have no ISO 639-2 code: 4 (bnc, hbs, kln, luy) elements that have no ISO 639-1 code: 29 elements that do have ISO 639-1 codes: 34 elements whose individual languages have ISO 639-1 codes: 4 aka – tw hbs – bs, hr, sr msa – id nor – nb, nn
List of macrolanguages This list only includes official data from SIL International. ISO 639-1 ISO 639-2 ISO 639-3 Number of individual languages Name of macrolanguageak aka aka 2 Akan languagear ara ara 28 + retired 2 Arabic languageay aym aym 2 Aymara languageaz aze aze 2 Azerbaijani language(-) bal bal 3 Baluchi language(-) bik bik 8 + retired 1 Bikol language(-) (-) bnc 5 Bontok language(-) bua bua 3 Buriat language(-) chm chm 2 Mari language (Russia)cr cre cre 6 Cree language(-) del del 2 Delaware language(-) den den 2 Slavey language (Athapascan)(-) din din 5 Dinka language(-) doi doi 2 Dogri languageet est est 2 Estonian languagefa fas/per fas 2 Persian languageff ful ful 9 Fulah language(-) gba gba 6 + retired 1 Gbaya language (Central African Republic)(-) gon gon 3 + retired 1 Gondi language(-) grb grb 5 Grebo languagegn grn grn 5 Guaraní language(-) hai hai 2 Haida language(-) (-) hbs 4 Serbo-Croatian(-) hmn hmn 25 + retired 1 Hmong languageiu iku iku 2 Inuktitut languageik ipk ipk 2 Inupiaq language(-) jrb jrb 4 + retired 1 Judeo-Arabic languageskr kau kau 3 Kanuri language(-) (-) kln 9 Kalenjin languages(-) kok kok 2 Konkani languagekv kom kom 2 Komi languagekg kon kon 3 Kongo language(-) kpe kpe 2 Kpelle languageku kur kur 3 Kurdish language(-) lah lah 7 + retired 1 Lahnda languagelv lav lav 2 Latvian language(-) (-) luy 14 Luyia language(-) man man 6 + retired 1 Manding languagesmg mlg mlg 11 + retired 1 Malagasy languagemn mon mon 2 Mongolian languagems msa/may msa 36 + retired 1 Malay language(-) mwr mwr 6 Marwari languagene nep nep 2 Nepali languageno nor nor 2 Norwegian languageoj oji oji 7 Ojibwa languageor ori ori 2 Oriya languageom orm orm 4 Oromo languageps pus pus 3 Pashto languagequ que que 43 + retired 1 Quechua language(-) raj raj 6 Rajasthani language(-) rom rom 7 Romany languagesasansan2Sanskrit languagesq sqi/alb sqi 4 Albanian languagesc srd srd 4 Sardinian languagesw swa swa 2 Swahili language(-) syr syr 2 Syriac language(-) tmh tmh 4 Tuareg languagesuz uzb uzb 2 Uzbek languageyi yid yid 2 Yiddish language(-) zap zap 58 + retired 1 Zapotec languageza zha zha 16 + retired 2 Zhuang languageszh zho/chi zho 19 Chinese language(-) zza zza 2 Zaza language 34 59 63 444 + retired 15 total codes ISO 639-1 ISO 639-2 ISO 639-3 Number of individual languages Name of macrolanguage
+ ISO 639-2/RA Change NoticeISO639-1CodeISO639-2CodeEnglishname ofLanguageFrenchname of LanguageDateAdded orChangedCategoryof ChangeNotes[-sh](none)Serbo-Croatianserbo-croate2000-02-18DepThis code was deprecated in 2000 because there were separate language codes for each individual language represented (Serbian, Croatian, and then Bosnian was added). It was published in a revision of ISO 639-1, but was never included in ISO 639-2. It is considered a macrolanguage (general name for a cluster of closely related individual languages) in ISO 639-3. Its deprecated status was reaffirmed by the ISO 639 JAC in 2005.srsrp [scc]Serbianserbe2008-06-28CCISO 639-2/B code deprecated in favor of ISO 639-2/T codehrhrv [scr]Croatiancroate2008-06-28CCISO 639-2/B code deprecated in favor of ISO 639-2/T code
List of macrolanguages and the individual languages This is a complete list of the individual language codes that comprise the macrolanguages in the ISO 639-3 code tables . aaa–ezz aka aka is the ISO 639-3 language code for Akan. Its ISO 639-1 code is ak. There are two individual language codes assigned: fat – Fanti twi – Twi
ara ara is the ISO 639-3 language code for Arabic. Its ISO 639-1 code is ar. There are twenty-eight individual language codes assigned: aao – Algerian Saharan Arabic abh – Tajiki Arabic abv – Baharna Arabic acm – Mesopotamian Arabic acq – Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic acw – Hijazi Arabic acx – Omani Arabic acy – Cypriot Arabic adf – Dhofari Arabic aeb – Tunisian Arabic aec – Saidi Arabic afb – Gulf Arabic apc – Levantine Arabic apd – Sudanese Arabic arb – Standard Arabic arq – Algerian Arabic ars – Najdi Arabic ary – Moroccan Arabic arz – Egyptian Arabic auz – Uzbeki Arabic avl – Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic ayh – Hadrami Arabic ayl – Libyan Arabic ayn – Sanaani Arabic ayp – North Mesopotamian Arabic pga – Sudanese Creole Arabic shu – Chadian Arabic ssh – Shihhi Arabic
The following codes were previously part of : ajp – South Levantine Arabic (merged with (formerly for the North one) to be a single Levantine Arabic) bbz – Babalia Creole Arabic (Non-existent; Code retired 23 January 2020)
aym aym is the ISO 639-3 language code for Aymara. Its ISO 639-1 code is ay. There are two individual language codes assigned: ayc – Southern Aymara ayr – Central Aymara
aze aze is the ISO 639-3 language code for Azerbaijani. Its ISO 639-1 code is az. There are two individual language codes assigned: azb – South Azerbaijani azj – North Azerbaijani
bal bal is the ISO 639-3 language code for Baluchi. There are three individual language codes assigned: bcc – Southern Balochi bgn – Western Balochi bgp – Eastern Balochi
bik bik is the ISO 639-3 language code for Bikol. There are eight individual language codes assigned: bcl – Central Bikol bln – Southern Catanduanes Bikol bto – Rinconada Bikol cts – Northern Catanduanes Bikol fbl – West Albay Bikol lbl – Libon Bikol rbl – Miraya Bikol ubl – Buhi'non Bikol
The following code was previously part of bik: bhk – Albay Bicolano (Split into Buhi'non Bikol [ubl], Libon Bikol [lbl], Miraya Bikol [rbl], and West Albay Bikol [fbl] on 18 January 2010)
bnc
bnc is the ISO 639-3 language code for Bontok. There are five individual language codes assigned:
ebk – Eastern Bontok lbk – Central Bontok obk – Southern Bontok rbk – Northern Bontok vbk – Southwestern Bontok
bua bua is the ISO 639-3 language code for Buriat. There are three individual language codes assigned: bxm – Mongolia Buriat bxr – Russia Buriat bxu – China Buriat
chm chm is the ISO 639-3 language code for Mari, a language located in Russia. There are two individual language codes assigned: mhr – Eastern Mari mrj – Western Mari
cre cre is the ISO 639-3 language code for Cree. Its ISO 639-1 code is cr. There are six individual language codes assigned: crj – Southern East Cree crk – Plains Cree crl – Northern East Cree crm – Moose Cree csw – Swampy Cree cwd – Woods Cree
In addition, there are six closely associated individual codes: nsk – Naskapi (part of the Cree language group but not included under the cre macrolanguage designation) moe – Montagnais (part of the Cree language group but not included under the cre macrolanguage designation) atj – Atikamekw (part of the Cree language group but not included under the cre macrolanguage designation) crg – Michif language (Cree-French mixed language with strong influences from Ojibwe language group and not included under the cre macrolanguage designation) ojs – Ojibwa, Severn (Ojibwa, Northern) (part of the Ojibwa language group with strong influences from the Cree language group and not included under the cre macrolanguage designation) ojw – Ojibwa, Western (part of the Ojibwa language group with strong influences from the Cree language group and not included under the cre macrolanguage designation)
In addition, there is one other language without individual codes closely associated, but not part of, this macrolanguage code: Bungee language (mixed language of Cree, Ojibwa, French, English, Assiniboine and Scottish Gaelic)
del del is the ISO 639-3 language code for Delaware. There are two individual language codes assigned: umu – Munsee unm – Unami
den den is the ISO 639-3 language code for Slave. There are two individual language codes assigned: scs – North Slavey