Structure of the Code Tables
PrintThree files make up the package of data tables that SIL International releases in support of the ISO 639-3 standard for language identifiers. They are tab-delimited files in which each line represents one row of a database table. The characters are encoded in the 8-bit standard known as ISO 8859-1 (which is a subset of the default Windows code page 1252). See Downloading the Code Tables for the latest version of the tables.
LanguageCodes.tab | The complete list of three-letter language identifiers used in the current Ethnologue (along with name, primary country, and language status). |
CountryCodes.tab | The list of two-letter country codes that are used in the main language code table. |
LanguageIndex.tab | An index for finding languages by country and by all known names (including primary name, alternate names, and dialect names). |
The following declarations provide the formal definitions for SQL data tables into which the tab-delimited files can be loaded:
CREATE TABLE LanguageCodes ( LangID char(3) NOT NULL, -- Three-letter code CountryID char(2) NOT NULL, -- Main country where used LangStatus char(1) NOT NULL, -- L(iving), (e)X(tinct) Name varchar(75) NOT NULL) -- Primary name in that country CREATE TABLE CountryCodes ( CountryID char(2) NOT NULL, -- Two-letter code from ISO3166 Name varchar(75) NOT NULL, -- Country name Area varchar(10) NOT NULL ) -- World area CREATE TABLE LanguageIndex ( LangID char(3) NOT NULL, -- Three-letter code for language CountryID char(2) NOT NULL, -- Country where this name is used NameType char(2) NOT NULL, -- L(anguage), LA(lternate), -- D(ialect), DA(lternate) -- LP,DP (a pejorative alternate) Name varchar(75) NOT NULL ) -- The name