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1 Raw data. Click on the results to see the raw IANA data for a subtag.
2 Find. The description is the name of the subtag, ie. the language, region, etc. You can search on any part of a description (eg. eng gives results that include Bengali, English and Tengwar). Note that some languages may be spelled differently, eg. Panjabi yields three results, but Punjabi only one.
3 Look up. Looks up all forms of all subtags in the list, eg. it returns a language and extlang subtag for cmn. Subtags can be separated by commas, semicolons, hyphens, or spaces, eg. en; fr, ca, Bali-1901.
Only exact matches of subtags are returned, ie. ak doesn't match akk.
If there is no output for a tag, it was not a valid tag in the registry.
4 Check. Looks up all subtags in a language tag (ie. a hyphen-separated list of subtags) and reports problems, if there are any, eg. de-419-DE-alt and ms-cmn.
Warnings are also displayed to guide you in language choices. Example: ms-min-Latn.
If no errors or warnings are reported, the language tag should be ok, though there may be some rare corner cases that are not detected.
5 
provides links from language subtag entries to the SIL Ethnologue. This is useful when trying to find a language. If there is no page for a given language tag, such as nn, click on the result to reveal the full record; if there is a macrolanguage specified, eg. 'no', that will probably yield an ethnologue entry.
6 
provides links from script subtag entries to the most relevant Unicode script block in UniView.
In some cases, there are additional Unicode areas dedicated to the same script. These can usually be easily found alongside the current block in UniView's pull-down control.
Some very large blocks such as Han, Hangul and Egyptian Hieroglyphs are not linked to. Other scripts do not yet have Unicode blocks.
7 Grandfathered tags are pre-RFC 4646 registrations of tags that cannot be completely composed from the subtags in the current registry. If you search for a grandfathered tag it will be displayed in the results, and the subtags that are in the current registry will also be shown.
8 Redundant tags are pre-RFC 4646 registrations of tags that can now be formed by combining separate subtags from the current registry. They do not show up in search results.
9 Extension subtags are not supported in this version of the lookup tool.
BCP 47 language tags are built from subtags in the IANA Subtag Registry. This tool helps you find or look up subtags and check for errors in language tags.
Read Choosing a Language Tag for step-by-step guidelines on creating language tags. This tool also provides information to guide your choices.
ml
Malayalam
ms
Malay (macrolanguage)
ms is a macrolanguage that encompasses the following more specific primary language subtags: id in bjn btj bve bvu coa dup hji jak jax kvb kvr kxd lce lcf liw max meo mfa mfb min mqg msi mui orn ors pel pse tmw urk vkk vkt xmm zlm zmi zsm. If it doesn't break legacy usage for your application, you should use one of these more specific language subtags instead. On the other hand, ms is often preferred by legacy applications rather than zsm (Standard Malay). abs
Ambonese Malay
bpq
Banda Malay
btj
Bacanese Malay
bve
Berau Malay
bvu
Bukit Malay
ccm
Malaccan Creole Malay
coa
Cocos Islands Malay
jax
Jambi Malay
lrt
Larantuka Malay
max
North Moluccan Malay
mbf
Baba Malay
mbp
Malayo
meo
Kedah Malay
mfa
Pattani Malay
mfp
Makassar Malay
mhp
Balinese Malay
mkn
Kupang Malay
mlz
Malaynon
mqg
Kota Bangun Kutai Malay
msi
Sabah Malay
mxr
Murik (Malaysia)
plf
Central Malayo-Polynesian languages
plf represents a collection of languages. Although a collection subtag can be used in the absence of a more specific tag, you should check whether a more specific language subtag is available. Unfortunately, the registry does not offer any suggestions to assist with this. pmy
Papuan Malay
poz
Malayo-Polynesian languages
poz represents a collection of languages. Although a collection subtag can be used in the absence of a more specific tag, you should check whether a more specific language subtag is available. Unfortunately, the registry does not offer any suggestions to assist with this. pqe
Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages
pqe represents a collection of languages. Although a collection subtag can be used in the absence of a more specific tag, you should check whether a more specific language subtag is available. Unfortunately, the registry does not offer any suggestions to assist with this. pqw
Western Malayo-Polynesian languages
pqw represents a collection of languages. Although a collection subtag can be used in the absence of a more specific tag, you should check whether a more specific language subtag is available. Unfortunately, the registry does not offer any suggestions to assist with this. pse
Central Malay
sci
Sri Lankan Creole Malay
vkt
Tenggarong Kutai Malay
xdy
Malayic Dayak
xml
Malaysian Sign Language
xmm
Manado Malay
zlm
Malay (individual language)
zmi
Negeri Sembilan Malay
zsm
Standard Malay
In some legacy applications the macrolanguage subtag ms (Malay) may be a better choice than zsm if you want your language tag to be recognised. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-btj. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the btj primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-bve. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the bve primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-bvu. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the bvu primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-coa. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the coa primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-jax. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the jax primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-max. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the max primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-meo. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the meo primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-mfa. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the mfa primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-mqg. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the mqg primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-msi. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the msi primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-pse. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the pse primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-vkt. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the vkt primary language subtag. For use with the sgn primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence sgn-xml. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the xml primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-xmm. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the xmm primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-zlm. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the zlm primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-zmi. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the zmi primary language subtag. For use with the ms primary language subtag, ie. as the sequence ms-zsm. However it is usually preferable to replace that sequence with just the zsm primary language subtag. On the other hand, the primary language subtag ms is often preferred by legacy applications for Standard Malay, rather than zsm or ms-zsm. Mlym
Malayalam
This version has been updated to support the approximately 7800 new subtags, including extlang subtags, introduced in July 2009, and the tool now provides help in choosing subtags and a tag checker based on RFC 5646. Please report any bugs to me.
Web app created 1 April 2007. Last update 2009-12-15 15:19 GMT
Copyright © 2007-2009 Richard Ishida.