Languages by language family

From translatewiki.net

This is a schematic list of supported languages with translators in translatewiki.net. They sorted by the language family, and subfamilies they belong to, and sometimes in their parent macrolanguage (according to ISO 639-3, or their registration in the IANA language subtags registry for the IETF BCP 47 language tags) when one is defined for them.

  • The alphabetic codes for languages, when they exist (at least with an ISO 639 base assignment) are showing between [square brackets]. In some cases, codes were historically assigned in ISO 639-1 or ISO 639-2 to language families and should not be used for identifying translations. Individual languages that are part of a defined "macrolanguage" are listed according to ISO 639-3 information, which should also match their individual entries in the IANA database for BCP 47 language tags. Macrolanguages defined in ISO 639-3 should normally have group individual languages that have good enough mutual understanding (but this is not always the case, and ISO 639 will sometimes deprecate them). In rare cases, specific dialects of the same individual language (shown as subitems in italic) may have their own language code assigned in ISO 639, because they have with a standardized orthography or lexical references with official support in some country or subarea, even if speakers of the base language in other regions are not required to adopt this local standard and may mix these dialects interchangeably.
    Distinctive languages without any ISO 639 code assignment are marked with [?], and extinct (or dormant) languages are marked with (†). They are usually not eligible for translations on translatewiki.net, due to lack of reliable translators (except searchers or linguists for reconstruction or historical studies, or for encoding old texts, for example in Wikisource, Wikidata or Wiktionnary, including terminologic lists). In this case, there's probably no need to translate the UI in these languages until an active community is restored and wants to use it for their communication (some exceptions may exist as a secondary language for example in religious and ceremonial use). Users that want to translate in these languages should group themselves and manifest it (for example by registering themselves in the language portal, even if it's still marked as disabled, or using the Babelbox), and should initiate a test wiki in that language for example In Wikimedia Incubator to start developing that language but it's more probable they will just need a Wikisource Incubator or a specific category in an existing Wikisource for encoding old texts, using another UI language for their cooperation.
    This list also shows some known aliases or synonyms for language names, collected from common sources used by linguists, trying to map them to a suitable language code (which will be used for organizing the supported translations, or for registering translators that want to work and cooperate within Translatewiki.net to help supporting these languages for the user interfaces of any one of its supported projects). These listed aliases will be helpful to locate the correct language codes to use, or to disambiguate names which may be homonyms in some contexts. Names or aliases used in English and pusblished in ISO 639 or in the IANA database for BCP 47 language tags should be listed. All these sources are also referenced informatively on the official website of the registration agency (SIL) for the international ISO 639-3 standard. But not all legacy ISO 639 codes are valid (the IANA database for BCP 47 language tags is still the single standard and data source we must comply with).
    The links on individual languages (or macrolanguages) go to their dedicated portal on this wiki (Please help to categorize these languages, preferably in non-controversial families as the language classification is not completely established between its numerous branches). Portals for each language will list supported variants and ISO 15924 scripts which are supported.
  • The classification of individual languages or macrolanguages into families is a continuous effort, and for some families this is still not stable as there are competing proposals. Proposed families for which there's still no consensus across linguists are marked with (?). The information are mainly drawn from Ethnologue or Linguist List (also indexed on GlottoLog with research papers and ample bibliography, including for historic languages or languages still not distinguished or encoded in any standard), or where those do not apply, the English Wikipedia.
    Links displayed on pages for language families (or subfamilies) go to their existing category in this wiki (the largest families or subfamilies are detailed in their own subpage linked in bold characters; the full expansion of these families into subfamilies, their languages and dialects are not transcluded here (to limit the size of this page and its usability and maintenance, and to avoid exceeding a technical limit of this wiki for transclusions).


Human languages

Natural language families