FAQs for Lingotek’s Language/Locale Standards
How many languages and locales does Lingotek support?
We support 250 languages and locales.
Which standard language codes are used by Lingotek?
We use ISO 639. We prefer the 2 character codes from ISO 639-1 and then fallback to the 3+ character codes in ISO 639-2, ISO 639-3 when needed.
Which standard country codes are used by Lingotek?
We use ISO 3166. For the most part we have only used the 2 character codes from ISO 3166-1. There are a small number of cases that have deviated. An example is es-419 for Latin America which comes from UN M.49 region codes.
Does Lingotek utilize multiple codes for the same language?
Not at this time. Because each locale is different, Lingotek has avoided creating multiple codes for the same language.
Can language codes be customized?
Not at this time.
Are there any language codes that apply to a region (rather than a country)?
In some cases, yes; however, because the code does not apply to a country, it does not follow the standard 2 letter language_country format (e.g. en_us).
e.g. The locale for "Spanish - Latin America" (es-419) is non-standard because it does not use a country code.
Can I customize the mappings of locales, i.e. can I use a language code not included in the ISO 639-1?
Not at this time.
What if a language/country pair is not currently supported?
To a see if a new language pair (i.e. language code + country code) can be supported, please send an email to support@lingotek.com.