ISO 21636-1:2024

Overview

ISO 21636-1:2024 - Language coding - A framework for language varieties - Part 1: Vocabulary - defines the core terminology and conceptual framework for identifying and describing varieties of all individual human languages. It complements ISO 639 by focusing on linguistic variation, covering major modalities (spoken, written, signed, multimodal), dimensions and sub‑dimensions of variation, and key concepts such as idiolects, individual languages, language use events, registers and modalities. The document is applicable to sign languages and excludes formal programming languages and non‑combinatorial symbol systems.

Key topics and requirements

• Vocabulary and definitions: Standardized terms for language, individual language, idiolect, speaker, language use event, natural and constructed languages.
• Dimensions of variation: Concepts to identify basic dimensions and sub‑dimensions of linguistic variation (e.g., regional, social, modal), enabling consistent description of language varieties.
• Modalities and registers: Definitions for major communication modalities (spoken, written, signed, multimodal) and language registers (levels of formality and style).
• Documentation terminology: Terms related to language resources (LRs), metadata, and certainty levels used in LR description and exchange.
• Scope clarifications: Applicability to human languages, including sign languages, and explicit exclusions (programming/formal languages; non‑combinatorial symbol systems).
• Normative stance: Part 1 contains terms and definitions (no normative references), forming the foundation for subsequent parts of the ISO 21636 series.

Practical applications

ISO 21636-1 provides a consistent vocabulary to improve the discovery, exchange and reuse of language resources and metadata across sectors:

• Language technology (LT) development: Better metadata for training and evaluating speech recognition, machine translation and other LTs by specifying the exact language variety and modality.
• Archives and libraries: Harmonized descriptions of corpora and recordings to ensure long‑term accessibility and interoperability.
• Research and documentation: Standard terms for sociolinguistics, language documentation, and preservation projects.
• Public services and digital platforms: Tailoring eGovernment, eHealth, eLearning, eBusiness and accessibility solutions to specific language varieties and modalities.
• Media and content industries: Clear tagging of dialects, registers and modalities for localization and audience targeting.

Who should use this standard

• ICT and language‑technology developers
• Libraries, archives and data curators
• Linguists (sociolinguists, computational linguists)
• Language documentation and preservation projects
• Media, education and public‑service organizations dealing with multilingual content

Related standards

• ISO 639 (language identification) - ISO 21636 series is designed to complement ISO 639 by enabling more granular identification of language varieties.
• ISO/IEC Directives (editorial and development rules) - referenced in the foreword and applicable to maintenance and drafting.

Keywords: ISO 21636-1, language coding, language varieties, language metadata, linguistic variation, language modalities, ISO 639, language resources.