MARC defines a set of 434 language codes, for use in a number of fields. Codes may refer to anything from a specific dialect of a language to a language family, depending on the whim of the committee.
Of course they are used in
041 Language Code
008/35-37 Fixed-Length Data Elements / Language 040 Source / Language of cataloging 084 Classification Scheme and Edition / Language code 242 Translation of Title by Cataloging Agency / Language code of translated title 775 Other Edition Entry / Language code
The 472 defined codes as of June 12, 2002, sorted by language, are as follows. A leading "-" means that the code is discontinued.
abk Abkhaz ace Achinese ach Acoli ada Adangme aar Afar afh Afrihili afr Afrikaans afa Afroasiatic aka Akan akk Akkadian alb Albanian ale Aleut alg Algonquian -ajm Aljamia tut Altaic amh Amharic apa Apache ara Arabic arc Aramaic arp Arapaho arw Arawak arm Armenian art Artificial asm Assamese ath Athapascan aus Australian map Austronesian ava Avaric ave Avestan awa Awadhi aym Aymara aze Azerbaijani ast Bable ban Balinese bat Baltic bal Baluchi bam Bambara bai Bamileke bad Banda bnt Bantu bas Basa bak Bashkir baq Basque btk Batak bej Beja bel Belarusian bem Bemba ben Bengali ber Berber bho Bhojpuri bih Bihari bik Bikol bin Bini bis Bislama bos Bosnian bra Braj bre Breton bug Bugis bul Bulgarian bua Buriat bur Burmese cad Caddo car Carib cat Catalan cau Caucasian ceb Cebuano cel Celtic cai Central American Indian chg Chagatai cmc Chamic cha Chamorro che Chechen chr Cherokee chy Cheyenne chb Chibcha chi Chinese chn Chinook jargon chp Chipewyan cho Choctaw chu Church Slavic chv Chuvash cop Coptic cor Cornish cos Corsican cre Cree mus Creek crp Creoles and Pidgins cpe English-based Creoles and Pidgins cpf French-based Creoles and Pidgins cpp Portuguese-based Creoles and Pidgins scr Croatian cus Cushitic cze Czech dak Dakota dan Danish day Dayak del Delaware din Dinka div Divehi doi Dogri dgr Dogrib dra Dravidian dua Duala dum Middle Dutch dut Dutch dyu Dyula dzo Dzongkha efi Efik egy Egyptian eka Ekajuk elx Elamite enm Middle English ang Old English eng English -esk Eskimo -esp Esperanto epo Esperanto est Estonian -eth Ethiopic gez Ethiopic ewe Ewe ewo Ewondo fan Fang fat Fanti -far Faroese fao Faroese fij Fijian fin Finnish fiu Finno-Ugrian fon Fon frm Middle French fro Old French fre French -fri Frisian fry Frisian fur Friulian ful Fula gaa Ga -gag Galician glg Galician lug Ganda gay Gayo gba Gbaya geo Georgian nds Low German gmh Middle High German goh Old High German ger German gem Germanic gil Gilbertese gon Gondi gor Gorontalo got Gothic grb Grebo grc Ancient Greek gre Modern Greek -gua Guarani grn Guarani guj Gujarati gwi Gwich'in hai Haida hau Hausa haw Hawaiian heb Hebrew her Herero hil Hiligaynon him Himachali hin Hindi hmo Hiri Motu hit Hittite hmn Hmong hun Hungarian hup Hupa iba Iban ice Icelandic ido Ido ibo Igbo ijo Ijo ilo Iloko inc Indic ine Indo-European ind Indonesian -int Interlingua ina Interlingua ile Interlingue iku Inuktitut ipk Inupiaq ira Iranian mga Middle Irish sga Old Irish -iri Irish gle Irish iro Iroquoian ita Italian jpn Japanese jav Javanese jrb Judeo-Arabic jpr Judeo-Persian kab Kabyle kac Kachin kal Kalatdlisut kam Kamba kan Kannada kau Kanuri kaa Kara-Kalpak kar Karen kas Kashmiri kaw Kawi kaz Kazakh kha Khasi -cam Khmer khm Khmer khi Khoisan kho Khotanese kik Kikuyu kmb Kimbundu kin Kinyarwanda kom Komi kon Kongo kok Konkani kor Korean kpe Kpelle kro Kru kua Kuanyama kum Kumyk kur Kurdish kru Kurukh -kus Kusaie kos Kusaie kut Kutenai kir Kyrgyz lad Ladino lah Lahnda lam Lamba lao Lao lat Latin lav Latvian ltz Letzeburgesch lez Lezgian lin Lingala lit Lithuanian loz Lozi lub Luba-Katanga lua Luba-Lulua lui Luiseno lun Lunda luo Luo lus Lushai mac Macedonian mad Madurese mag Magahi mai Maithili mak Makasar -mla Malagasy mlg Malagasy may Malay mal Malayalam mlt Maltese mnc Manchu mdr Mandar man Mandingo mni Manipuri mno Manobo -max Manx glv Manx mao Maori arn Mapuche mar Marathi chm Mari mah Marshall mwr Marwari mas Masai myn Mayan men Mende mic Micmac min Minangkabau mis Miscellaneous moh Mohawk mol Moldavian mkh Mon-Khmer lol Mongo-Nkundu mon Mongolian mos Moore mul Multiple mun Munda nah Nahuatl nau Nauru nav Navajo nbl Ndebele nde Ndebele ndo Ndonga nep Nepali new Newari nia Nias nic Niger-Kordofanian ssa Nilo-Saharan niu Niuean nai North American Indian sme Northern Sami nso Northern Sotho nor Norwegian nub Nubian nym Nyamwezi nya Nyanja nyn Nyankole tog Nyasa nyo Nyoro nzi Nzima -lan Occitan oci Occitan oji Ojibwa non Old Norse peo Old Persian ori Oriya -gal Oromo orm Oromo osa Osage oss Ossetic oto Otomian pal Pahlavi pau Palauan pli Pali pam Pampanga pag Pangasinan pan Panjabi pap Papiamento paa Papuan per Persian phi Philippine phn Phoenician pol Polish pon Ponape por Portuguese pra Prakrit pro Provencal pus Pushto que Quechua roh Raeto-Romance raj Rajasthani rap Rapanui rar Rarotongan roa Romance rum Romanian rom Romany run Rundi rus Russian sal Salishan sam Samaritan Aramaic smn Inari Sami msm Skolt Sami sma Southern Sami -lap Sami smi Sami -sao Samoan smo Samoan sad Sandawe sag Sango san Sanskrit sat Santali srd Sardinian sas Sasak sco Scots -gae Scottish Gaelic gla Scottish Gaelic sel Selkup sem Semitic scc Serbian srr Serer shn Shan -sho Shona sna Shona sid Sidamo sgn Sign bla Siksika snd Sindhi -snh Sinhalese sin Sinhalese sit Sino-Tibetan sio Siouan den Slave sla Slavic slo Slovak slv Slovenian smj Lule Smii sog Sogdian som Somali son Songhai snk Soninke wen Sorbian -sso Sotho sot Sotho sai South American Indian spa Spanish suk Sukuma sux Sumerian sun Sundanese sus Susu swa Swahili -swz Swazi ssw Swazi swe Swedish syr Syriac -tag Tagalog tgl Tagalog tah Tahitian tai Tai -taj Tajik tgk Tajik tmh Tamashek tam Tamil -tar Tatar tat Tatar tel Telugu tem Temne ter Terena tet Tetum tha Thai tib Tibetan tig Tigre tir Tigrinya tiv Tiv tli Tlingit tpi Tok Pisin tkl Tokelauan tog Tonga ton Tongan -tru Truk chk Truk tsi Tsimshian tso Tsonga -tsw Tswana tsn Tswana tum Tumbuka tup Tupi ota Ottoman Turkish tur Turkish tuk Turkmen tvl Tuvaluan tyv Tuvinian twi Twi uga Ugaritic uig Uighur ukr Ukrainian umb Umbundu und Undetermined urd Urdu uzb Uzbek vai Vai ven Venda vie Vietnamese vol Volapuk vot Votic wak Wakashan wal Walamo wln Walloon war Waray was Washo wel Welsh wol Wolof xho Xhosa sah Yakut yao Yao yap Yapese yid Yiddish yor Yoruba ypk Yupik znd Zande zap Zapotec zen Zenaga zha Zhuang zul Zulu zun Zuni