A macrolanguage is a set of related languages (not dialects) that share some kind of common “identity” even if the speakers can’t mutually understand each other. The relationship may be cultural if not linguistic. The table below provides a list of internationally recognized macrolanguages and their International Standard Organization (ISO) codes.
This list can be found on Wikipedia and only includes official data from www.sil.org/iso639-3.
We find it interesting to see the number of languages considered to be under a particular macrolanguage.
Our intention is to provide more lists, links and introductory explanations in the future that uncover interesting facts about world languages. Some additional comments about the list below are given after the table.
List of macrolanguages
| ISO 639-1 | ISO 639-2 | ISO 639-3 | Number of individual languages | Name of macrolanguage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ak | aka | aka | 2 | Akan language |
| ar | ara | ara | 30 | Arabic language |
| ay | aym | aym | 2 | Aymara language |
| az | aze | aze | 2 | Azerbaijani language |
| (-) | bal | bal | 3 | Baluchi language |
| (-) | bik | bik | 8 + retired 1 | Bikol language |
| (-) | (-) | bnc | 5 | Bontok language |
| (-) | bua | bua | 3 | Buriat language |
| (-) | chm | chm | 2 | Mari language (Russia) |
| cr | cre | cre | 6 | Cree language |
| (-) | del | del | 2 | Delaware language |
| (-) | den | den | 2 | Slave language (Athapascan) |
| (-) | din | din | 5 | Dinka language |
| (-) | doi | doi | 2 | Dogri language |
| et | est | est | 2 | Estonian language |
| fa | fas/per | fas | 2 | Persian language |
| ff | ful | ful | 9 | Fulah language |
| (-) | gba | gba | 6 + retired 1 | Gbaya language (Central African Republic) |
| (-) | gon | gon | 2 | Gondi language |
| (-) | grb | grb | 5 | Grebo language |
| gn | grn | grn | 5 | Guaraní language |
| (-) | hai | hai | 2 | Haida language |
| (-)[5] | (-) | hbs | 3 | Serbo-Croatian |
| (-) | hmn | hmn | 25 + retired 1 | Hmong language |
| iu | iku | iku | 2 | Inuktitut language |
| ik | ipk | ipk | 2 | Inupiaq language |
| (-) | jrb | jrb | 5 | Judeo-Arabic languages |
| kr | kau | kau | 3 | Kanuri language |
| (-) | (-) | kln | 9 | Kalenjin languages |
| (-) | kok | kok | 2 | Konkani language |
| kv | kom | kom | 2 | Komi language |
| kg | kon | kon | 3 | Kongo language |
| (-) | kpe | kpe | 2 | Kpelle language |
| ku | kur | kur | 3 | Kurdish language |
| (-) | lah | lah | 7 + retired 1 | Lahnda language |
| lv | lav | lav | 2 | Latvian language |
| (-) | (-) | luy | 14 | Luyia language |
| (-) | man | man | 6 + retired 1 | Manding languages |
| mg | mlg | mlg | 11 + retired 1 | Malagasy language |
| mn | mon | mon | 2 | Mongolian language |
| ms | msa/may | msa | 36 + retired 1 | Malay language |
| (-) | mwr | mwr | 6 | Marwari language |
| ne | nep | nep | 2 | Nepali language |
| no | nor | nor | 2 | Norwegian language |
| oj | oji | oji | 7 | Ojibwa language |
| or | ori | ori | 2 | Oriya language |
| om | orm | orm | 4 | Oromo language |
| ps | pus | pus | 3 | Pashto language |
| qu | que | que | 44 | Quechua language |
| (-) | raj | raj | 6 | Rajasthani language |
| (-) | rom | rom | 7 | Romany language |
| sq | sqi/alb | sqi | 4 | Albanian language |
| sc | srd | srd | 4 | Sardinian language |
| sw | swa | swa | 2 | Swahili language |
| (-) | syr | syr | 2 | Syriac language |
| (-) | tmh | tmh | 4 | Tuareg languages |
| uz | uzb | uzb | 2 | Uzbek language |
| yi | yid | yid | 2 | Yiddish language |
| (-) | zap | zap | 57 + retired 1 | Zapotec language |
| za | zha | zha | 16 + retired 2 | Zhuang languages |
| zh | zho/chi | zho | 14 | Chinese language |
| (-) | zza | zza | 2 | Zaza language |
ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. In defining some of its language codes, some are classified as macrolanguages,
which include other individual languages in the standard. This category exists to assist mapping between another set of languages codes, ISO
639-2, and ISO 639-3. ISO 639-3 is curated by SIL International, ISO 639-2 is curated by the Library of Congress (USA).
These collections of languages are excluded from ISO 639-3, because they never refer to individual languages. Most such codes are included in ISO
639-5.
