An IETF language tag is a standardized code for a language. These codes also allow to specify language variants and other information. That way, it is possible to say that what is wanted is German, as it is spoken in Austria. The languages themselves usually have codes that are two or three letters long. Certain languages can use more than one writing system: Serbian language can be written with the Cyrillic script, there is a version that uses Latin script, and there is a version that uses Braille script.
Examples
- fr - French
- fr-BE - French, as spoken in Belgium
- fr-CA - French as spoken in Canada
- fr-FR - French, as spoken in France
- be-cyr - Belarussian, in Cryrillic script
- sr - Serbian, in any script
- sr -Latn Serbian, in Latin script
- sr-Latn-fonapi - Serbian, in Latin script, written uing phonetic transcription (the International phonetic alphabet)
- sr-Cyrl - Serbian, in Cyrillic script
- zh - Chinese, written in simplified ideograms (Hans), beause that is what the standard says
- yue - Cantonese (Chinese), written using standard Chinese letters (that's what the standard says; zh-yue can also be used)
- cmn - Mandarin Chinese (Synonyms: zh-cmn, and zh-guoyu)
- zh-Latn - Chinese, transcribed to Latin script
- zh-Latn-pinyin - Chinese in Latin script, using the transcrption method Pinyin
- zh-Hant - Chinese, using traditional chinese letters
- cmn-Hant-TW - Mandarin Chinese, using Traditional Chinese letters, as used in Taiwan
