<appendix id="language-codes"><title>Languages codes</title>

<para>
The ISO-639 standard defines all languages and standardizes codes for
designing them as well as the English and French names of these
languages.
</para>

<para>
Each language in the ISO-639 list has a three letter code. The most
widely spread languages also have a two-letter code defined.
</para>

<para>
In Unix systems, the two-letter codes are used in locales files and
thus these codes should be used when they exist for a given
language. When there is no two-letter code, the three-letter code must
be used in the locales file.
</para>

<para>
On Debian systems, the <classname>iso-codes</classname> packages
includes a list of all ISO-639 material. This list must be used as a
reference when in doubt for the code of a given language.
</para>

<para>
Some languages may have <emphasis>variants</emphasis>, for instance
depending on the region they're spoken in. The distinction must be
made on the <emphasis>written</emphasis> form of the language: different
variants in terms of <emphasis>spoken</emphasis> language are out of topic here.
</para>

<para>
When the variants differ on the way to <emphasis>write</emphasis> the
same language (no different ISO codes exist), the country/region part
of the locale should be used. Translators who are considering doing so
<emphasis>must first contact</emphasis> the &i18n-coords;. Such cases
should be kept to a very low number of occurrences and should only be
used when the two languages differ too much.
</para>

<para>The currently accepted variants are:
</para>

<itemizedlist>
  <listitem>
    <para>
      <emphasis>zh_CN/zh_TW</emphasis>:
      <emphasis>Simplified</emphasis> Chinese and
      <emphasis>Traditional</emphasis> Chinese. These two ways of
      <emphasis>writing</emphasis> the Chinese language have their own
      translation teams (but only one mailing list). They should not
      be confused with the Mandarin, Cantonese or any other way to
      <emphasis>speak</emphasis> Chinese while the
      <emphasis>written</emphasis> form does not change.
    </para>
  </listitem>
  <listitem>
    <para>
      <emphasis>pt/pt_BR</emphasis>: <emphasis>classical</emphasis>
      Portuguese is spoken in Portugal as well as nearly all former
      Portuguese colonies. Brazilian Portuguese largely differs from
      Portuguese and is of course used in Brazil. Two different
      translation sets exist for Debian packages though both teams
      work closely together (there is for instance only one mailing
      list)
    </para>
  </listitem>
  <listitem>
    <para>
      <emphasis>pa_IN/pa_PK</emphasis>: the Punjabi language has only
      one spoken form, but two written forms: one using Indic-style
      glyphs (Gurmukhi), mostly used in India (Punjab state), and
      another one, using an Arabic script, mostly used in Pakistan.
    </para>
  </listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>FAQ about variants:
</para>

<itemizedlist>
  <listitem>
    <para>
      there are no en_GB/en_US variants in Debian. The use of either
      <emphasis>British</emphasis> or <emphasis>American</emphasis>
      spelling is not highly standardized in Debian. The installer
      team has however decided to refer to US-style spelling.
    </para>
  </listitem>
  <listitem>
    <para>
      the Spanish team has chosen to keep only one variant even though
      some differences exist in the way Spanish is spoken in Spain and
      Latin America, for instance.
    </para>
  </listitem>
</itemizedlist>


</appendix>
