Language Representation Ontology
type: Ontology
license: http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
source: ISO 639-1 Codes for the representation of names of languages - Part 1: Alpha-2 code, First edition, 2002-07-15
source: ISO 639-2 Codes for the representation of names of languages - Part 2: Alpha-3 code, First edition, 1998-11-01
source: ISO 639-3 Codes for the representation of names of languages - Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages, First edition, 2007-02-01
source: ISO 639-4 Codes for the representation of names of languages - Part 4: General principles of coding of the representation of names of languages and related entities, and application guidelines, First edition, 2010-07-15
source: ISO 639-5 Codes for the representation of names of languages - Part 5: Alpha-3 code for language families and groups, First edition, 2008-05-15
source: ISO 639-6 Codes for the representation of names of languages - Part 6: Alpha-4 code for comprehensive coverage of language variants, First edition, 2009-12-01
content language: https://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-quick-reference/
copyright: Copyright (c) 2015-2017 Unisys
copyright: Copyright (c) 2015-2019 Adaptive Inc.
copyright: Copyright (c) 2015-2021 Object Management Group, Inc.
copyright: Copyright (c) 2015-2021 Thematix Partners LLC
copyright: Copyright (c) 2020-2021 agnos.ai
file abbreviation: lcc-lr
file abstract: This ontology, based on ISO 639 as well as the language element of the Language Tag specified in BCP 47 (RFC 4646, RFC 4647), provides a systemic description of the vocabulary used for language representation, including natural and artificial languages. ISO 639 provides two language codes, one as a two-letter code (ISO 639-1) and another as a three-letter code (ISO 639-2, ISO 639-3, ISO 639-5) for the representation of names of languages. ISO 639-1 was devised primarily for use in terminology, lexicography, and linguistics. ISO 639-2 represents all of the languages contained in ISO 639-1, additional languages and language groups, as they may be coded for special purposes when more specificity in coding is needed. The languages listed in ISO 639-1 are a subset of the languages listed in ISO 639-2; every language code element in the two-letter code has a corresponding language code element in the three-letter code, but not necessarily vice versa. ISO 639-4 provides the basis for describing languages, as defined in this ontology, and additional codes are provided in 639-5 and other parts of the standard, again with more details about macrolanguages, other lesser known independent languages, and special language groups. ISO 639-3 extends the set of three-letter codes provided in 639-2 to cover all of the natural, human languages in use today, along with many well-known ancient, extinct, and historical languages, including written and signed languages. It also identifies the codes found in 639-2 that represent families or groups of languages rather than a single human language, depending on the perspective of the consumer. The Registration Authority for ISO 639-1 is the International Information Centre for Terminology, ISO 639-1/RA. This organization is responsible for maintenance of Part-1, and more information can be found at http://www.infoterm.info/standardization/iso_639_1_2002.php, although the actual code set is maintained by the US Library of Congress, together w…
filename: LanguageRepresentation.rdf
related specification: BCP 47, Tags for Identifying Languages, see http://tools.ietf.org/html/bcp47
version IRI: LanguageRepresentation
change note: The http://www.omg.org/spec/LCC/20151101/Languages/LanguageRepresentation.rdf version of this ontology was revised to reflect the issues addressed by the LCC 1.0 FTF report.
change note: The http://www.omg.org/spec/LCC/20171801/Languages/LanguageRepresentation.rdf version of this ontology was revised to loosen the range constraints on the hasName properties to enable use of language tags, as stated in the LCC 1.1 RTF report.
change note: The http://www.omg.org/spec/LCC/20190201/Languages/LanguageRepresentation.rdf version of this ontology was revised to loosen the domain constraint on the hasTag property to make it more broadly usable, and loosened the constraint that an Identifier identifies exactly 1 thing to at least 1 thing to address cases where identifiers are reused, as stated in the LCC 1.2 RTF report.
history note: This ontology is ultimately intended to represent all of ISO 639 for reference purposes, and to be sufficiently extensible to accommodate new sections or modifications as they are published. The current version of the ontology (including subordinate modules containing the language names and codes) provides a unique English name (i.e., the reference name from 639-3) for each language, with UTF-8 encoded literals specifying alternates in English, French, and Indigenous languages where present in the standard, and in German corresponding to the names on the LoC web site. 1. Where multiple English names occur in 639-1 and 639-2, we have used the primary name specified in 639-2:1998 superseded by the latest revision posted by the registration authority, or, where multiples are specified by the registration authority, the reference name from ISO 639-3 as the 'named individual name' for a given language. For languages specified in ISO 639-1, there is at least one English name and at least one French name for every language, corresponding to exactly one alpha-2 code. Most languages from ISO 639-1 have at least one indigenous name. Most languages with codes available from the Library of Congress also have at least one German name. The correspondence between the alpha-2 codes and languages are made explicit in the individuals representing the codes themselves, and can be inferred for the languages using an OWL DL reasoner. 2. This release of the ontology covers all languages specified in parts 1 and 2 of the standard, and categorizes the alpha-3 codes from part 2 according to the categorization scheme provided in parts 3 and 4. Subsequent releases of the ontology will address additional languages covered in part 3, as well as additional components of the standard, such as equivalence to standards representing relevant scripts, as they become available, and the language groups covered by ISO 639-5. 3. We have used individuals to represent all alpha-2 and alpha-3 codes, which, …

alpha-2 code
type: Class
subclass of: language identifier
source: Section 4.1, ISO 639-1
definition: a language identifier for a human language as defined by ISO 639-1, that is, a two-letter combination of characters used to represent a language or languages
note: In the ISO 639-1 language code, each language identifier is composed of two letters (lower case letters from the Latin alphabet, corresponding to characters 97 through 122 of the UTF-8 encoding), without diacritical marks or other encodings of any kind.
scope note: The identifiers are not abbreviations for the languages they identify. They are derived in some way from the indiginous language name or from preferences of the relevant speech community.

alpha-3 code
type: Class
subclass of: language identifier
source: Section 3.2, ISO 639-2
definition: a language identifier for a human language as defined by ISO 639, that is, a three-letter combination of characters used to represent a language or languages
note: In the ISO 639-2 language code, each language identifier is composed of three letters (lower case letters from the Latin alphabet, corresponding to characters 97 through 122 of the UTF-8 encoding), without diacritical marks or other encodings of any kind.
note: Two code sets are provided in ISO 639-2, one for bibliographic applications and one for terminology applications. Some of these are considered collective language codes, referring to a family of languages, and there are a few special purpose codes for use in various applications. ISO 639-3 provides a single, three character code for each individual language or macrolanguage. Additional codes for language families and groups are specified in other parts of the standard.

ancient language
type: Class
subclass of: extinct language
source: Section 3.25 and 4.7, ISO 639-4
definition: an extinct language that has an attested literature and is recognized as having special status in the academic community
note: Ancient languages may have either individual or collective language codes. See section 4.1.5, ISO 639-2, for an explanation of the latter case.

arrangement
type: Class
definition: a structure or means of organizing information such as a schema, numbering system, organization scheme, measurement system, taxonomy, or language for organizing information

artificial language
type: Class
subclass of: language
source: Section 3.28 and 4.8, ISO 639-4
disjoint with: natural language
definition: a language for human communication that has been artificially devised
note: Artificial languages do not include reconstructed languages or computer programming languages.

bibliographic code
type: Class
subclass of: alpha-3 code
subclass of: language identifier
definition: an alpha-3 code that is a member of the set of bibliographic codes in ISO 639-2

code element
type: Class
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: denotes
  cardinality: 1
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: is member of
  on class: code set
  qualified cardinality: 1
source: ISO/IEC 11179-3 Information technology - Metadata registries (MDR) - Part 3: Registry metamodel and basic attributes, Third edition, 2013-02-15
definition: a sequence of characters denoting something that it is associated with for some purpose, within a specified context, according to some rule set

code set
type: Class
subclass of: arrangement
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: has member
  all values from: code element
source: ISO/IEC 11179-3 Information technology - Metadata registries (MDR) - Part 3: Registry metamodel and basic attributes, Third edition, 2013-02-15
alternative label: coding scheme
definition: a system of alpha-numeric symbols, or combinations of symbols, that stand for specified values in some context

collection
type: Class
definition: a grouping of some variable number of things (may be zero) that have some shared significance

collective language code
type: Class
subclass of: language identifier
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: denotes
  all values from: language group
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: identifies
  all values from: language group
source: Sections 3.3 and 4.1.1, and 4.1.3, ISO 639-2; Section 4.6, ISO 639-4
disjoint with: special purpose code
definition: a language identifier or code used to represent a group of languages
note: See section 4.1.1, ISO 639-2, for an explanation of the usage of such codes, and section 4.1.3 to gain understanding of the distinction between collective language and macrolanguage codes.

dialect
type: Class
subclass of: language variant
source: Sections 3.8, 4.2, and 4.5, ISO 639-4; Sections 4.1.3 and 4.1.4, ISO 639-2
definition: a language variant that is specific to a geographical region or speech community
note: Dialects are typically represented via the same language code as the code for the primary language, with a few exceptions for well-known dialects. See sections 4.1.3 and 4.1.4, ISO 639-2 for additional details on the treatment of dialects in the standard.

extinct language
type: Class
subclass of: language
source: Section 3.24 and 4.7, ISO 639-4
disjoint with: living language
definition: an individual language or variant that is no longer in use and has no current descendant

historical language
type: Class
subclass of: language
source: Section 3.26 and 4.7, ISO 639-4
definition: a well-known prior version of a living or extinct language

identification scheme
type: Class
subclass of: arrangement
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: has member
  all values from: identifier
source: ISO/IEC 11179-3 Information technology - Metadata registries (MDR) - Part 3: Registry metamodel and basic attributes, Third edition, 2013-02-15
definition: a system for allocating identifiers to objects

identifier
type: Class
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: is member of
  on class: identification scheme
  qualified cardinality: 1
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: has tag
  some values from: string
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: identifies
  some values from: Thing
source: ISO/IEC 11179-3 Information technology - Metadata registries (MDR) - Part 3: Registry metamodel and basic attributes, Third edition, 2013-02-15
definition: a sequence of characters uniquely identifying something that it is associated with for some purpose and within a specified context
note: Text-valued tags are included here as they may be useful for automated transformation or encoding systems, such as those used to produce IETF compliant language tags in XML.

individual language
type: Class
subclass of: language
source: Section 3.7, ISO 639-4
definition: a language that can be distinguished from another language by some set of rules
note: Identifiers in Parts 1, 2, and 3 of ISO 639 are assumed to denote distinct individual languages, unless the language name explicitly refers to a language group. See section 4.2 in ISO 639-4 for a detailed explanation of the definition of individual language in the context of the ISO 639 standard.

individual language identifier
type: Class
subclass of: language identifier
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: denotes
  all values from: individual language
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: identifies
  all values from: individual language
source: Section 3.7, ISO 639-3
disjoint with: macrolanguage identifier
definition: a language identifier whose scope is that of an individual (distinct) language

language
type: Class
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: has German name
  min cardinality: 0
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: has indigenous name
  min cardinality: 0
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: has English name
  some values from: Literal
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: has French name
  some values from: Literal
source: Section 3.6, ISO 639-4
definition: a systematic use of sounds, characters, symbols or signs to communicate meaning

language family
type: Class
subclass of: language group
source: Section 3.11, ISO 639-4
definition: a group of individual languages related to each other through common ancestry

language group
type: Class
subclass of: collection
source: Section 3.10, ISO 639-4
definition: a collection of two or more individual languages, treated as a group for some purpose
note: See section 4.6 in ISO 639-4 for additional explanatory material for language groups.

language identifier
type: Class
subclass of: code element
subclass of: identifier
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: denotes
  all values from: language
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: identifies
  all values from: language
source: Section 3.5, ISO 639-4
alternative label: language symbol
definition: a string of characters that uniquely identifies a linguistic entity
scope note: In the language codes of Parts 1, 2, 3, and 5 of ISO 639, each language identifier is composed of two or three letters.

language variant
type: Class
subclass of: individual language
source: Section 3.14, ISO 639-4
definition: a variation of an individual language that is sufficiently unique that it can be identified and named

language variation
type: Class
source: Section 3.13, ISO 639-4
definition: continuous change within and between individual languages
note: Language variation may include change over time, space, cultural affiliation, etc.

living language
type: Class
subclass of: language
source: Section 3.23, ISO 639-4
definition: an individual language or variant in use today by some speech community

macrolanguage
type: Class
subclass of: language
source: Section 3.9, ISO 639-4
definition: a language that may be viewed in some circumstances as an individual language, but actually represents two or more individual languages
note: See sections 4.1 and 4.3 of ISO 639-4 for an extensive description of macrolanguages and how they are different from language groups.

macrolanguage identifier
type: Class
subclass of: language identifier
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: denotes
  all values from: macrolanguage
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: identifies
  all values from: macrolanguage
source: Section 3.7, ISO 639-3
disjoint with: special purpose code
definition: a language identifier whose scope is that of a macrolanguage

natural language
type: Class
subclass of: language
source: Section 3.27, ISO 639-4
definition: a language used in human communications that is not artificial in nature

orthography
type: Class
subclass of: collection
source: Section 3.27, ISO 639-4
definition: a set of conventions and rules for representing language in written form
note: The orthographic rules for a given language may include rules of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Languages that have multiple writing systems may have distinct orthographies and scripts.

remainder group
type: Class
subclass of: language group
source: Section 3.12, ISO 639-4
definition: a group of languages that explicitly excludes certain individual languages

script
type: Class
subclass of: collection
source: Section 3.17, ISO 639-4
definition: a set of graphic characters used to represent one or more languages in writing
note: Use of multiple writing systems does not mean that multiple language identifiers are necessary for a language. ISO 639 language identifiers may be combined with script identifiers from ISO 15924 (e.g., BCP 47).

special purpose code
type: Class
subclass of: language identifier
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: denotes
  all values from: special purpose language concept
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: identifies
  all values from: special purpose language concept
source: Section 3.7, ISO 639-3
definition: a language identifier whose scope is that of a special purpose language construct

special purpose language concept
type: Class
subclass of: language
source: Section 4.2.6, ISO 639-3
definition: a language concept introduced in ISO 639-3 to satisfy special-purpose requirements, typically to support application constraints

spoken language
type: Class
subclass of: language
source: Section 3.22, ISO 639-4
definition: an individual language or language variant that is articulated through speech (oral or vocal) sounds

standard variant
type: Class
subclass of: language variant
source: Section 3.15, ISO 639-4
definition: a language variant with a high degree of status and normalization, typically used in public discourse, centers of government and commerce

terminology code
type: Class
subclass of: alpha-3 code
subclass of: language identifier
source: Section 3.7, ISO 639-3
definition: a language identifier whose scope is that of terminological codes

transcription
type: Class
source: Section 3.19, ISO 639-4
definition: the representation of speech or signing in written form
note: The resulting text is also referred to as a transcription.

transliteration
type: Class
source: Section 3.20, ISO 639-4
definition: the conversion of text from one script to another without loss of information
note: The resulting text is also referred to as a transliteration.

writing system
type: Class
subclass of: arrangement
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: has
  some values from: orthography
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: has
  some values from: script
source: Section 3.16, ISO 639-4
definition: a system for writing a language, including the requisite script and character set

written language
type: Class
subclass of: language
source: Section 3.21, ISO 639-4
definition: the representation of a language via a writing system, with a relatively normalized orthography

denotes
type: ObjectProperty
definition: serves as a linguistic expression of the notion of, means

has
type: ObjectProperty
definition: indicates that someone (or something) possesses something, such as a characteristic, attribute, feature, or capability

has denotation
type: ObjectProperty
sub property of: has
inverse of: denotes
definition: has meaning, expresses

has earlier form
type: ObjectProperty
sub property of: has
domain: language
range: language
definition: relates a language to an earlier form (historically significant) of that same language

has English name
type: DatatypeProperty
sub property of: has name
source: Section 3.4, ISO 639-3
definition: associates a name in English with an individual concept

has French name
type: DatatypeProperty
sub property of: has name
source: Section 3.4, ISO 639-3
definition: associates a name in French with an individual concept

has German name
type: DatatypeProperty
sub property of: has name
definition: associates a name in German with an individual concept

has indigenous name
type: DatatypeProperty
sub property of: has name
source: Section 3.4, ISO 639-3
definition: associates a local regional or cultural name with an individual concept

has member
type: ObjectProperty
inverse of: is member of
definition: relates something, typically a collection, group or organization, to some discrete thing identified as a member of it

has name
type: DatatypeProperty
source: Section 3.4, ISO 639-3
definition: associates a name, reference name, or appellation with an individual concept
note: Note that the hasName properties defined herein have an implicit range of rdfs:Literal. This is purposeful, so that users can specify any element that has a name with or without a language tag without concern for conflicting datatypes (i.e., xsd:string vs. rdf:langString, which are logically disjoint).

has tag
type: DatatypeProperty
range: string
definition: a unique combination of alphanumeric characters corresponding to the identifier
note: Text-valued tags are included here as they may be useful for automated transformation or encoding systems, such as those used to produce IETF compliant language tags in XML.

identifies
type: ObjectProperty
definition: recognizes or establishes within some context

is identified by
type: ObjectProperty
inverse of: identifies
definition: has an indicator or label, that is unique within some context

is member of
type: ObjectProperty
definition: belongs, either individually or collectively, to a group