U.S. flag

An official website of the Department of Health and Human Services

SHARE:

FacebookXEmail AHRQPrintShare

Race, Ethnicity, and Language Data: Standardization for Health Care Quality Improvement

Table I-1. Subcommittee Template: Comparison of Spoken Language Categories and Coding

Census Language Namea Census Codea ISO 639-3
Individual
languageb		 ISO 639-2
Individual
languageb		 ISO 639-1
Individual
languageb		 ISO Language
Nameb		 Other Names and
Additional Information		 Reported in the Census
2000c		 Kaiser
Permanente
Health Pland		 Contra
Costa
Health
Pland		 HRET
Hospital
Surveyf		 NACHC
Survey of
CHCsg		 Language
Line Useh		 NY
Presbyterian
Hospitale		 SFGHe UWe Sutter
Healthe
Abkhazian 696* abk abk ab Abkhazian     x x             x
Abnaki 822 aaq, abe     Abnaki
(Eastern,
Western)		 Eastern Abnaki—extinct x                  
Achinese 733 ace ace   Achinese   x                  
Acholi 785 ach ach   Acoli                      
Achumawi 855 acv     Achumawi Nearly extinct x                  
Acoma (same code as Laguna) 924 kjq     Western Keres (dialect- Acoma)                      
Afar 783* aar aar aa Afar     x x             x
Afghani (coded same as Pashto) 657 prs (Dari
Persian) pst (Central
Pashto) pbt (Southern
Pashto) pbu
(Northern
Pashto) haz
(Hazaragi) uzb
(Uzbek)		     Afghan
Languages are multiple (about 50% use Dari and about 35% Pashto;
other major
languages:
Hazaragi,
Uzbek
Southern)		                      
African, not further specified 799           x                  
Afrikaans 611 afr afr afr Afrikaans   x x x     x       x
Aguaceto 968 agu     Aguacateco                      
Ahtena 848 aht     Ahtena Nearly extinct x                  
Ainu 723 aib (China), ain (Japan) ain (Japan)   Ainu                      
Akan 796 aka (macro
with 2 sub: fat (Fanti) and twi (Twi)		 aka ak Akan     x       x        
Aklan 743* mlz (Malaynon)     Aklan
language of
Philippines
include:
Malaynon and Akeanon		         x            
Alabama 915 akz     Alabama   x                  
Albanian 638 sqi (macro with 4 subs) sqi/alb sq Albanian   x x x x x x x     x
Aleut 800 ale ale   Aleut   x                  
Algonquian 806 alq     Algonquin Carolina Algonquin -
extinct		 x x                
American Indian 966       American Indian   x                  
Amharic 780 amh amh am Amharic   x x x x x x     x x
Apache 862   apa (multiple
other 639-3 codes)		   Apache languages   x x                
Arabic 777 ara (macro with 30
sublanguages		 ara ar Arabic   x x x x x x x x x x
Arabic Morocan 777* ary     Arabic Moroccan             x        
Arabic Yemen 777* ayh (Hadrami)
ayn (Sanaani)
acq (Ta'izzi- Adeni)		     Arabic Yemen
(multiple possibilities)		               x      
Aramaic (see below Chaldean with same code) 779 aii (Assyrian
Neo-Aramaic)
jpa (Aramaic,
Jewish
Palestine) sam (Aramaic
Samaritan) cld
(Chaldean Neo Aramaic		     Numerous
languages with
Aramaic in
name		                     x
Arapaho 807 arp arp   Arapaho   x                  
Arawakian 974 arw arw   Arawak   x                  
Arkikara 934 ari     Arikara Nearly extinct x                  
Arkansas 914 qua     Quapaw                      
Armenian 655 hye hye/arm hy Armenian   x x x     x x     x
Ashanti (see Twi which has same code) 796       The Ashanti
language is
Twi (see below)		 Asante           x        
Asian Indian 662                              
Assamese 672 asm asm as Assamese   x   x              
Assiniboine 907 asb                            
Assyrian 779 aii     Assyrian Neo-Aramaic     x x     x       x
Athapascan 847   ath
(collective)		   Athapascan
languages		   x                  
Atsina 808 ats     Gros Ventre   x                  
Atsugewi 886 atw     Atsugewi Nearly extinct x                  
Austrian 607 bar     Bavarian                      
Aymara 973 aym (macro with 2
sublanguages:
Central and
Southern)		 aym ay Aymara   x x x              
Azerbaijani 690 aze (macro
with 2 subs:
North and South)		 aze az Azerbaijani Azeri x   x     x        
Aztecan 956 azc (639-5)     Uto-Aztecan   x x                
Bahasa (same code
as Malay)		 739 msa (macro)
zim (Malay
individual language)		 msa/may
(macro)		 Ms
(macro)		   Bahasa Kehangsaan
(Indonesia) Bahasa
Malaysian (Malaysia)		           x        
Balinese 734 ban ban   Balinese   x                  
Balochi 659 bal (macro with 3 subs:
Eastern,
Southern,
Western)		   bal Baluchi   x                  
Bambara 793* bam bam am Bambara             x x      
Banjuni (see Swahili) uncoded;
code same
as Swahili		                     x        
Bannock 941 pao     Northern Paiute                      
Bantu 792   bnt   Bantu (other)   x x                
Bari 786 bfa     Bari                      
Bashkir 688* bak bak ba Bashkir     x x             x
Basque 697 eus eus/baq eus Basque   x x x   x         x
Bassa 796* bsq     Bassa                   x  
Behdini 658* kmr     Behdini's code (bdf) was retired from use and
suggest kmr
Northern
Kurdish		           x          
Bembe 792 bmb     Bembe                      
Bengali 664 ben ben bn Bengali   x x x x   x x   x x
Berber 781   ber (collective)   Berber (other)   x         x        
Bhili 669 bhb     Bhili                      
Bhojpuri 668* bho bho   Bhojpuri               x      
Bielorussian 640 bel bel be Belarusian Belorussian x   x     x        
Bihari 668   bih bh Bihari   x   x              
Bikol 747 bik (macro with 5 subs) bik   Bikol   x                  
Bisayan (has
separate code from
Cebuano)		 743 bsb (Brunei)
bsy (Sabah)		     Bisayan
(Cebuano is a subset of Bisayan)		   x     x x x        
Bislama 604* bis bis bi Bislama     x x             x
Blackfoot 809 bla bla   Siksika   x                  
Bosnian 649 bos bos bs Bosnian     x x x x x   x x  
Brahui 699 brh     Brahui   x                  
Breton 634 bre bre br Breton   x x x             x
Buginese 730 bug bug   Buginese   x   x              
Bulgarian 647 bul bul bg Bulgarian   x x   x   x       x
Burmese 717 mya mya/bur my Burmese   x x x x   x       x
Burushaski 707 bsk     Burashaski   x                  
Bushman 790 xuu     Kxoe Khoe                    
Caddo 935 cad cad   Caddo Kado, Caddoe; Nearly
extinct		 x                  
Cahto 861 ktw     Kato Extinct                    
Cahuilla 949 chl     Cahuilla Nearly
extinct		 x                  
Cajun 624 frc     Cajun, French   x x                
Cambodian (same code as Khmer) 726       Cambodian
(see Khmer)		     x x              
Canjobal 968 knj     Kanjobal,
Western		         x            
Cantonese 711 yue (sub of
Chinese		     Cantonese   x x x x x x x x x x
Carib 974 car (Caribe)
crb (Carib Island)		                            
Carolinian 751 cal     Carolinian   x                  
Catalonian 626 cat cat ca Catalan   x x x     x       x
Caucasian 696   cau   Caucasian (other)   x                  
Cayuga 929 cay     Cayuga   x                  
Cebuano 744 ceb ceb   Cebuano     x               x
Chadic 782 shu (Chadian
Arabic)		     Chadian Arabic Many languages belong to Chadic group and are used beyond borders of Chad; in Chad itself Chadic Arabic is a common language x                  
Chaldean 779 cld     Chaldean Neo-
Aramaic		 Chaldean dialects     x x   x        
Cham 735 cjm (Eastern),
cja (Western		     Cham
(Eastern,
Western)		   x                  
Chamorro 752 cha cha ch Chamorro   x x x             x
Chaochow; Chao-Chou; Chaozhou
(code differs from Min Nan)		 708       Chaochow;
Chao-Chou;
Chaozhou
(see Min Nansame
ISO code)		     x       x       x
Chasta Costa 859       Chasta Costa Extinct x                  
Chemehuevi 943       Ute-Southern
Paiute (see
below)		   x                  
Cherokee 933 chr chr   Cherokee   x x       x        
Chetemacha 921 ctm     Chitimacha Extinct                    
Cheyenne 810 chy chy   Cheyenne   x                  
Chibchan 975 chb chb   Chibcha   x                  
Chickasaw 916 cic     Chickasaw                      
Chinese 708 zho (macro
with 13 subs: including cmn Mandarin)		 zho / ch zh Chinese   x     x           x
Chinese Wu,
Shanghainese		 715* wuu     Chinese Wu,
Shanghainese		                     x
Chinook 883 chh     Chinook Nearly extinct                    
Chinook Jargon 965 chn chn   Chinook Jargon   x                  
Chippewa 819 ciw     Chippewa Chippewah; Chipewyan       x            
Chiricahua 978 apm     Mescalero-
Chiricahua
Apache		   x                  
Chiwere 908         Nearly extinct x                  
Choctaw 916 cho cho   Choctaw   x                  
Chumash 901       retired code
for Chumash		 Extinct x                  
Chuukese 761 chk chk   Chuukese     x       x        
Chuvash 684 chv chv cv Chuvash   x                  

Return to Document
Proceed to Next Section

 

Publication:
10-0058-EF

Page last reviewed May 2018
Page originally created September 2012

Internet Citation: Table I-1. Subcommittee Template: Comparison of Spoken Language Categories and Coding. Content last reviewed May 2018. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
https://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/final-reports/iomracereport/reldataapitab1.html

Click to copy citation