ISO 639-5:2008 "Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 5: Alpha-3 code for language families and groups" is an international standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It was developed by ISO Technical Committee 37, Subcommittee 2, and first published on May 15, 2008. It is part of the ISO 639 series of standards.
ISO 639-5 defines alpha-3 (3-letter) codes, called "collective codes," that identify language families and groups. As of August 29, 2008 update to ISO 639-5, the standard defined 114 collective codes. The United States Library of Congress maintains the list of Alpha-3 codes that comprise ISO 639-5.
The standard does not cover all language families used by linguists. The languages covered by a group code need not be linguistically related, but may have a geographic relation, or category relation (such as Creoles).
The only site which has a complete list of codes for all language families and groups is the Multitree Site The MultiTree Project, run by the LINGUIST list The LINGUIST List. But these codes are not part of the ISO system, and use four (not three) letters. Since they are clearly distinct from language codes, some sites prefer them, though they are not a standard.
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