Language vs. Variant

To differentiate between plain language and its precise positioning based on script, country and region, we have introduced the following terminology:

• Language is just an identification of spoken language, without any additional information. Example: ‘cs’ for Czech, ‘es’ for Spanish.

• Variant is defined based on language and extends the information by any combination of script, country and/or region. Example: cs-CZ for Czech used in the Czech Republic, ‘sr-Cyrl-RS’ for Serbian used in Serbia, written with Cyrillic script.

  Note that variant must always include the definition of one of either script, country or region. Otherwise, it’s a language.

• Language Tag can refer to either a language or a variant. Also referred to as a language code.

• Moravia Tag is the generic language code used in MT Companion as the basis for all other codes. Moravia Tags are based on ISO (see Anatomy of a language code above).