cs1|2 templates validate the content of |language= against language codes and names supported by MediaWiki. This page lists the language codes and names that MediaWiki supports. Language name and code pairs marked with a super-scripted dagger (†) are codes / names that are overridden by codes / names defined in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration. See §Overridden codes / names. Use of language codes / names not found in these lists will cause Module:Citation/CS1 to place the article in Category:CS1 maint: unrecognized language.
Nota bene: When evaluating the value assigned to |language=, Module:Citation/CS1 looks first in MediaWiki's list of language names before looking in the list of language tags. There are several languages that have tags that match the spelling of the language name: Fon (fon), Isu (isu), Luo (luo), tiv (tiv), vai (vai), Yao (yao). There are two where the language tag matches the spelling of another language's name:
ga – language tag for Irish matches spelling of Ga language (gaa)ho – language tag for Hiri Motu matches spelling of Ho language (hoc)When citing Irish- and Hiri Motu-language sources, use |language=Irish and |language=Hiri Motu.
This list contains legitimate IETF language tags, tags that look like IETF tags but are not or are malformed, and 'codes' that are not codes. cs1|2 templates support most of these IETF-like tags.
These language tags have the form xx-yy... where xx is an ISO 639-1 language tag and yy... is a two-or-more-character subtag that specify country, script, or other information; be-x-old is an exception.
These language tags have the form xxx-yy... where xx is an ISO 639-2, -3 language tag and yy... is a two-or-more-character subtag that specify country, script, or other information.
This list contains legitimate IETF language tags, tags that look like IETF tags but are not or are malformed, and 'codes' that are not codes. For these reasons, cs1|2 templates do not support IETF-like tags and associated names. When these names are used in |language=, cs1|2 will attempt to validate them but such attempts are not likely to succeed.
Codes and names marked with a super-scripted dagger (†) are overridden by cs1|2:
gsw Swiss Germanals – MediaWiki returns Alemannic (als is the subdomain for the Alemannisch Wikipedia: als.wikipedia.org); cs1|2 uses the ISO 639-3 definition: Tosk Albanianbh – MediaWiki returns Bhojpuri (bh is the subdomain for the Bhojpuri Wikipedia: bh.wikipedia.org); cs1|2 uses a modified form of the ISO 639-1 definition: Bihari languagesbho; MediaWiki returns the Bihari languages code: bh; cs1|2 uses the correct code bhobla Blackfootbn – MediaWiki returns Bangla which is the language endonym; cs1|2 uses the ISO 639-3 definition (the exonym form): Bengalicrh – MediaWiki returns Crimean Tatar; cs1|2 uses the ISO 639-3 definition: Crimean Tatarfkv – MediaWiki returns Kvensk; cs1|2 uses the English Wikipedia's preferred definition: Kvenilo – MediaWiki returns Iloko; cs1|2 uses the English Wikipedia's preferred definition: Ilocanoksh – MediaWiki returns Colognian; cs1|2 uses the ISO 639-3 definition: Kölschksh-x-colog – Colognian; there is no ISO 639 code for this languagemis-x-ripuar – Ripuarian; there is no ISO 639 code for this languagenan-tw – Taiwanese Hokkien; to distinguish from nan (Minnan)ca-valencia, the Valencian variant of Catalan: Valencian