International codes

Various international codes

Codes are applied in all sorts of systems. For example, the country code is used for not only passports but also domain names of Internet, currency codes, securities numbers, international postal applications, etc. Locale of Unix may be one of applications of codes. (See " Numerical notations of the world")

Some MAs or RAs open the change history or the FAQ about standards to the public on the Web; Some of them are cited in this page here and there. Standards themselves are charged or free as information. They are published on paper, on CDROM, or online. The data formats are TEXT, HTML, PDF or WORD, EXCEL, ACCESS of Microsoft. When charged, according to the location of the secretariat, payment will be based on Swiss Franc (CHF), US Dollar (USD), British Pound (GBP), etc.

While there are many sites which provide a part of or all of several standards adding some information with no charge and no guarantee. I also tried to make a country code (ISO 3166-1) list and a language code (ISO 639-1) list as mechanically and compactly as possible. To display the list on a new frame, click the symbol , on this frame, click the symbol .

Country Codes List		1) Download 2-letter lists of English and French version from ISO 3166/MA, 2) Capitalize country names, sort and merge both lists by the code, 3) Copy 3-letter & 3-digit code list from UNSD, 4) Merge 3) in 2) by the English country name. *) 239 entries.
Reserved Country Codes List		classifies code elements into 6 status, officially assigned, user-assigned, not used at present stage, transitionally /indeterminately /exceptionally reserved. In addition this list shows the relation between code elements and organizations (UPU, ITU, WCO, WIPO, ISO 4217/MA).
Language Codes List		1) Copy the list from ISO 639-2/RA, 2) Extract 2-letter code elements from the list, 3) Sort and uniq the list by the code. *) 182 entries.

Guide of French to read country names and language names

According to one report, Proto-Indo-European had begun to specialize into Germanic (-> West Germanic) and Italic (-> Latin -> French) ca. 5000 years ago, West Germanic into Old High German (-> German) and Anglo-Frisian (-> English) ca. 2000 years ago. Therefore although the invasion of Norman who spoke Old French might affect the vocabulary of English ca. 1000 years ago, I think French is more distant from English than German.

First you will find accented letters in French. An accent is also called a diacritical mark.

Accented Letter	Sample	Accent Name		Function	in HTML*7	in TeX
		English	French			body	*8
é	Brésil	acute accent	accent aigu*1	is pronounced as [e] clearly.*2	é	\'{e}	\acute{e}
à è ù À È Ù	Grèce	grave accent	accent grave*3	-	è	\`{e}	\grave{e}
â ê î ô û Â Ê Î Ô Û	Île	circumflex accent	accent circonflexe*3	-	î	\^{\i}	\hat{\i}
ë ï ü Ë Ï Ü	Haïti*1	dieresis	tréma*4 ou diérèse	is pronounced separately from a previous vowel.	ï	\"{\i}	\ddot{\i}
ç Ç	français	cedilla	cédille*5	is pronounced as [s] before a, o, and u.	ç Ç	\c{c} \c{C}	-
œ Œ	œil	ligature	ligature*6	-	œ Œ	\oe \OE	-

(*1)	In French h at the head of a word, s, t, e, etc. at the tail of a word are silent letters (lettre muette, h muet, e muet, etc.) ex. Haïti [ a i t i ], accent []. But the consonant at the tail which is silent normally is pronounced with the vowel at the initial of the next word. ex. accent aigu []. The revival of the consonant is called liaison. First of all, the ending consonant and the sequential initial vowel are bound and pronounced in French. The binding is called enchaînement.
(*2)	indicates the vocal quality of a particular letter, not the stressed syllables of a spoken word.
(*3)	has no effect on pronunciation in modern French.
(*4)	A German umlaut (ä, ö, ü) has the same shape, another function mutation.
(*5)	Portuguese has cédille too. Some Turkic languages use the same one which has another function.
(*6)	This is not an accent but a concatenation of serial o and e. Another ligature æ, Æ comes in sight rather frequently in Norwegian or Danish than in French. Other serial vowels are not concatenated. Letters fi, ff, etc. for printing are also called ligatures. These ligatures take a visual effect on readers but œ is ineffective. However the word containing œ or æ often dates from Latin or Greek where they have meanings on pronunciation. French has no viewpoint of English diphthong (diphtongue). œil [] (eye), Œdipe [ e d i p ] (Oedipus [] (in the Greek myths)). au [o] (See below). Such an articulation as consists of 2 letters are called digraph (digramme). Other ones are cl, gr, ch, gn, etc. tréma just separates serial vowels. Sibérie [ s i b e r i ] vs. Siberia []. Since the Latin1 character set includes æ, Æ but does not include œ Œ, even one who uses French everyday spells oe, OE on a computer unless he /she has an Unicode environment.
(*7)	See Additional named entities for ISO 8859-1 for details.
(*8)	mathematical environment

Next you will find that the country name begin with a capital letter, the language or ethnic group name with a small letter in French. And sometimes a French word order is slightly different from English one.

• grec moderne (Modern Greek).
• Sahara Occidental (Western Sahara).

• est, ouest, sud, nord (east, west, south, north),
  Orient and Occident are common to both languages.
• état (state).
• île (island), îles (islands).
  A plural of a noun is similar to English. Ending s or es are not pronounced, but the article tells the number of the noun. English has the word isle(s) which are not used for a country name.
• nouveau / nouvelle (new).
  French nouns are classified according to the gender, masculine or feminine.
  1. Some nouns have an inflection.
     ex. ami (boy friend), amie (girl friend). cf. prince / princess, actor / actress.
  2. The article differs. (See below).
  3. Still more there are some inflective adjectives^*1 which are placed after or before the noun.
     For example, New Caledonia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea are feminine, so they become Nouvelle-Calédonie, Nouvelle-Zélande et Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée ^*2 respectively. While wine from the Beaujolais district is masculine, so it becomes beaujolais nouveau.

Let's collect articles.

Language \ Article			Definite Article						Indefinite Article
			Singular Number			Plural Number			Singular Number			Plural Number
			M	F	N	M	F	N	M	F	N	M	F	N
Germanic	English		the						a, an			-
	Dutch		de		het	de			een
	German	1	der	die	das	die			ein	eine	ein	-
		2	des	der	des	der			eines	einer	eines
		3	dem	der	dem	den			einem	einer	einem
		4	den	die	das	die			einen	eine	ein
Italic (or Latins or Romances)	French		le, l'	la, l'	-	les			un	une	-	des
	Italian		il	la	-	i	le	-	un	una	-	-
	Spanish		el	la	lo	los	las	-	un	una	-	unos	unas	-
	Portuguese		o	a	-	os	as	-	um	uma	-	uns	umas	-

(note 1)	M : Masculine Gender, F : Feminine Gender, N : Neuter Gender, cf. Common Gender.
(note 2)	Italian definite articles turn into l', lo or gli according to the following vowel or consonant a little more intricately than French.
(note 3)	No.1 to 4 in German means a case. 1 : Nominative, 2 : Possessive, 3 : Indirect Objective, 4 : Direct Objective

Although an article is comparatively simple in English and Dutch, it varies according to the number and the gender in other languages, furthermore varies according to the case too in German. For complexity increases information, it has its merits and demerits. Especially on French articles,

• The definite articles le, la change into l' before a vowel or a silent h. ex. le + hôtel = l'hôtel []. This elimination of the vowel before the vowel occurs not only in le, la but also in the preposition or the article de (-> d'), the negative adverb ne (-> n'), the interrogative or relative pronoun que (-> qu'), etc., is called élision generally.
• The definite articles le, les are contracted with the preposition à, de.

  à + le = au, à + les = aux.	ex.	à + le sud = au sud (in the south),
  		café au lait (coffee with milk).
  de + le = du, de + les = des.	ex.	de + le sud = du sud (southern),
  		Le tour du monde en 80 jours (Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)).

  Please be concerned that des is also a plural indefinite article.
• Liaison will take place when the plural definite article les or its contractions aux, des are followed by a word beginning with a vowel. ex. les États-Unis [ l e z e t a z y n i ] (the United States). In French s between the vowels is voiced.

Finally conjunctions and prepositions are introduced. Ones on the code lists are limited to

• et is a conjunction, corresponds to and.
  ex. Trinité-et-Tobago (Trinidad and Tobago), toi et moi (you and I).
• t in et followed by a vowel is not an object of liaison.
  ex. Svalbard et Île Jan Mayen (Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands (Norwegian territory)).
  ex. Les mille et une nuits (Arabian Nights).
  Arabian Nights is said to be the most important work of prose in the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258), but the original story was written in Persian, translated into Arabic in the 9th century, and added Arabic flavor afterward.
• de is a preposition, resembles of.
  ex. Territoire Britannique de l'Océan Indien (British Indian Ocean Territory).
  ex. eau de Cologne (water of Cologne (a German city)).
• de becomes d' before a vowel or a silent h.
  ex. Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), coup d'État (stroke of state).
• après is a preposition, corresponds to after.
  ex. après 1453 (1453-), après-demain (the day after tomorrow), marcher après qn (walk after someone).
• jusqu'à is a preposition, corresponds to till, to, etc. e in jusque followed by à is eliminated by élision.
  ex. jusqu'à 1453 (to 1453).
• avant is a preposition, corresponds to before, in front of, etc.
  ex. avant-hier (the day before yesterday), avant-garde (vanguard (originallly)).

Interesting codes

To classify countries and languages in the list by the initial of their English names, results in

Alphabet	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	Total
Country name	15	20	22	4	7	8	15	6	8	3	7	9	22	14	1	12	1	4	28	14	8	5	2	0	2	2	239
Language name	14	11	11	4	4	6	8	6	10	2	14	8	11	10	5	6	1	4	17	15	4	3	3	1	2	2	182

The distribution of the initial is not even. Since the code should avoid overlapping, the code whose original word begins with the popular initial will be a little unnatural reluctantly. There are some codes which I cannot judge whether it was just chosen to resolve conflicts or it derived from a word. If you know the background or my guess is wrong, please inform me.

Country codes (ISO 3166-1)

Although the number of English country names which begin with S is already over 26, there are some vacant seats (See the 26 x 26 matrix of ISO 3166/MA). Because some countries adopted not English form of the name but non-English one.

A2	A3	Country Name		Remarks
		English	French
BA	BIH	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnie -Herzégovine	`I' in A3 should be `and' in English. ex. Bosne i Hercegovine in the government homepage.
BY	BLR	Belarus	Bélarus	BY from Byelorussia. `byelo' is `white' or `fair' in English.
CH	CHE	Switzerland	Suisse	Information about Switzerland explains that " Switzerland is also known as Confoederatio Helvetica therefore the abbreviation CH. Confoederatio stands for confederation, Helvetica derives from the Latin word Helvetier, the name of the people who lived in the area which became later Switzerland. " *1
DE	DEU	Germany	Allemagne	There was a news "Frankreich, Deutschland und Russland ..." in Die bundesregierung (German Federal Government), which means "France, Germany and Russia...".
DZ	DZA	Algeria	Algérie	DZ from Al Djazair. `Al' is a definite article of Arabic.
EE	EST	Estonia	Estonie	EE from ???. cf. The language code is et / est.
EH	ESH	Western Sahara	Sahara Occidental	EH from Saguia el Hamra, the name of the north of the area from where Spain withdrew in 1975. Now the POLISARIO Front *2 and Morocco are in dispute on the reversion of the territory.
ES	ESP	Spain	Espagne	ES from España.
FK	FLK	Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Îles Falkland (Malvinas)	at the east of the Cape Horn which is the southern extremity of South America, called `Islas Malvinas' in Argentina.
GB	GBR	United Kingdom	Royaume-Uni	GB from United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. See "Exceptional country codes".
GW	GNB	Guinea-Bissau	Guinée-Bissau	GW from ???.
HR	HRV	Croatia	Croatie	HR from Hrvatska.
KG	KGZ	Kyrgyzstan	Kirghizistan	had taken off `stan' from the country name partially in May 1993, though the other 4 countries in the Central Asia hold it. Now Conventional long form : Kyrgyz Republic Conventional short form : Kyrgyzstan `stan' is the Urdu for the English `state'.
KH	KHM	Cambodia	Cambodge	KH from Khmer. The language name is Khmer in both English and French.
KM	COM	Comoros	Comores	KM from ???, is an archipelago nation lying between Mozambique and the Madagascar Island, disputes with France on the sovereignty of Mayotte (island).
KY	CYM	Cayman Islands	Îles Caïmanes	KY from ???, on the Caribbean Sea, British territory.
LK	LKA	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	`Sri' seems to be an article or other. Former Ceylon had changed the name in 1972, but the code change was unnecessary, because "ISO 3166 is this commonly accepted International Standard and the ISO 3166/MA has been updating it since 1974."
MK	MKD	The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia	L'ex-République Yougoslave de Macédoine	MK from Makedonija, sometimes abbreviated as FYROM.*3
MP	MNP	Northern Mariana Islands	Îles Mariannes du Nord	MP from ???, American territory.
PS	PSE	Occupied Palestinian Territory	Territoire Palestinien Occupé	According to the FAQ, "The name we use in ISO 3166-1 for the area under the authority of the Palestinian Authority is the UN approved one"
PW	PLW	Palau	Palaos	PW from ???.
SB	SLB	Solomon Islands	Îles Salomon	SB from ???.
SI	SVN	Slovenia	Slovénie	SI from ???.
SV	SLV	El Salvador	El Salvador	`El' is a definite article (singular, masculine) of Spanish.
TL	TLS	Timor-Leste	Timor-Leste	`Leste' is the Portuguese for the English `East'. Although East Timor was current before or after the independence, ISO seems to adopt a vernacular name. See "Exceptional country codes".
TW	TWN	Taiwan, Province of China	Taïwan, Province de Chine	The expression is caused by the relation with China. *4
UA	UKR	Ukraine	Ukraine	The language code is uk / ukr. The country code UK is reserved exceptionally, and used by GB as ccTLD. See "Exceptional country codes".
VA	VAT	Holy See (Vatican City State)	Saint-Siège (État de la Cité du Vatican)	Also called Curia Romana, forming an enclave in Rome, the spiritual and administrative center of the Roman Catholic Church. The official language is Latin (la).
WS	WSM	Samoa	Samoa	WS from Western Samoa which is the former name. The east of the Samoa Islands is American Samoa (AS).
YT	MYT	Mayotte	Mayotte	YT from ???, an island lying between the Comoros Islands and the Madagascar Island.
ZA	ZAF	South Africa	Afrique du Sud	ZA from Zuid Afrika. `Zuid' is the Dutch for the English `South'.

(*1)	Helvetica is known as a popular sans serif font which has many versions, the original was designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger of Zürich.
(*2)	POLISARIO is an abbreviation. es : Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro, fr : Front Populaire de Libération de Saguia el-Hamra et du Rio de Oro, de : Volksfront für die Befreiung von Saguia el Hamra und Río de Oro, en : Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro,
(*3)	In the margin of the map made in USA in 1995, there are notes "Macedonia has proclaimed independent statehood, but has not been formally recognized as a state by the United States." and "Serbia and Montenegro have asserted the formation of a joint independent state, but this entity has not ..."
(*4)	ISO 3166/MA says that " Since Taiwan is not a UN member it does not figure in the UN bulletin on country names. The publication Country and region codes for statistical use gives the name we use in ISO 3166-1. By adhering to UN sources the ISO 3166/MA stays politically neutral. "
(*5)	SI, HR, BA, and MK of former members of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia became independent in1991 or 1992. And the federation since 1929 vanished, as soon as the constitution of the new nation "Serbia and Montenegro" had become effective on February 4, 2003. The following description in the old FAQ was deleted. " Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo are integral parts of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. They have no separate ISO 3166-1 code elements. The code elements for Yugoslavia (YU, YUG, 891) must be used. " In 2006 Montenegro declared independence and the world recognized the new country.

Language codes (ISO 639)

The language codes in ISO 639-2 were developed to serve as a device to identify a language or group of languages. They were NOT intended to serve as abbreviations or short forms for languages, but rather as a code that serves as a device to identify a language name. Some codes in the list consist of letters that are used in the some form of the language name, but this has not been possible in all situations, and, often, one would need to know the English form of the language name to recognize a relationship. There are situations where codes have been selected that diverge from the language name. In using the language codes, systems generally display the language name represented by the code and not the code itself to users. Therefore it becomes irrelevant whether the code is "123", "xyz", "eng" or whatever.

Changed

To ensure continuity and stability of online retrieval from large databases built over many years, codes shall not be changed. When language names associated with codes have been changed, alternative forms of a language name may be included in the entry, separated by a semicolon in the code lists.

Alternative

Two code sets are provided, one for bibliographic applications (ISO 639-2/B), mainly used in libraries, information services and publishers, and one for terminology applications (ISO 639-2/T), mainly used in terminology, lexicography and linguistics. Criteria for selecting the form of a language code for code set B were:

• preference of the countries using the language
• established usage of codes in national and international bibliographic databases, and
• the vernacular or English form of the language.

Code set T was based on:

• the vernacular form of the language, or
• preference of the countries using the language.

These alternative codes in ISO 639-2 exist for historical reasons. At the time that ISO 639-2 was developed, there already was a well-known and widely used language code list that had been used for over 30 years in bibliographic systems which was largely adapted for the 3-character code set. At the same time there was the 2-character code list (now called ISO 639-1, previously ISO 639), which covered far fewer languages than those for bibliographic applications. There was a desire by some participants for the 3-character codes for languages that were already in the 2-character list to generally share the same 2 characters. In 22 cases the existing bibliographic code was very different than the 2-character code (because it was based on a different form of the language name.), but the impact on existing bibliographic systems with millions of records using those well-established codes would have been enormous if a new 3-character code were adopted. Thus, these alternative codes were used for those languages. The alternative codes should be considered as synonyms; there is no overlap in codes between the B and the T list.

Alpha-2 is peculiar

Alpha-2 & 3 are peculiar

Unexpected origins

Copied and tagged a word to ?

Minor ?

From here the French name is omitted.

Retroactive languages

Collective languages

MCLL also has variant names of a language. But MCLL does not include references from the individual code to the collective code; you cannot build the language family tree. Now MCLL lists 1979 languages, more than 4000 names. That is to say, 23% of MCLL composes the A3 list, 41% of the A3 list composes the A2 list. There are 15 languages which have an individual code in ISO 639-2 but assigned to the collective code in MCLL. It seems to be a matter of opinion.

The list of collective languages is as follows. L : languages, O : (Other) in the * column, boldface indicates a language family (a phylum). See also "Language families". Language families and its classification are introduced in George Boeree's Language Pages, the Homepage of Arjen and Nandita, L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde, Ethnologue, Yamada Language Center, the LINGUIST List, etc.

A3	Collective Language Name	*	Remarks
afa	Afro-Asiatic	O	-
alg	Algonquian	L	North American Indian. ex. Abnaki
apa	Apache	L	Na-Dene, Athapascan.
ath	Athapascan	L	Na-Dene, also called Athabascan, including Apache and Navaho (nv /nav). [from Cree (cr /cre) athapaskaaw scattered grass or reeds]
aus	Australian	L	-
bai	Bamileke	L	Niger-Kordofanian
bat	Baltic	O	Indo-European
ber	Berber	O	Afro-Asiatic
bnt	Bantu	O	Niger-Kordofanian
cai	Central American Indian	O	-
cau	Caucasian	O	-
cel	Celtic	O	Indo-European
cmc	Chamic	L	Austronesian
cus	Cushitic	O	Afro-Asiatic
dra	Dravidian	O	Except Kannada (kn /kan), Malayalam (ma /mal), Tamil (ta /tam), Telugu (te /tel).
fiu	Finno-Ugrian	O	Uralic, also called Finno-Ugric.
gem	Germanic	O	Indo-European, also called Teutonic. ex. Old Frisian
inc	Indic	O	Indo-European. At lest each language on the Indian constitution has an individual code. See " Languages and characters around India".
ine	Indo-European	O	-
ira	Iranian	O	Indo-European
iro	Iroquoian	L	North American Indian
khi	Khoisan	O	-
map	Austronesian	O	-
mkh	Mon-Khmer	O	Austro-Asiatic. In South Asia.
mno	Manobo	L	Austronesian. In South Philippines.
mun	Munda	L	Austro-Asiatic. In India.
myn	Mayan	L	Central American Indian
nai	North American Indian	O	-
nic	Niger-Kordofanian	O	Also called Niger-Congo.
nub	Nubian	L	Nilo-Saharan
oto	Otomian	L	Central American Indian
paa	Papuan	O	In the New Guinea Island, the Maluku (Moluccas) Islands, the Solomon Islands.
phi	Philippine	O	Austronesian
pra	Prakrit	L	Indo-European, Indic, an ancient language group. cf. Sanscrit.
roa	Romance	O	Indo-European, also called Italic.
sai	South American Indian	O	-
sal	Salishan	L	North American Indian
sem	Semitic	O	Afro-Asiatic
sio	Siouan	L	North American Indian
sit	Sino-Tibetan	O	-
sla	Slavic	O	Indo-European
smi	Sami	OL	Uralic, Finno-Ugrian. Except Northern Sami (se /sme), Southern Sami (sma), Inari Sami (smn), Lule Sami (smj), and Skolt Sami (sms).
ssa	Nilo-Saharan	O	Also called Hamitic.
tai	Tai	O	Tai-Kadai. In South Asia.
tup	Tupi	L	South American Indian
tut	Altaic	O	-
wak	Wakashan	L	North American Indian
wen	Sorbian	L	Indo-European, Slavic. In Germany.
ypk	Yupik	L	Eskimo-Aleut. See "Far north language family".

Particular languages

Appendices

Country names in each language

Endings of English names of languages

Far north language family

According to the Collins English Dictionary,

Aleut n.

1. a member of a people inhabiting the Aleutian Islands and SW Alaska, related to the Eskimos.
2. the language of this people, related to Eskimo.
[from Russian aleut, probably of Chukchi ^* origin]
* My note : or Chukots peninsula, is located at the east end of Siberia, holds the Bering Strait with Alaska.

Eskimo n.

1. ( pl. -mos or -mo.) a member of a group of peoples inhabiting N Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and E Siberia, having a material culture adapted to an extremely cold climate.
2. the language of these peoples.
3. a family of languages that includes Eskimo and Aleut.
adj. 4. relating to, denoting, or characteristic of the Eskimos.
Former spelling: Esquimau. [Esquimawes: related to Abnaki esquimantsic eaters of raw flesh ^*]
Usage: Eskimo is considered by many people to be offensive, and in North America the term Inuit is often used.
* My note : There is another theory.

Abnaki n.

1. ( pl. -ki or -kis.) a member of a North American Indian people formerly living in Maine and Quebec.
2. the language of this people, belonging to the Algonquian family.

Inuit or Innuit n., pl. -it or -its

an Eskimo of N America or Greenland, as distinguished from one from Asia or the Aleutian Islands: the general name for an Eskimo in Canada.
[from Eskimo inuit the people, pl. of inuk a man]

Inuktitut n.

Canadian. the language of the Inuit; Eskimo.
[from Eskimo inuk man + titut speech]

Yupik n.

a western Eskimo, of Alaska or Asia.

The Antarctic Zone and solitary islands

• The designations employed and the presentation of country or area names in this list do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
• The geographical regions and groupings of countries and areas included at this site are not comprehensive but only a selection which are or may be used in the compilation of statistics.
• Various datasets may or may not include coverage of outlying and overseas areas, depending on the type of data and source.

Exceptional country codes

The IANA's policy is to create new ccTLDs only when they are listed on the ISO 3166-1 list. ex. Request for Delegation of the .ps Top-Level Domain. But United Kingdom and Timor-Leste are exceptions as second-guessing.

Exceptions are as follows, come chiefly from "reserved country codes".

A2	A3	N3	County or Area Name	Owner	ccTLD	Map (on a new frame) and Location	"ISO's Remarks" and others
GB	GBR	826	United Kingdom	GB	uk	(Small Map) 2002 (24K) Great Britain and the north of the island of Ireland are the mainland of UK; some islands on the neighboring water, the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean are territories of UK. The Channel Islands*2 consists mainly of the Guernsey Island and the Jersey Island. "Channel" is English Channel, lying between Great Britain and France, linking eastward to the North Sea via the Dover Strait, westward to the Atlantic Ocean. Both islands stretch from NW to SE in this order, and are rather close to the Normandie Peninsula of France. The Isle of Man is lying on the Irish Sea between Ireland and Great Britain.	" Since name components like Republic, Kingdom, United, Federal or Democratic are used very often in country names we usually do not derive the country code elements from them in order to avoid ambiguity. The name components United and Kingdom not being appropriate for ISO 3166-1, the code GB for the United Kingdom was created from Great Britain. Incidentally, GB is also the United Kingdom's international road vehicle distinguishing sign *1 - the code on the oval nationality stickers on cars. "
GG	GGY	831	Guernsey		gg		" No numeric-3 codes were assigned by the ISO 3166/MA. These codes were reserved for use in postal applications only. Contrary to that restriction made by the ISO 3166/MA, today many applications outside the original scope of the reservation, i.e. outside the postal sector, also use the reserved codes for these island names. There is no code - be it officially published or reserved - in ISO 3166-1 for the name Channel Islands. "
JE	JEY	832	Jersey		je
IM	IMN	833	Isle of Man		im
SH	SHN	654	Saint Helena		ac	(Small Map) 2002 (7K) is a general term which includes Saint Helena island (the final dwelling of Napoleon), Ascension (an island) and Tristan da Cunha (an archipelago), lying on the South Atlantic Ocean far apart each other.	ISO reserved alphabet codes of Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha only for postal applications, but one of them is used for a ccTLD.
EA	-	-	Ceuta and Melilla	ES	-	(Political) 1982 (265K) Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish enclaves in Morocco. Ceuta and the British enclave Gibraltar near Cape Trafalgar in Spain confront each other across the Strait of Gibraltar which connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Canary Islands lies off the coast of Western Sahara (EH).	" There are no official ISO 3166-1 code elements for these Spanish territories. However, these Spanish territories have a particular customs status which justified the allocation of reserved code elements to them. Ceuta and Melilla are jointly identified by the reserved code element EA. The reserved code element IC was assigned to the Canary Islands. No ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 or numeric-3 codes exist for these territories. "
IC	-	-	Canary Islands		-
PF	PYF	258	French Polynesia	FR	pf	(Political) 1989 (190K) is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean. French Polynesia and the Hawaiian Islands are almost symmetrical on the equator.	" Tahiti is the principal island of the Society Archipelago which itself forms part of French Polynesia. Tahiti falls under these codes, too. "
GP	GLP	312	Guadeloupe	FR	gp	(Small Map) 2002 (7K) the north and the south of a Caribbean island, St. Martin (or St. Marten).	" The northern part of Saint Marten is part of Guadeloupe which is an overseas department of France. The southern part of Saint Marten is part of the Netherlands Antilles which are an overseas possession of the Netherlands. So depending on which part of the island is of interest you should use either GP or AN. "
AN	ANT	530	Netherlands Antilles	NL	an
TL	TLS	626	Timor-Leste	TL	tp	(Shaded Relief) CIA 2002 (182K) the east half of the Timor Island which belongs to the lesser Sunda Islands.	declared the independence in 2002, former Portuguese territory. Tetum (tet) and Portuguese (po) are official languages. Since the code TP (East Timor) is transitionally reserved now, ccTLD tp might be assigned before TL came into effect.

(*1)	is defined in a UN Convention on Road Traffic. (See " Distinguishing Signs of Road Vehicles in International Traffic" or " Where's That Vehicle Come From?".) From September 2001 vehicles displaying the Euro-plate will no longer have to use the traditional oval shaped national identifier (GB) sticker when travelling within the European Union.
(*2)	By the way Channel Islands does not seem to be a proper noun. Islands on the Santa Barbara Channel off the coast of the State of California is another Channel Islands which is designated as a national park.

Referred sites

Thanks to