language-tags

What it is and what it does

language-tags is a Python library for working with IANA language tags as defined by BCP 47 and RFC 5646. It provides validation and parsing of language tags (like 'en-US' or 'nl-Latn-BE') and lets you query the IANA language subtag registry to look up descriptions and metadata for each component. The package wraps the official IANA language subtag registry in JSON form and exposes it through a simple API.

You use it when you need to validate that a language tag conforms to the standard, extract its parts (language code, script, region), or look up what a particular subtag means. It has no external runtime dependencies and is actively maintained to track changes in the IANA registry.

Use it for:

• Validate user-supplied language preferences in a web application before storing or processing them.
• Parse a language tag like 'zh-Hans-CN' to extract the language, script, and region for localization logic.
• Look up the description of a language subtag (e.g., what 'Latn' means) from the IANA registry.
• Build a language selector UI that accepts only valid BCP 47 tags and rejects malformed input.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Validates and parses IANA language tags according to BCP 47 (RFC 5646) standards, allowing you to check whether a language tag is valid and extract its language, script, and region components.

Yes. This is a stable, actively maintained library with no dependencies, a permissive MIT license, and low install friction. Install it if you need to validate or parse IANA language tags in your application. The only constraint is a Python 3.10+ requirement.

Install

language-tags on PyPI

pip install language-tags

uv add language-tags

poetry add language-tags

Installing language-tags

Before you install

Low install friction; pure Python wheel with no runtime dependencies. Actively maintained with recent updates for Python 3.13 and 3.14 support.

License in practice

MIT license is permissive; you can use this package freely in commercial and open-source projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart

pip install language-tags

import language_tags
tag = language_tags.tags.tag('en-US')
print(tag.language)  # Subtag object for 'en'
print(tag.region)    # Subtag object for 'US'

Requires Python 3.10 or later (3.10–3.14 supported).

Verify before relying

• Whether the IANA registry data is automatically updated or requires manual package releases to stay current.
• Performance characteristics when validating large batches of language tags.

Package facts

Evidence: language_tags-1.3.1-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

More WWW/HTTP packages