The ISO 21636 series provides a framework for the identification and description of varieties of all individual human languages (see ISO 639).

It is applicable to sign languages.

It does not apply to:

—     artificial means of communication with or between machines (such as programming languages);

—     those means of human communication which are neither fully nor largely equivalent to human language (such as sets of individual symbols or gestures that each carry isolated meanings but cannot be freely combined into complex expressions).

This document defines the terms necessary to identify basic dimensions and sub-dimensions of linguistic variation and the resulting varieties, including major modalities of human communication.