# Use of the TLAN tag (LANGUAGE)

**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/use-of-the-tlan-tag-language/5858
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [December 7, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/use-of-the-tlan-tag-language/5858 "2007-12-07T13:30:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Moonbase](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/moonbase/32/207_2.png) [@Moonbase](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Moonbase)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/use-of-the-tlan-tag-language/5858/1 "2007-12-07T13:30:32Z")

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I've seen many ill-defined TLAN (LANGUAGE) tags lately, so here is a short explanation - and a proposal for "instrumental" titles.

From [ID3.org](http://id3.org/): _" **TLAN:** The 'Language(s)' frame should contain the languages of the text or lyrics spoken or sung in the audio. The language is represented with three characters according to [ISO-639-2](http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php). If more than one language is used in the text their language codes should follow according to their usage."_

All other use, like putting "German" or "English" in this field is _ill-defined._

For sorting, the "bibliographic" (i.e., "ger" for German) and "terminology" (i.e., "deu" for German) language codes should be considered equal, since many people are unsure which to use, and many languages have both variants. _I recommend using the "bibliographic" versions, i.e. prefer "ger" over "deu" for German._

Also, there are songs out there sung in more than one language, so these should be found/sorted according to whatever is in the tag (i.e., "ger" _and_ "eng" should be sorted as "German" since that comes first, but _found_ as "German" _and_ "English").

Examples:

- A German-language song:  
"ger" (or "deu")  
Sorted and found under "ger".
- A German song with some lines of English in it:  
"ger" _and_ "eng" - since the main part is in German (_not_ "eng" and "ger"!)  
Sorted under "ger" but found under _both_ "ger" _and_ "eng".
- A duet sung in English, with many Italian parts:  
"eng" _and_ "ita" - since the main part is still English (_not_ "ita" and "eng")  
Sorted under "eng" but found under _both_ "eng" _and_ "ita".
- An instrumental title:  
Should not _have_ a _TLAN_ tag (or maybe an empty one). No reason to show it as "instrumental", though - it might just not have been tagged and still be a song with lyrics. _(In my opinion, it just might be a good idea to set up a de-facto standard of "No TLAN=untagged" and "Empty TLAN=instrumental".)_