Template:Lang2iso takes an English-language language name (such as "Abkhazian" or "Sinhalese") and converts it into a two-letter ISO 639 language code. This table's values are based on List of ISO 639-1 codes. The template should not be transcluded directly from article namespace.

• {{Lang2iso|German}} returns: de
• {{Lang2iso|Greek}} returns: el
• {{Lang2iso|Spanish}} returns: es

Since most users will know a language's name but not its ISO code, this template is meant to facilitate invocations of other templates such as Template:Lang. Thus, instead of recalling (or having to know) that the ISO code for German is "de" and transcluding {{Lang|de|Mädchen}}, one can type: {{Lang|{{subst:Lang2iso|German}}|Mädchen}}.

This also reduces the number of parameters that need to be passed to some language routines (such as those similar to Template:Language with name) since the ISO language code can now be derived from the ISO language name.

• {{ISO 639 name}}