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This document, and the ISO 21636 series in general, provides the general principles for the identification and description of varieties of individual human languages. It, therefore, does not apply to:

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

—    those means of human communication which are not fully or largely equivalent to human language such as individual symbols or gestures that carry isolated meanings but cannot be freely combined into complex expressions.

This document together with the other parts of the ISO 21636 series establishes the dimensions of linguistic variation as well as core values necessary to identify individual varieties in these dimensions or sub-dimensions.

This document forms the basis for the other parts by outlining the general framework for language varieties.