Engl

engl is an abbreviation commonly found in German-language bibliographic and library contexts to denote the English language. It is short for Englisch, reflecting German spelling conventions and usage. The label can appear in catalog records, bibliographies, or metadata fields to indicate that a work or edition is written in English.

In practice, engl. is used when describing language in fields such as title records or language descriptors. For example, a catalog entry might list a work with "Sprache: engl." or annotate a translation as English. The form and placement of the abbreviation can vary by library or publishing house, with some using engl., others Eng., and still others opting for full language names.

Despite its widespread recognition in certain traditions, engl. is not an official ISO language code. International coding for languages typically uses en (ISO 639-1) or eng (ISO 639-2/3) for machine-readable data. In many modern catalogs and databases, language is stored as a standardized code, while engl. may remain in legacy records or human-readable fields.

Related concepts include the broader practice of language labeling in bibliographic records and the distinction between human-facing abbreviations and machine-readable codes. In German-language contexts, engl. remains a recognizable shorthand for English, especially in older catalogs or printed bibliographies. For non-German systems, the use of the full name English or the standard codes en/eng is more common.