I wonder if the oddity here is really the ISO alpha-2: Spain and Germany get abbreviations based on their native-language names, but not Greece.
But the standard 2-letter code for the Greek language is "el."
Obviously there are many other countries with abbreviations based on English and there's some decision-making related to avoiding conflicts, but it is a little odd. My first guess would be that the ISO country code logic went something like: prefer native names, if they use the Latin alphabet.
But the standard 2-letter code for the Greek language is "el."
Obviously there are many other countries with abbreviations based on English and there's some decision-making related to avoiding conflicts, but it is a little odd. My first guess would be that the ISO country code logic went something like: prefer native names, if they use the Latin alphabet.