Language tag management on international data storage

A technique for language tag management includes accessing a standardized language tag repository to identify changes in standardized language tags. Records of a data source are analyzed to determine whether they contain language tags inconsistent with the standardized language tags. If so, a determination is made whether a language tag update policy indicates an action preserving an integrity of the record. If so, reference metadata is created based on the standardized language tags and the reference metadata is linked to the record while maintaining the record intact with the inconsistent language tag.