diff --git a/app/models/doi.rb b/app/models/doi.rb
index c6faab398..ac7915154 100644
--- a/app/models/doi.rb
+++ b/app/models/doi.rb
@@ -1940,8 +1940,7 @@ def check_container
   end
 
   def check_language
-    entry = ISO_639.find_by_code(language) || ISO_639.find_by_english_name(language.upcase_first)
-    errors.add(:language, "Language #{language} not found.") if entry.blank?
+    errors.add(:language, "Language #{language} is in an invalid format.") if !language.match?(/^[a-zA-Z]{1,8}(-[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,8})*$/)
   end
 
   # To be used for isolated clean up of errored individual DOIs
@@ -2218,9 +2217,12 @@ def update_agency
   def update_language
     lang = language.to_s.split("-").first
     entry = ISO_639.find_by_code(lang) || ISO_639.find_by_english_name(lang.upcase_first)
-    self.language = if entry.present? && entry.alpha2.present?
-      entry.alpha2
-    end
+    self.language =
+      if entry.present? && entry.alpha2.present?
+        entry.alpha2
+      elsif language.match?(/^[a-zA-Z]{1,8}(-[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,8})*$/)
+        language
+      end
   end
 
   def update_field_of_science
diff --git a/spec/models/doi_spec.rb b/spec/models/doi_spec.rb
index a5ef79d27..6085ac247 100644
--- a/spec/models/doi_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/doi_spec.rb
@@ -298,10 +298,31 @@
       expect(doi.language).to eq("fr")
     end
 
-    it "error" do
+    it "human longer than 8 characters" do
+      doi.language = "Indonesian"
+      expect(doi.save).to be true
+      expect(doi.errors.details).to be_empty
+      expect(doi.language).to eq("id")
+    end
+
+    it "non-iso 639-1" do
       doi.language = "hhh"
       expect(doi.save).to be true
       expect(doi.errors.details).to be_empty
+      expect(doi.language).to eq("hhh")
+    end
+
+    it "non-iso 639-1 with country code" do
+      doi.language = "prq-PE"
+      expect(doi.save).to be true
+      expect(doi.errors.details).to be_empty
+      expect(doi.language).to eq("prq-PE")
+    end
+
+    it "fails xs:language regex" do
+      doi.language = "Borgesian"
+      expect(doi.save).to be true
+      expect(doi.errors.details).to be_empty
       expect(doi.language).to be_nil
     end