Name
xml:lang
Synopsis
The &xml:lang; attribute can be used on any
element. Its value indicates the language of the body of the element.
This is useful in a multilingual context. For example, you might
have:
<para xml:lang="en">Hello</para> <para xml:lang="fr">Bonjour</para>
This format allows you to display one element or the other, depending on the user’s language preference.
The syntax of the &xml:lang; value is defined
by ISO-639. A two-letter language code is optionally followed by a
hyphen and a two-letter country code. Traditionally, the language is
given in lowercase and the country in uppercase (and for safety, this
rule should be followed), but processors are expected to use the
values in a case-insensitive manner.
In addition, ISO-3166 provides extensions for nonstandardized
languages or language variants. Valid
&xml:lang; values include notations such as
en, en-US,
en-UK, en-cockney,
i-navajo, and x-minbari.
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