The language of the intellectual content of the element for which this is an attribute, typically a whole article
Recommended best practice is to use values as defined in RFC 4646, typically two-letter, lower-case language codes such as “fr” (French), “en” (English), and “de” (German). These values are NOT case sensitive, but current best practice uses all lower case. Values can be obtained from the IANA Language Subtag Registry: http://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry
Unlike nearly all other attributes in XML, the value of language is inherited. This means that all elements inside the one with the language attribute (its descendants) are assumed to be in the same language, unless they explicitly set their own @xml:lang attribute.
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| An alphanumeric string, which may include hyphens | For best practice, use the RFC 4646, typically two-letter, lower-case language code (such as “en”), including any subcodes (such as “en-au”). |
| Default value: en | |
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| An alphanumeric string, which may include hyphens | For best practice, use the RFC 4646, typically two-letter, lower-case language code (such as “en”), including any subcodes (such as “en-au”). |
| Restriction: This attribute may be specified if the element is used. | |