HTML 4, XHTML 1.0 and XHTML 1.1
This technique relates to:
The objective of this technique is to identify the default language of a document by providing the lang
and/or xml:lang
attribute on the html element.
Identifying the language of the document is important for a number of reasons:
It allows braille translation software to substitute control codes for accented characters, and insert control codes necessary to prevent erroneous creation of Grade 2 braille contractions.
Speech synthesizers that support multiple languages will be able to orient and adapt to the pronunciation and syntax that are specific to the language of the page, speaking the text in the appropriate accent with proper pronunciation.
Marking the language can benefit future developments in technology, for example users who are unable to translate between languages themselves will be able to use machines to translate unfamiliar languages.
Marking the language can also assist user agents in providing definitions using a dictionary.
HTML 4.01 uses the lang attribute of the html element.
XHTML served as text/html uses the lang attribute and the xml:lang attribute of the html element, in order to meet the requirements of XHTML and provide backward compatibility with HTML. XHTML served as application/xhtml+xml uses the xml:lang attribute of the html element. Both the lang and the xml:lang attributes can take only one value.
Note:
HTML only offers the use of the lang attribute, while XHTML 1.0 (as a transitional measure) allows both attributes, and XHTML 1.1 allows only xml:lang.
This example defines the content of an HTML document to be in the French language.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> <html lang="fr"> <head> <title>document écrit en français</title> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> </head> <body> ...document écrit en français... </body> </html>
This example defines the content of an XHTML
1.0 document with content type of text/html to be in the
French language. Both the lang and xml:lang attributes are specified in order to meet the requirements of XHTML and provide backward compatibility with HTML.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"> <head> <title>document écrit en français</title> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> </head> <body> ...document écrit en français... </body> </html>
This example defines the content of an XHTML 1.1 document with content
type of application/xhtml+xml to be in the French language. Only the
xml:lang attribute is specified.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="fr"> <head> <title>document écrit en français</title> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8" /> </head> <body> ...document écrit en français... </body> </html>
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement implied.
Examine the html element of the document.
Check that the html element has a lang
and/or xml:lang
attribute.
Check that the value of the lang attribute conforms to
BCP 47: Tags for the Identification of Languages
or its successor
.
The above checks are all true.