Re: Specific proposal on language identification

> I forgot to include a specific proposal in my previous message concerning
> this issue. More concretely then, I would suggest an optional element
> within the HTML head element which would specify the principal language of
> the document by way of an attribute. In the body of the document there
> would be an optional element that could be included in headings,
> paragraphs, lists or other desired contexts, and which would enclose text
> that was written in any language other than the principal language as
> already defined. This element would also include an attribute in which the
> name of the language would be given.

I think that's exactly what HTML Cougar (next version of HTML)
supports.

Things like

<HTML LANG="fr">

<HEAD>
<TITLE> En Francais </TITLE>
</HEAD>

<BODY>

<P> En Francais

<H1 LANG="en"> In English </H1>

</BODY>

</HTML>


> I recall having read that there is a
> standard set of abbreviations for the names of languages but can not
> remember the source of this information.

Dave answered this one: [RFC1766] 
    "Tags for the Identification of Languages",
    by H. Alvestrand, UNINETT, March 1995. This document can
    be downloaded from ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1766.txt. 

Received on Wednesday, 11 June 1997 09:27:28 UTC