HTML language setting?

T.J. · Jan 31, 2005

Hi
Could someone please confirm which is the right way to
display the HTML language setting please.
I have been reading different opinions that it should be;
<html lang="en">
<html lang="eng">
<html lang="en-GB">
Which is the correct version.
TIA.

Dylan Parry · Jan 31, 2005

T.J. said:
<html lang="en">
<html lang="eng">
<html lang="en-GB">
Which is the correct version.

The first and third are both equally valid, but the second is just plain
wrong. The first states that the language is English, whereas the third
goes further to state that the variant is British English. Another one
you may come across is "en-US" for American English.

The second one is wrong because it blatantly ignores the RFC (I forget
which) that states that a two-letter code should be used unless there
isn't one, in which case a three-letter alternative may be used. English
has a two-letter code, so using the three-letter version is wrong.

IMHO, the best to stick with is the first one.

Steve Pugh · Jan 31, 2005

T.J. said:
Could someone please confirm which is the right way to
display the HTML language setting please.
I have been reading different opinions that it should be;
<html lang="en">
<html lang="eng">
<html lang="en-GB">
Which is the correct version.

Both the first and the last are correct.
See http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/dirlang.html#adef-lang which
in turn references http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1766.txt
The three letter codes are not permitted by the HTML 4.01 spec.

Whether there's any point in specifying British English (en-GB) over
just English (en) is open to debate.

Steve

Jukka K. Korpela · Jan 31, 2005

Dylan Parry said:
The first and third are both equally valid, but the second is just plain
wrong.

Indeed, and unfortunately at least one accessibility tool spits out the
wrong version. Cf. to my answer to a fairly similar question in the WebAIM
list recently: http://www.webaim.org/discussion/mail_message.php?id=5923

(Technically, they are all _valid_, just as <html lang="mumbo jumbo!!!">
is. The lang attribute is declared as CDATA in the DTD, so "anything goes".
This is relevant in the sense that validators should _not_ be expected to
check the lang attribute values in any way.)

IMHO, the best to stick with is the first one.

Perhaps pragmatically, though in principle you should give as detailed
information as possible. And if you open an HTML document in a
(sufficiently new version of) MS Word, for checking the spelling, it is
useful to have it perform the checks according to the right variant of the
language (flagging "color" as an error, etc.).

T.J. · Jan 31, 2005

Steve Pugh said:
Both the first and the last are correct.
See http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/dirlang.html#adef-lang which
in turn references http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1766.txt
The three letter codes are not permitted by the HTML 4.01 spec.

Whether there's any point in specifying British English (en-GB) over
just English (en) is open to debate.

Steve

--
"My theories appal you, my heresies outrage you,
I never answer letters and you don't like my tie." - The Doctor

Steve Pugh <[email protected]> <http://steve.pugh.net/>

Thanks all,
What am I doing wrong with this?
<html lang="en">
When testing the page at
http://www.netmechanic.com/toolbox/html-code.htm
it tells me line 2 of my code is causing browser
compatibility problems.
My page here,
http://www.sim64.co.uk/fps.html
TIA.

Spartanicus · Jan 31, 2005

T.J. said:
What am I doing wrong with this?

You are using netmechanic, stop using such a dumb bot.

Javascript set language function issue	2	Nov 24, 2024
HTML form to csv file on server	1	Feb 12, 2025
Generate one HTML from API based on the object key language and their value	2	Aug 19, 2022
How can I add React 18 to existing HTML?	2	Mar 27, 2023
Where is the Javascript "trigger"?	7	Dec 16, 2024
Why doesn't the function get called?	1	Nov 20, 2023
Hello I am learning how to code and I tried making a calculator with HTML and js with some CSS I am stuck at thing, Like the screen value is	0	Mar 13, 2025
Need help with <rowspan> in an HTML table	1	Nov 6, 2024

HTML language setting?

T.J.

Dylan Parry

Steve Pugh

Jukka K. Korpela

T.J.

Spartanicus

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

Members online

Forum statistics

Latest Threads