Re: Lang attribute basics

In article <Xns971664C4D2900jkorpelacstutfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Jukka K. Korpela" <jkorpela@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Eric Lindsay <NOSPAmar2005@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > I thought that I couldn't possibly get into trouble with the lang
> > attribute, but this turned out not to be the case.
>
> Where did you expect to get with it?

Just testing things. I was interested in the variations available for
specifying which language you were using. With HTML seeming to want
<html lang-"en"> and XHTML 1.0 using the language twice, and XHTML 1.1
once. So I thought I'd try testing it a little, to see if I understood
it.

> Given the differences between written forms of English, it would be more
> reasonable to use "en-US", "en-GB", or some other more detailed language
> code. But since the few programs that recognize lang attributes may
> understand only the primary codes and even fail to extract them from codes
> like "en-US", using "en" is perhaps best.

Given where I live, using "en-AU" would be more appropriate, but
probably generate even more problems. I think I'll stick with "en". I
can at least pretend that is what I understand.

> > http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/englangn.html
>
> That's the authoritative registry of ISO 639-2 codes. The HTML
> specifications, however, make a normative reference to RFC 1766, which in
> turn makes a normative reference to a specific version of ISO 639.
> Now that RFC 1766 has been obsoleted, where are we? The HTML spec mentions
> that RFC 1766 is being updated, but such a note is nor normative. This is an
> example of sloppyness in the specs - something that would hardly be allowed
> in a _standard_.

Every time I think I understand something you folks manage to find an
exception. My understanding seems to be red-shifted at the moment.

> > http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/dirlang.html#h-8.1
> > and it gives an example using x-klingon not tlh.
>
> That's because RFC 1766 doesn't know any three-letter primary codes.
> The "x-" prefix was (and is) used for "private use" codes, so that
> you could make up your own language codes (for existing or nonexisting
> languages) - and naturally you cannot expect anyone else to understand
> them, except by a special agreement.

Thank you for explaining that Jukka.

> Besides, "tlh" is fairly new, registered in 2004, as mentioned at
> http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/codechanges.html

Ah, I hadn't seen that. I did think Klingon must be fairly new, despite
the venerable heritage of the Klingon Language Institute. However
Navajo should be old - they used it for coding in WWII.

--
http://www.ericlindsay.com
.

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