The "not-language" identifier (was: RE: Mandarin Chinese, Simplified Script)

[John.Cowan]

L.Gillam scripsit:

> FOR: On the other hand, some applications may have enforced
> this need: in the world of xml:lang, you need some kind of override if an
> xml:lang has been described on an element at a higher level; the
> empty value doesn't really do it as I recall. Essentially, though, 
> isn't it xml:lang that should be suppressed/negated rather than the 
> self-negating value? There may be other such examples.

The empty value of xml:lang restores the default state: no declaration is made
as to language or linguistic status.  The proposed value would declare
the absence of linguistic information.

-- 
John Cowan  www.ccil.org/~cowan  www.reutershealth.com  jcowan at reutershealth.com
Mr. Henry James writes fiction as if it were a painful duty.  --Oscar Wilde