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

L.Gillam L.Gillam at surrey.ac.uk
Fri Jun 17 12:10:41 CEST 2005



> > <tag xml:lang="en">
> > 	<tag xml:lang="fr">
> > 		<tag xml:lang=""> (1)
> > 		<tag xml:lang="xnl"> (2)
> > 
> > (1) appears to say that there is a language, but we're not telling.
> > (2) would suggest that there is no language to be had
>
>    "Within [the element] it is considered that there is no language
>     information available, just as if xml:lang had not been
>     specified on [the element] or any of its ancestors."

Compare "no language information available" with "no train timetable 
information available". Hence, "appears to say". If xml:lang is not
specified at all for a document, then what?

"When neither lang nor xml:lang is available, Xaira 
will assume that the default language applies; otherwise, it will 
apply the tokenization rules appropriate to the language indicated."
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/rts/xaira/Doc/indexing.xml.ID=langIssues

"The xml:lang attribute specifies the language and locale information 
of the VoiceXML document. If omitted, it will inherit this value 
from the document hierarchy, or ultimately from the platform default, 
which equates to 'en-US'."
http://docs.voxeo.com/voicexml/n2.0/frame.jsp?page=prompt.htm

I'm sure examples abound.


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