The lang
global attribute helps define the language of an element: the language that non-editable elements are written in, or the language that the editable elements should be written in by the user. The attribute contains a single “language tag” in the format defined in Tags for Identifying Languages (BCP47).
The default value of lang
is unknown
, therefore it is recommended to always specify this attribute with the appropriate value.
The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.
If the attribute value is the empty string (lang=""
), the language is set to unknown; if the language tag is not valid according to BCP47, it is set to invalid.
Language tag syntax
The full BCP47 syntax is in-depth enough to mark extremely specific language dialects, but most usage is much simpler.
A language tag is made of hyphen-separated language subtags, where each subtag indicates a certain property of the language. The 3 most common subtags are:
- Language subtag
- Required. A 2-or-3-character code that defines the basic language, typically written in all lowercase. For example, the language code for English is
en
, and the code for Badeshi isbdz
. - Script subtag
- Optional. This subtag defines the writing system used for the language, and is always 4 characters long, with the first letter capitalized. For example, French-in-Braille is
fr-Brai
andja-Kana
is Japanese written with the Katakana alphabet. If the language is written in a highly typical way, like English in the Latin alphabet, there is no need to use this subtag. - Region subtag
- Optional. This subtag defines a dialect of the base language from a particular location, and is either 2 letters in ALLCAPS matching a country code, or 3 numbers matching a non-country area. For example,
es-ES
is for Spanish as spoken in Spain, andes-013
is Spanish as spoken in Central America. “International Spanish” would just bees
.
The script subtag precedes the region subtag if both are present — ru-Cyrl-BY
is Russian, written in the Cyrillic alphabet, as spoken in Belarus.
To find the correct subtag codes for a language, try the Language Subtag Lookup.
Even if the lang attribute is set, it may not be taken into account, as the xml:lang attribute has priority.
For the CSS pseudo-class :lang
, two invalid language names are different if their names are different. So while :lang(es)
matches both lang="es-ES"
and lang="es-419"
, :lang(xyzzy)
would not match lang="xyzzy-Zorp!"
.
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
HTML Living Standard The definition of 'lang' in that specification. |
Living Standard | No change from latest snapshot, HTML 5.1 |
HTML 5.1 The definition of 'lang' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Snapshot of HTML Living Standard, no change from HTML5 |
HTML5 The definition of 'lang' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Snapshot of HTML Living Standard, behavior with xml:lang and language determination algorithm defined. It also is a true global attribute. |
HTML 4.01 Specification The definition of 'lang' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Supported on all elements but <applet> , <base> , <basefont> , <br> , <frame> , <frameset> , <iframe> , <param> , and <script> . |
Browser compatibility
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
lang | Chrome Full support Yes | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support Yes | IE Full support Yes | Opera Full support Yes | Safari Full support Yes | WebView Android Full support Yes | Chrome Android Full support Yes | Firefox Android Full support Yes | Opera Android Full support Yes | Safari iOS Full support Yes | Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support