This template is used onapproximately 426,000 pages. To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's/sandbox or/testcases subpages, or in your ownuser subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on thetalk page before implementing them.
The purpose of this template is to indicate that a piece of text belongs to a particular language other than that of the page as a whole (by default, English, on this Wikipedia). It can be used inline, or around block-level elements such as<poem>, paragraphs, lists, or divs.
The template italicises the text by default (this can be suppressed, and does not apply to certain scripts) and can promptweb browsers to use a more appropriate font or screen readers to use a particular kind of pronunciation and so on. See§ Rationale for more information.
Thelanguage tag must be anISO 639 language code. See thelist of ISO 639-1 codes for two-letter codes, and thelist of ISO 639-3 codes, which defines three-letter codes and aims to cover all known natural languages.
The template also supports properly formattedIETF language tags using subtags that identify the language's script, region, and/or variant. The ISO 639 language code is a two- or three-letter abbreviation, in lowercase, of the language's name. French, for example, has the codefr:
She said: "{{lang|fr|Je suis française.}}" → She said: "Je suis française."
Because all languages represented by two-letter codes inISO 639-1 can also be represented by their three-letter equivalents inISO 639-2 and above, it is recommended to use the shortest language tag possible that sufficiently describes the target language.[1] So while French could be represented by ISO 639-2'sfra code, use the ISO 639-1 codefr instead. Likewise, script, region, and variant information should be included only when they provide a necessary distinction. For an up-to-date list of available language, script, region, and variant codes, please refer to theIANA'slanguage subtag registry.
By default, this template will place articles into the relevant subcategory ofCategory:Articles containing non-English-language text. To suppress this – e.g. when using{{lang}} within awikilink or thetitle parameter of a citation – add the parameter|cat=no.
Formatting
Automatic italics
{{lang}} automatically applies italic stylingwhen the text in{{{2}}} is written entirely in theLatn script (the Latin alphabet and its extensions), either when that is the default encoding for the language or when it is triggered by axx-Latn language code:
{{lang|fr|Je suis française.}} →Je suis française.
''{{lang|fr|Je suis française.}}'' →Je suis française. – external markup is ignored
''{{lang|he-Latn|la'az}}'' (''{{lang|he|לעז}}'') →la'az (לעז) – external markup is ignored around thehe-Latn text, but will incorrectly italicize the Hebrew-character material.
WhenLatn script should not be italicized, there are multiple approaches:|italic=no– renders{{{2}}} in upright font; italic markup around the template is ignored; italic markup inside the template causes an error message:
{{lang|fr|Je suis française.|italic=no}} →Je suis française.
''{{lang|fr|Je suis française.|italic=no}}'' →Je suis française.
''{{lang|fr|Je suis''française''.|italic=no}}'' →[Je suisfrançaise.]Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) – italic markup in conflict with|italic=no
|italic=unset– disables template-provided styling;{{{2}}} is styled according to external or internal wiki markup:
{{lang|fr|Je suis française.|italic=unset}} →Je suis française.
''{{lang|fr|Je suis française.|italic=unset}}'' →Je suis française.
{{lang|fr|''Je suis'' English.|italic=unset}} →Je suis English.
There is a version of this template,{{langx}}, which is intended to be used the first time a language appears in an article. These templates will print the language's name and, when appropriate, italicize their content:
A'''kremlin''' ({{langx|ru|кремль}}, 'castle') is a major fortified central complex ... → Akremlin (Russian:кремль, 'castle') is a major fortified central complex ...
While the{{langx}} template outputs text in italics for languages with Latin-based scripts, if plain text is required, such as for proper names,|italic=no or{{noitalic}} may be used:
the border town of Ventimiglia ({{langx|fr|Vintimille}}) → the border town of Ventimiglia (French:Vintimille)
the border town of Ventimiglia ({{langx|fr|italic=no|Vintimille}}) → the border town of Ventimiglia (French:Vintimille)
the border town of Ventimiglia ({{langx|fr|{{noitalic|Vintimille}}}}) → the border town of Ventimiglia (French:Vintimille)
When formatting foreign-language text to match style guidelines, it is best to exclude the styling markup from the template, so that any extraneous markup which is not from the foreign language does not receive incorrect metadata for that language. This includes: English-language quotation marks around titles of works in languages that use other quotation character glyphs; italicization of titles in languages which do not use that convention; and emphasis that is not found (in one style or another) in the original foreign text; among other cases. If in doubt, put such markup outside the template when possible.
To embed a string of right-to-left text (such asArabic orHebrew) within the usual left-to-right context,|rtl=yes should be added to correctly communicate writing direction. To mark a whole paragraph of right-to-left text,{{rtl-para}} should be used instead.
Any of these approaches will wrap the text in a container with thedir="rtl" attribute. In order to ensure correct rendering in browsers that do not fully supportHTML5bidirectional isolation, aleft-to-right mark is also added to the end of the text (see theW3C for details).
Note that text direction does not need to be specified when using the{{lang-xx}} templates, as this is implied by the template's language.
Exception for scientific names
PerMOS:SCIENTIFIC,scientific names are never marked up with{{lang}} or related templates.
yes indicates that the writing system used for the content in|text= is right-to-left; accepted values are:no (default),yes
IETF script subtag in|code= (if provided)
|italic=
see table "lang |italic= parameter operation"; accepted values are:yes,no,unset,invert,default
–
|italics=,|i=
|size=
specifies font size of the content intext; use a value suitable for use with the CSSfont-size property; this should almost always be a relative value supplied in% orem units, not a fixedpx value.
–
|proto=
accepted values are:no (default) oryes (default for private-use language tags with the-x-proto subtags); whenyes (default or explicit), prefixes rendered text with an asterisk indicating 'unattested'
–
|cat=
inhibits automatic categorization; mirror version of|nocat=; accepted values are:no,n,false,f,off,0
–
|nocat=
inhibits automatic categorization; mirror version of|cat=; accepted values are:yes,y,true,t,on,1
{{Lang|de|... ein neues Opernprojekt in Angriff:''Das Käthchen von Heilbronn'', nach Heinrich von Kleists gleichnamigem Drama.|italic=invert}}
... ein neues Opernprojekt in Angriff:Das Käthchen von Heilbronn, nach Heinrich von Kleists gleichnamigem Drama.
{{Lang|de|''... ein neues Opernprojekt in Angriff: ''Das Käthchen von Heilbronn'', nach Heinrich von Kleists gleichnamigem Drama.''|italic=unset}}
... ein neues Opernprojekt in Angriff:Das Käthchen von Heilbronn, nach Heinrich von Kleists gleichnamigem Drama.
The function selector parameter
{{lang}} uses the Lua functionlang()Module:Lang. That module also supports all of the{{lang-??}} templates using the Lua functionslang_xx_inherit() andlang_xx_italic(). The module has other functions that may be useful. The function selector parameter|fn= tells module:lang which function to execute. The available functions are:
is_ietf_tag – returnstrue if the providedIETF language tag is valid; nil else
{{lang|fn=is_ietf_tag|nv}} →true←
{{lang|fn=is_ietf_tag|xx}} →←
is_lang_name – returnstrue if the provided language name is valid; nil else
{{lang|fn=is_lang_name|navajo}} →true←
{{lang|fn=is_lang_name|xxxxx}} →←
lang – the function that renders{{lang}}; listed here for completeness, this particular usage is more-or-less pointless
name_from_tag – returns the language name associated with the provided IETF language tag:
{{lang|fn=name_from_tag|apa}} → Apache languages
tag_from_name – returns the ISO 639 language code (sometimes IETF language tag) associated with the provided language name:
{{lang|fn=tag_from_name|havasupai}} → yuf-x-hav
xlit – the function that renders{{transliteration}}; listed here for completeness, this particular usage is more-or-less pointless
If necessary, anISO 15924 script code can be appended to a language code to indicate the use of a specific script. For instance,Tajik (tg) is a language which can be found written inArabic (Arab),Latin (Latn), andCyrillic (Cyrl) scripts, making it necessary to always specify which script is in use. In such a case, taking care to preserve the script code's capitalization, we could end up with the following code (language tags in bold):
Many languages, however, are so commonly written in one particular script that specifying the script is unnecessary. Russian, for instance, is almost exclusively written in Cyrillic, so there is no need to specifyru-Cyrl, just asen-Latn would be unnecessary for English. Thesubtag registry contains up-to-date information on which languages have common script codes that should be "suppressed".
Transliteration
To mark a language which has beentransliterated from one script into another, append the new script's code to the code of the original language. So if transliterating from Russian Cyrillic to a Latin script, the language tag on the transliteration would beru-Latn. If the transliteration scheme is known, and listed as a "variant" in thesubtag registry, it can be appended after any script and region codes. For example, Chinese transliterated into a Latin script using thepinyin system would bezh-Latn-pinyin. As a convenience for transliterating to Latin scripts, and to work around browser styling issues with some language and script combinations,{{transliteration}} may be used in place of{{lang}}:
The{{lang}} template is not used to specify a single symbol or character in a script, unrelated to any specific language. Many times the character or symbol is used in several languages, but when the article refers to thegrapheme itself, the template{{script}} should be used:
The Chinese character {{script|Hani|字}} has 6 strokes.
The codemis, for “miscellaneous", is used to indicate that the language does not appear in ISO-639.
Indicating regional variant
When it is necessary to indicate region-specific language, anISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code, orUN M49 region code, should be added to the language tag, taking care to preserve capitalization. For example, Portuguese (pt) as used in Brazil (BR) could be represented aspt-BR, and Spanish as used in Latin America ases-419.
Additionally, language, script, and region codes can all appear in the same tag. For instance, the codezh-Hant-TW should be used for Chinese text written withTraditional Han characters, containing words or expressions specific toTaiwan:
This template supports various private-useIETF language tags. Private-use tags contain the-x- singleton and are used by the template to identify languages that are different, for one reason or another, from the base language identified by the ISO 639 language tag.
Supported private-use IETF language tags
Language
Private-use tag
Aeolic Greek
grc-x-aeolic
Ammonite
sem-x-ammonite
Anatolian languages
ine-x-anatolia
Aramaic
sem-x-aramaic
Arcadocypriot Greek
grc-x-arcadcyp
Attic Greek
grc-x-attic
Bergamasque
lmo-x-berg
Biblical Greek
grc-x-biblical
Byzantine Greek
grc-x-byzant
Canaanite languages
sem-x-canaan
Classical Greek
grc-x-classic
Classical Latin
la-x-classic
Colognian
ksh-x-colog
Common Brittonic
cel-x-combrit
Cremish
lmo-x-cremish
Dadanitic
sem-x-dadanit
Demotic Egyptian
egy-x-demotic
Doric Greek
grc-x-doric
Dumaitic
sem-x-dumaitic
East Central German
gmw-x-ecg
Eastern Gurage
sem-x-egurage
Ecclesiastical Latin
la-x-church
Franc-Comtois
fr-x-frainc
Hatran Aramaic
sem-x-hatran
Havasupai
yuf-x-hav
Hellenistic Greek
grc-x-hellen
Himyaritic
xsa-x-himyarit
Hismaic
sem-x-hismaic
Ionic Greek
grc-x-ionic
Koine Greek
grc-x-koine
Late Babylonian Akkadian
akk-x-latbabyl
Late Egyptian
egy-x-late
Late Latin
la-x-late
Medieval Greek
grc-x-medieval
Medieval Latin
la-x-medieval
Middle Assyrian Akkadian
akk-x-midassyr
Middle Babylonian Akkadian
akk-x-midbabyl
Middle Egyptian
egy-x-middle
Milanese
lmo-x-milanese
Mitanni-Aryan
inc-x-mitanni
Nabataean Arabic
ar-x-nabat
Nabataean Aramaic
sem-x-nabat
Neo-Assyrian Akkadian
akk-x-neoassyr
Neo-Babylonian Akkadian
akk-x-neobabyl
New Latin
la-x-new
Old Akkadian
akk-x-old
Old Anatolian Turkish
trk-x-oldanat
Old Assyrian Akkadian
akk-x-oldassyr
Old Babylonian Akkadian
akk-x-oldbabyl
Old Catalan
ca-x-old
Old Egyptian
egy-x-old
Old Latin
la-x-old
Old Prussian
prg-x-old
Old South Arabian
sem-x-oldsoara
Palmyrene Aramaic
sem-x-palmyren
Pamphylian Greek
grc-x-pamph
Patristic Greek
grc-x-patris
Pontic Scythian
xsc-x-pontic
Proto-Albanian
sq-x-proto
Proto-Algonquian
alg-x-proto
Proto-Celtic
cel-x-proto
Proto-Finno-Ugric
fiu-x-proto
Proto-Germanic
gem-x-proto
Proto-Greek
grk-x-proto
Proto-Indo-Aryan
inc-x-proto
Proto-Indo-European
ine-x-proto
Proto-Indo-Iranian
iir-x-proto
Proto-Iranian
ira-x-proto
Proto-Italic
itc-x-proto
Proto-Kartvelian
ccs-x-proto
Proto-Norse
gmq-x-proto
Proto-Romance
roa-x-proto
Proto-Samic
smi-x-proto
Proto-Semitic
sem-x-proto
Proto-Slavic
sla-x-proto
Proto-Uralic
urj-x-proto
Proto-West Germanic
gmw-x-proto
Quebec French
fr-x-quebec
Renaissance Latin
la-x-ren
Ripuarian
mis-x-ripuar
Ruthenian
zle-x-ruthenia
Safaitic
ar-x-safaitic
Saka
xsc-x-saka
Sarmatian
xsc-x-sarmat
Seto
et-x-seto
Taymanitic
sem-x-taymanit
Uropi
art-x-uropi
Vulgar Latin
la-x-vulgar
Walapai
yuf-x-wal
Western Asturian
ast-x-west
Yavapai
yuf-x-yav
Links
{{lang}} emits a language-specific category link when used in article space (one of the categories inCategory:Articles containing non-English-language text). Category wikilinks within wikilinks are not accepted by MediaWiki.
This example is a simulation because{{lang}} does not categorize in the Template namespace:
[[Book of hours|{{lang|de|Stundenbuch}}]]
[[Book of hours|<spantitle="German-language text"><ilang="de">Stundenbuch</i></span>[[Category:Articles containing German-language text]]]]
[[Book of hours|Stundenbuch]]
To create a working link, set|nocat=yes:
[[Book of hours|{{lang|de|Stundenbuch|nocat=yes}}]]
[[Book of hours|<spantitle="German-language text"><ilang="de">Stundenbuch</i></span>]]
Useful for research or compiling statistics about language use in Wikipedia.
Applying styles
Registered users can apply customCSS styles to articles by placing style declarations in their user style sheet. The user style sheet can be created atSpecial:Mypage/common.css. For more information, seeHelp:User style. The following examples should work in mostmodern browsers.
To apply a specific font to all text marked as Russian of any script or region:
[lang|=ru]{font-family:fonteskaya;}/* or */:lang(ru){font-family:fonteskaya;}
To apply a specific font to text marked simply as Russian:
[lang=ru]{font-family:fonteskaya;}
To apply a color to all text marked with any language:
[lang]{color:green;}
If a font name contains characters besides basic Latin letters or hyphens, it is a good idea to enclose it in quotation marks because some such characters have special meanings (the most common case needing quotation marks is a multi-word font name with space characters). Quotation marks are also required for font families containing generic-family keywords ('inherit', 'serif', 'sans-serif', 'monospace', 'fantasy', and 'cursive'). See theW3C for more details.
You can combine this with font imports in your user stylesheet, for example, to show all German text inFraktur and all Urdu inNotoNastaliq Urdu Regular:
then the following wikitext will look like the image below:
Victor jagt zwölf Boxkämpfer quer über den Sylter Deich{{lang|de-Latf|Victor jagt zwölf Boxkämpfer quer über den Sylter Deich}}ٹھنڈ میں، ایک قحط زدہ گاؤں سے گزرتے وقت ایک چڑچڑے، بااثر و فارغ شخص کو بعض جل پری نما اژدہے نظر آئے۔{{lang|ur|ٹھنڈ میں، ایک قحط زدہ گاؤں سے گزرتے وقت ایک چڑچڑے، بااثر و فارغ شخص کو بعض جل پری نما اژدہے نظر آئے۔}}
