Is the `xml:lang` attribute required (in addition to the HTML `lang` attribute) when specifying the language of an XHTML element?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/812146
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03-07-2019 - |
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I've got an XHTML 1.0 Transitional document. Most of the content is in English, hence this is what I've got at the top:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
Some elements are in different languages, e.g.
<a href="#" lang="es">Español</a>
Do I need to add xml:lang="es" to elements like these as well, thus duplicating the language information?
Solution
If you're sending the file with the text/html MIME type, you should, because you're trying to use both HTML and XHTML. (Browsers will only look at the lang, though.)
If you're using the correct MIME type (application/xhtml+xml), on the other hand, only xml:lang="" is necessary, if (correctly) pointing out that you're using HTML, with an HTML doctype, you just need lang="".
OTHER TIPS
According to the XHTML 1.0 spec: yes, use both.
Doesn't say why though.
Dive Into Accessibility's language page says the same thing, as mentioned in Rahul's answer to a similar question.
