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277 lines
7.7 KiB
277 lines
7.7 KiB
<!doctype html public '-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN'>
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language" CONTENT="en">
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<META NAME="Author" LANG="es" CONTENT="Manuel Tomas CARRASCO BENITEZ">
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<TITLE>Primary Language in HTML</TITLE>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
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<H3 ALIGN='RIGHT'>
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<A href='http://www.w3.org/'>
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<img border='0' align='left' alt='W3C' src='http://www.w3.org/Icons/WWW/w3c_home'>
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</A>
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</H3>
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<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>Primary Language in HTML</H1>
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<H3 ALIGN=CENTER>World Wide Web Consortium Note 13-March-1998</H3>
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<DL>
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<DT>This version:</DT>
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<DD>
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<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/NOTE-html-lan-19980313.html">http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/NOTE-html-lan-19980313.html</A></DD>
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<DT>Latest Version:</DT>
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<DD>
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<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-html-lan">http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-html-lan</A></DD>
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</DL>
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<DL>
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<DT>Editor:</DT>
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<DD>
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M.T. Carrasco Benitez
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<A HREF="#CAR">[CAR]</A>
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<A HREF="mailto:manuel.carrasco@emea.eudra.org"><manuel.carrasco@emea.eudra.org></A></DD>
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</DL>
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<H2>Status of this document</H2>
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This document is a NOTE made available by the W3 Consortium for discussion
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only. This indicates no endorsement of its content, nor that the Consortium
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has had any editorial control in its preparation, nor that the Consortium
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has, is, or will be allocating any resources to the issues addressed by
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the NOTE.
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<P>
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This document recommends how to mark the <EM>primary language(s)</EM>
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in a HTML document.
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It could be considered a clarification of the
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<EM>HTML 4.0 Specification</EM>
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<A HREF="#HTML40">[HTML40]</A>;
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in particular,
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it is not in contradiction with the HTML 4.0 Specification.
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The objective is to have a
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<EM>best practice</EM> in this field; at present there is some confusion.
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<H2>Abstract</H2>
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In HTML elements,
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the <CODE>lang</CODE> attribute specifies the natural language.
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This document is mostly concerned with how to specify the primary language(s)
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(there could be more than one)
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and the <EM>base language</EM>
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(there is only one)
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in HTML documents.
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<H2>Overview</H2>
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Most of the existing documents are monolingual.
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<EM>Linguistic versions</EM>
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(e.g., translations) of the same text are often kept as separated documents.
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This is indeed the most sensible approach.
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<P>
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Some documents are bilingual and few are trilingual or n-lingual.
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Bilingual documents are usually short;
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i.e, a few paragraphs.
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N-lingual documents are usually very short; a few sentences.
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<P>
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The main reason for the existence of n-lingual documents is political;
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i.e., in certain situations it is not politically correct to assume a base
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language. A common practice is to have one small document
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that is a menu of languages.
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For example,
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the Europa server of the European Commission
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<A HREF="#EUR">[EUR]</A>.
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<P>
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Another approach to choose the language is to set the client (e.g.,
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the browser) to the preferred language(s).
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The client will transmit the language(s) in the Accept-Language field of HTTP.
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Immediately, the server will send an appropriate document.
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For example, the Spanish version will
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be presented if the language preferences (in the browser) are Spanish and
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French and the document is available (in the server)
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in French, German and Spanish.
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<H2>Where to specify the primary language(s)</H2>
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There should be <STRONG>one</STRONG> recommended place
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to specify the primary language(s).
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It is recommended that the primary language(s) be specified in a META element.
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For example:
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<PRE>
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language" Content="fr">
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<TITLE><SPAN lang=fr>Mon doc</SPAN></TITLE>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<SPAN lang=fr>Je suis un Berlinois</span>.
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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</PRE>
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<P>
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The value of the <CODE>Content</CODE> attribute
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of the META element is the same as the
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value of the <CODE>Content-Language</CODE> header in HTTP;
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i.e,
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a comma-separated list of language codes.
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For example:
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<P>
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<CODE>
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<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language" Content="fr,en">
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</CODE>
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<P>
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These language codes are the same used in the <CODE>lang</CODE>
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attribute of some HTML elements.
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For example:
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<P>
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<CODE>
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<BODY LANG=fr>
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</CODE>
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<P>
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The language codes are defined in
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<A HREF="#RFC1766">[RFC1766]</A>.
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See also
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<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/dirlang.html#h-8.1.1">
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<EM>8.1.1 Language codes</EM>
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</A>
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of the HTML 4.0 Specification <A HREF="#HTML40">[HTML40]</A>
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and
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<A HREF="#RFC2068">[RFC2068]</A>.
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<P>
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The order of the languages in the Content-Language is significant.
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The first language in the list is the base language of the document;
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i.e., any text not re-specified with the <CODE>lang</CODE> attribute is in
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the base language.
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<P>
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The META should not be marked with more than one language in
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documents with minor fragments in other languages.
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The rules to specify a document as
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monolingual, bilingual or n-lingual are the same as for printed books.
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<P>
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The reason for recommending META as opposed to the HTML element with
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the <CODE>lang</CODE> attribute are:
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<UL>
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<LI>
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N-lingual document could be specified.
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For example, a bilingual French/Spanish document can be specified.
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</LI>
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<LI>
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The language(s) would be transmitted in the Content-Language field of HTTP
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header.
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</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>
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A <CODE>lang</CODE> attribute in the HTML element overrides the language
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specified in the META element.
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The inheritance rules are in
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<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/dirlang.html#h-8.1.2">
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<EM>
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8.1.2 Language information and text direction
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</EM>
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</A>
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of the HTML 4.0 Specification
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<A HREF="#HTML40">[HTML40]</A>.
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<H2>Acknowledgment</H2>
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The recommendations are the rough consensus from the mailing list
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www-international@w3.org
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<A HREF="#LIST">[LIST]</A>
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of the W3C and a meeting during the Unicode Conference in Mainz in March 1997.
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<P>
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In particular, thanks to
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<BR>
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<UL>
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<LI> Bert Bos from the W3C,
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<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/People/Bos/">
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http://www.w3.org/People/Bos/
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</A>
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<LI> Martin Dürst from the W3C,
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<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/People/W3Cpeople.html#Durst/">
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http://www.w3.org/People/W3Cpeople.html#Durst
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</A>
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</UL>
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<H2>References</H2>
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<DL>
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<DT>
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<A NAME="CAR"></A>[CAR]
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<DD>
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M.T. Carrasco Benitez.
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<A HREF="HTTP://dragoman.org">http://dragoman.org/</A>
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<DT>
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<A NAME="EUR"></A>[EUR]
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<DD>
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Europa. <A HREF="http://europa.eu.int">http://europa.eu.int/</A>
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<DT><A NAME="HTML40"></A>[HTML40]
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<DD>
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HTML 4.0 Specification.
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<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/">http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/</A>
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<BR>
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In particular:
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<BR>
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<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/intro/intro.html#h-2.3.1">2.3.1
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Internationalization</A>
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<BR>
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<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/charset.html#h-5.1">5.1 The
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Document Character Set</A>
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<BR>
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<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/global.html#h-7.4.4">7.4.4
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Meta data</A>
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<BR>
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<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/dirlang.html#h-8">8
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Language information and text direction</A>
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<DT>
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<A NAME="LIST">[LIST]</A>
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<DD>
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<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/International/O-misc-mlists.html">
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http://www.w3.org/International/O-misc-mlists.html
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</A>
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<DT>
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<A NAME="RFC1766">[RFC1766]</A>
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<DD>
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<EM>Tags for the Identification of Languages</EM>, H. Alvestrand, March 1995.
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<BR>
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Available at
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<A HREF="http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1766.txt">http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1766.txt</A>
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<DT>
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<A NAME="RFC2068">[RFC2068]</A>
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<DD>
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<EM>Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1</EM>,
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R. Fielding, J. Gettys, J. Mogul, H. Frystyk Nielsen and T. Berners-Lee,
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January 1997.
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<BR>
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Available at
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<A HREF="http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2068.txt">http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2068.txt</A>
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<BR>
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In particular:
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<BR>
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3.10 Language Tags
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<BR>
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12 Content Negotiation
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<BR>
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12.3 Transparent Negotiation
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<BR>
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14.4 Accept-Language
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<BR>
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14.13 Content-Laguage
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<BR>
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14.43 Vary
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<BR>
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15.7 Privacy Issues Connected to Accept Headers
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<BR>
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</DL>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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