This translation has not been editorially reviewed yet. The German version is authoritative. Deutsche Fassung →
Checking html lang: marking up the page's language
The lang attribute on the html element names the page's language. Search engines use it for classification, screen readers for pronunciation. The check verifies whether it's set and contains a valid language code.
- The effort is one attribute, the effect is substantial: with no value set, a screen reader may read German text aloud using English pronunciation rules — at that point, it's no longer understandable.
- On multilingual websites, the most common mistake is that the second language version inherits the first one's value. This nearly happened to us ourselves when building the English version.
