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Section I: The Language Element

Purpose of this section

This section describes the rules governing the use of the Language element (number 9) in creating metadata records. Note that this element relates to the language of the resource itself, not the language of the metadata. For an example, refer to V.5.3.

I.1. Rules for the Language Element

I.1.1. Name

Language

I.1.2. Definition

The language of the content of the resource, or the language in which the service is provided.

I.1.3. Purpose

This element allows a search to be restricted to resources in a specific language. It is not intended to be a primary search point.

For example, "find all resources published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade which are in German".

I.1.4. Obligation

Recommended

I.1.5. Element refinements 

None

I.1.6. Encoding schemes

Compulsory - RFC3066 - tags for the identification of languages

- RFC3166 - tags for countries

I.1.7. Default value

en

I.1.8. Scope and interpretation

Language values are chosen from a standard set. The language value "en" should be used in preference to "en-nz' unless a knowledge of New Zealand colloquial English is required to make sense of the resource.

The language value is a two letter language code from the standard resource, which can have a two letter country code following it as an option. For example, "en" means English, and "en-gb" means English with the United Kingdom influence or colloquial style. A full list of language codes is available at: http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3066.txt .

Where a single resource contains more than one language, repeat the Language element to cover each language.

Where a resource exists separately in a different language, it is treated as a separate resource. Each version gets its own metadata record.

I.1.9. The role of Language in the Portal

The Portal may use this element to allow searching by language.

Displayed on metadata full record screen.

I.1.10. Examples

[RFC3066]en

English

[RFC3066]en-nz

English as used in New Zealand

[RFC3066]mi

Maori

[RFC3066]sm

Samoan

[RFC3066]to

Tongan

[RFC3066]tkl

Tokelau

[RFC3066]sgn-nz

New Zealand Sign Language

I.2. Language Element Values

I.2.1. Language codes - RFC 3066

ab Abkhazian af Afrikaans ar Arabic az Azerbaijani bg Bulgarian bo Tibetan ca Catalan co Corsican cs Czech cy Welsh da Danish de German el Greek en English es Spanish et Estonian fa Persian fi Finnish fj Fiji fr French ga Irish gd Scots Gaelic he Hebrew hi Hindi hr Croatian hu Hungarian hy Armenian id Indonesian it Italian iu Inuktitut (Eskimo) ja Japanese jw Javanese ka Georgian km Cambodian ko Korean ks Kashmiri ku Kurdish lt Lithuanian lv Latvian, Lettish mi Maori mk Macedonian

ml Malayalam mn Mongolian mo Moldavian ms Malay mt Maltese my Burmese ne Nepali

niu Niuean nl Dutch no Norwegian pa Punjabi pl Polish pt Portuguese

rar Rarotongan [Cook Islands] ro Romanian ru Russian sa Sanskrit sh Serbo-Croatian sk Slovak sl Slovenian sm Samoan so Somali sq Albanian sr Serbian su Sundanese sv Swedish sw Swahili ta Tamil th Thai tkl Tokelau to Tonga tr Turkish ug Uigur uk Ukrainian ur Urdu vi Vietnamese yi Yiddish za Zhuang zh Chinese zu Zulu

I.2.2. Country codes - ISO 3166

af Afghanistan al Albania dz Algeria ar Argentina au Australia at Austria az Azerbaijan bd Bangladesh be Belgium ba Bosnia-Herzeg. br Brazil bg Bulgaria kh Cambodia cm Cameroon ca Canada cl Chile cn China cx Christmas Island cc Cocos Islands co Colombia ck Cook Islands hr Croatia cu Cuba cz Czech Republic dk Denmark tp East Timor eg Egypt sv El Salvador ee Estonia fj Fiji fi Finland fr France de Germany gh Ghana gr Greece hk Hong Kong hu Hungary in India id Indonesia ir Iran iq Iraq ie Ireland il Israel it Italy jp Japan

kr Korea kw Kuwait lb Lebanon mk Macedonia my Malaysia mx Mexico ma Morocco np Nepal nl Netherlands nc New Caledonia nz New Zealand ng Nigeria no Norway pk Pakistan pg Papua N. Guinea py Paraguay pe Peru ph Philippines pl Poland pt Portugal ro Romania ru Russian Federation sa Saudi Arabia sg Singapore si Slovenia za South Africa es Spain lk Sri Lanka se Sweden ch Switzerland tw Taiwan th Thailand tn Tunisia tr Turkey ua Ukraine ae Un. Arab Emirates gb United Kingdom us United States uy Uruguay uz Uzbekistan vu Vanuatu ve Venezuela vn Viet Nam yu Yugoslavia zw Zimbabwe

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