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The name of a language is in English in the IANA Language Subtag Registry #674

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The name of a language is in English in the IANA Language Subtag Registry #674

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5bab0b6
Mention name of a language in the IANA Registry
xfq Jun 6, 2025
29840a0
fix per @aphillips
xfq Jun 13, 2025
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5 changes: 2 additions & 3 deletions questions/qa-choosing-language-tags.en.html
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Expand Up @@ -125,10 +125,9 @@ <h2>Answer</h2>
</aside>
<h3>Accessing the subtag registry</h3>
<p>All the subtags you will need to create a language tag are found in one place, the <strong><a href="https://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry/language-subtag-registry">IANA Language Subtag Registry</a></strong>. The registry is a long text file, containing nearly 8,000 entries. </p>
<p>The first (and often only) subtag in a language tag always designates a language. It is referred to in BCP 47 as the <span class="newterm">primary language subtag</span>. We will use that term in this document to refer to the subtag that represents a language, to more clearly make the distinction from 'language tag', which refers to the whole thing.</p>
<p>The first (and often only) subtag in a language tag always designates a language. It is referred to in BCP 47 as the <span class="newterm">primary language subtag</span>. We will use that term in this document to refer to the subtag that represents a language, to more clearly make the distinction from 'language tag', which refers to the whole thing.</p>
<div class="sidenoteGroup">
<p>To find a primary-language subtag, search the page for the name of that language. For example, if you want to label something as French, searching
for '<span translate="no">French</span>' in the registry will bring you to a record that looks like this:</p>
<p>To find a primary language subtag, search the registry for the name of that language in English. For example, if you want to label something as French, searching for '<span translate="no">French</span>' in the registry will bring you to a record that looks like this:</p>
<aside class="sideinfonote" style="clear:both;">
<p class="warning">Some environments or systems may dictate choices that are different from what you would otherwise expect. For example, in Java you must use <code class="kw" translate="no">iw</code> (deprecated in BCP47) in place of <code class="kw" translate="no">he</code> (recommended in BCP47).</p>
</aside>
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