The :lang()
CSS pseudo-class matches elements based on the language they are determined to be in.
/* Selects any <p> in English (en) */ p:lang(en) { quotes: '\201C' '\201D' '\2018' '\2019'; }
Note: In HTML, the language is determined by a combination of the lang
attribute, the <meta>
element, and possibly by information from the protocol (such as HTTP headers). For other document types there may be other document methods for determining the language.
:lang( <language-code> )
<language-code>
<string>
representing the language you want to target. Acceptable values are specified in the HTML spec.In this example, the :lang()
pseudo-class is used to match the parents of quote elements (<q>
) using child combinators. Note that this doesn't illustrate the only way to do this, and that the best method to use depends on the type of document. Also note that Unicode values are used to specify some of the special quote characters.
<div lang="en"><q>This English quote has a <q>nested</q> quote inside.</q></div> <div lang="fr"><q>This French quote has a <q>nested</q> quote inside.</q></div> <div lang="de"><q>This German quote has a <q>nested</q> quote inside.</q></div>
:lang(en) > q { quotes: '\201C' '\201D' '\2018' '\2019'; } :lang(fr) > q { quotes: '« ' ' »'; } :lang(de) > q { quotes: '»' '«' '\2039' '\203A'; }
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
Selectors Level 4 The definition of ':lang()' in that specification. | Working Draft | Adds wildcard language matching and comma-separated list of languages. |
Selectors Level 3 The definition of ':lang()' in that specification. | Recommendation | No significant change. |
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1) The definition of ':lang()' in that specification. | Recommendation | Initial definition. |
Desktop | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari | |
Basic support | 1 | Yes | 1 | 8 | 8 | 3.1 |
Mobile | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Android webview | Chrome for Android | Edge Mobile | Firefox for Android | Opera for Android | iOS Safari | Samsung Internet | |
Basic support | 1 | ? | Yes | 4 | 8 | 3.1 | ? |
:lang
, :dir
lang
attribute
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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:lang