RFC 3282 (rfc3282) - Page 2 of 8
Content Language Headers
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 3282 Content Language Headers May 2002 A prerequisite for any such function is a means of labelling the information content with an identifier for the language that is used in this information content, such as is defined by [TAGS]. This document specifies a protocol element for use with protocols that use RFC 822-like headers for carrying language tags as defined in [TAGS]. The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119]. 2. The Content-language header The "Content-Language" header is intended for use in the case where one desires to indicate the language(s) of something that has RFC 822-like headers, such as MIME body parts or Web documents. The RFC 822 EBNF of the Content-Language header is: Content-Language = "Content-Language" ":" 1#Language-tag In the more strict RFC 2234 ABNF: Content-Language = "Content-Language" ":" [CFWS] Language-List Language-List = Language-Tag [CFWS] *("," [CFWS] Language-Tag [CFWS]) The Content-Language header may list several languages in a comma- separated list. The CFWS construct is intended to function like the whitespace convention in RFC 822, which means also that one can place parenthesized comments anywhere in the language sequence, or use continuation lines. A formal definition is given in RFC 2822 [RFC 2822]. In keeping with the tradition of RFC 2822, a more liberal "obsolete" grammar is also given: obs-content-language = "Content-Language" *WSP ":" [CFWS] Language-List Like RFC 2822, this specification says that conforming implementations MUST accept the obs-content-language syntax, but MUST NOT generate it; all generated headers MUST conform to the Content- Language syntax. Alvestrand Standards Track
