Encoded Archival Description Tag Library, Version 2002

EAD Elements

<language> Language

Description:

A subelement of <langusage> within the <profiledesc> portion of the <eadheader> that specifies the language or communication system in which the finding aid is written. For bilingual or multilingual finding aids, either identify each language in a separate <language> element, or mention only the predominant language. The LANGCODE attribute can be used to provide the three-letter ISO 639-2b code for the language.

Also a subelement of <langmaterial> within <did>, where it specifies the language of the materials being described. In this instance, the LANGCODE attribute may be used to provide the three-letter ISO 639-2b code which is the equivalent of the MARC 041 field.

The SCRIPTCODE attribute may be used to specify the ISO 15924 code for the script in which the language is written.

May contain:

#PCDATA, emph, extptr, lb, ptr

May occur within:

langmaterial, langusage

Attributes:

Examples:

1.
    <eadheader langencoding="iso639-2b">
        <eadid>[...]</eadid>
        <filedesc>[...]</filedesc>
        <profiledesc>
            <creation>[...]</creation>
            <langusage>Bilingual finding aid written in
            <language langcode="fre">French</language> and
            <language langcode="eng">English.</language>
            </langusage>
        </profiledesc>
    </eadheader>

2.
    <c01 level="series">
        <did>
            <unittitle>Correspondence, </unittitle>
            <unitdate type="inclusive">1854-1902.</unitdate>
            <physdesc>4 boxes</physdesc>
                <langmaterial>Correspondence in <language>French, </language>
                <language>German, </language>and <language>English.</language>
            </langmaterial>
        </did>
    </c01>