+>> --lang=XX could be a setup option, with a default value, then the template would be
+
+ <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="<TMPL_VAR LANG>" xml:lang="<TMPL_VAR LANG>">
+
+>>> Yes, that seems reasonable. I guess there's no problem with defaulting
+>>> to en if it can be overridden in the setup. --[[Joey]]
+
+>>>> Yes, english default makes sense. I guess we should use the `$config{lang}`,
+>>>> defined from the setup file or command-line options to define the default language
+>>>> (`$config{lang}` defaults to `en` which is fine) if the html pages, and override
+>>>> it from the `meta` directive.
+>>>> — [[NicolasLimare]]
+
+>>>>> ikiwiki already has a $config{locale}, which is a full locale (ie,
+>>>>> "en_US.UTF-8". This just needs to be parsed for the lang. --[[Joey]]
+
+>>>>>> My mistake, I meant $config{locale} --[[NicolasLimare]]
+
+> So the patch below could be changed to parse `$config{locale}` for the
+> language, and pass it if no specific lang was set for the page. The only
+> problem with that would be that this is all done inside the meta plugin,
+> so if that plugin were disabled, the lang would be empty. To avoid that,
+> I guess that the template needs to look like:
+
+ <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
+ <TMPL_IF NAME="LANG">lang="<TMPL_VAR LANG>" xml:lang="<TMPL_VAR LANG>"</TMPL_IF>>
+
+> Now it just needs to be finished up.. --[[Joey]]
+