Template:Cleanup lang

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Usage

This template is intended primarily for:

• Articles with a high quantity of non-English text that has not been marked up with any language templates or codes.
• Articles with unidentified non-English text.

This includes:

• Foreign languages written using the Latin alphabet
• Foreign languages written using non-Latin alphabet scripts
• International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions
• Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) text

The addition of language templates on Wikipedia improves Wikipedia's accessibility. In adding language templates, visually-impaired readers who utilise screenreader technology will be able to hear words pronounced in the correct language, instead of them being pronounced phonetically in English. Place {{Cleanup lang|article|date=January 2025}} on articles where non-English text is used, but has not been marked up. If a section in an article does not use any language templates, place {{Cleanup lang|section|date=January 2025}} there. If you know the ISO language code for the non-English text that needs formatting, you can add this to the cleanup template under the parameter |iso=. The ISO code should be present in the infobox of the language's article; for example, Latin is la, and Manx language is gv. The basic language templates used on Wikipedia are:

• {{lang}} for foreign languages in their native script – this may be Latin alphabet or non-Latin alphabet text
• {{transliteration}} for foreign languages transliterated into the Latin alphabet – i.e., the romanisations of foreign-language words not ordinarily written in the Latin alphabet
• {{IPA}} for IPA transcriptions
• {{PIE}} for Proto-Indo-European language content

Wikipedia also has a number of language-specific multilingual support templates, such as {{nihongo}} and {{lang-zh}}, which feature parameters specific to those languages, such as parameters for different transliteration styles. This cleanup template automatically adds articles to Category:Pages with non-English text lacking appropriate markup, or a dated subcategory thereof.

When not to use

• If there is not much foreign-language content that needs marking up within an article; instead of a cleanup tag: if you know the language of the text, just add the appropriate language template to this text with the correct code.
• For the names of people and places: though the |italic= parameter exists in both {{lang}} and {{transliteration}}, and can be set to |italic=no, it is unnecessary to add language templates for the names of people and places.
• For loanwords to English: language templates are intended to improve Wikipedia's accessibility, but common loanwords to English are pronounced just fine by screenreaders. If you are unsure if something is a loanword, searching for it on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary should tell you whether it is a loanword to English or not; if it has an entry, it is likely to be a loanword.

This tag is intended to identify pages that need to specify the language of non-English content using {{lang}}, per MOS:FORITA.

Template parameters

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Month and year	date	The month and year that the template was placed (in full). "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically. Example January 2013 Auto value {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}	Line	suggested
ISO code	iso	The specific ISO 639 code to be used	String	suggested
Section?	1	Put 'section' if affected area is a section Auto value yes	String	optional

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Cleanup lang/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.