Web/API/NavigatorLanguage/language

The NavigatorLanguage.language read-only property returns a string representing the preferred language of the user, usually the language of the browser UI.

Syntax

const lang = navigator.language

Value

A DOMString. lang stores a string representing the language version as defined in BCP 47. Examples of valid language codes include "en", "en-US", "fr", "fr-FR", "es-ES", etc.

Note that in Safari on iOS prior to 10.2, the country code returned is lowercase: "en-us", "fr-fr" etc.

Example

if (/^en\b/.test(navigator.language)) {       
  doLangSelect(window.navigator.language); 
}

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living StandardThe definition of 'NavigatorLanguage: language' in that specification.	Living Standard	Initial definition

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`language`	Chrome Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' Returns the browser UI language, not the value of the `Accept-Language` HTTP header.	Edge Full support 12 Notes' Full support 12 Notes' Notes' In Chromium versions of Edge, this returns the browser UI language, not the value of the `Accept-Language` HTTP header.	Firefox Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' Prior to Firefox 4, this property's value was also part of the user agent string, as reported by `navigator.userAgent`. Starting in Firefox 5, this property's value is based on the value of the `Accept-Language` HTTP header.	IE Full support 11 Notes' Full support 11 Notes' Notes' Closest available (non-standard) properties are `userLanguage` and `browserLanguage`.	Opera Full support 4	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' Returns the browser UI language, not the value of the `Accept-Language` HTTP header.	Chrome Android Full support 18 Notes' Full support 18 Notes' Notes' Returns the browser UI language, not the value of the `Accept-Language` HTTP header.	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0 Notes' Full support 1.0 Notes' Notes' Returns the browser UI language, not the value of the `Accept-Language` HTTP header.

Legend

Full support: Full support
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.