xml:lang

[tage fredheim]

Hello, I am converting an EPUB-file to docx using calibre. In the text there are several description lists, i.e. glossaries, With the English and the translated Norwegian text:

<dl><dt>mind: </dt><dd lang="no" xml:lang="no">sinn</dd>

My question is: Will this information (xml:lang) be transferred to the docx-file, so that the synthetic Speech will change accordingly?

/Tage

[kovidgoyal]

Try it and see. You can convert to docx and convert back to see if the lang information was preserved.

[tage fredheim]

Hi, I convert the epub to docx and then back to epub to check whether the Language metadata is preserved.

My original epub file has the following Language metadata:

<dc:language xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:dtb="http://www.daisy.org/z3986/2005/dtbook/" xmlns:d="http://www.daisy.org/ns/pipeline/data" id="language_1">en</dc:language>

Then I convert the epub to docx and then back to epub to check whether the Language metadata is preserved, but now it is changed from "en" to "nb":

<dc:language>nb</dc:language>

This is an English Learning book so it is essential that the spoken Language is indeed English in the docx.

In the text glossary the Language is preserved e.g.

<p>Page 221:</p><dl><dt>completely: </dt><dd lang="no" xml:lang="no">fullstendig</dd><dt>out of fashion: </dt><dd lang="no" xml:lang="no">ikke på moten</dd>

Konvertert tilbake til epub fra docx:

<p class="block_6"><span class="text_">Page 221:</span></p>
<ul class="list_">
<li class="block_9"><span class="text_">completely: </span><span lang="no" class="text_">fullstendig</span></li>

So it seems that the main language "en" is lost converting to docx.

[kovidgoyal]

Set the language in the book metadata and it will be sued during conversion.

[tage fredheim]

OK, how can that be achieved programmatically? Currently my programmatic interface is:

try:
self.utils.report.info("Konverterer fra XHTML til DOCX...")
process = self.utils.filesystem.run(["/usr/bin/ebook-convert",
html_file,
os.path.join(temp_docxdir, epub.identifier() + ".docx"),
"--no-chapters-in-toc",
"--toc-threshold=0",
"--docx-page-size=a4",
# "--linearize-tables",
"--extra-css=/home/statped/Dokumenter/produksjonssystem/produksjonssystem/extra.css",
"--embed-font-family=Verdana", # microsoft fonts must be installed (sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer)
"--docx-page-margin-top=42",
"--docx-page-margin-bottom=42",
"--docx-page-margin-left=70",
"--docx-page-margin-right=56",
"--base-font-size=13",
"--font-size-mapping=13,13,13,13,13,13,13,13"])

[kovidgoyal]

--language