Help:System messages

In principle for every language a set of ca. 1800 system messages in that language is provided in the message file languages/Messageslanguagecode.php. In the preferences a logged-in user can select an interface language. For incidental use it can also be specified in the URL with the parameter uselang=language_code. As of October 2007 there are ca. 150 interface languages to choose from.

Each MediaWiki site has a site language. This is the default interface language for that site.

Typically the code uses the site language in link targets and the user-specified language in other texts, including link labels.

HTML elements which are not normally passed on to the browser, are when occurring in certain messages.