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Browse: Home / v2 / Elements / pbcoreDescriptionDocument / pbcoreInstantiation / instantiationLanguage

instantiationLanguage

The descriptor language identifies the primary language of a media item’s audio or text. Alternative audio or text tracks and their associated languages should be identified using the descriptor instantiationAlternativeModes.

XPATH LOCATION:

/ pbcoreDescriptionDocument / pbcoreInstantiation / instantiationLanguage

USAGE RULES:

Occurs:

1 time or less

May Contain:

4 or less optional attributes, specific:

Contained by:

Contained with:

[Any elements used MUST appear in this relative order]

EXAMPLES:

  • <instantiationLanguage source="ISO 639.2" ref="http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php">eng;fre</instantiationLanguage>
  • <instantiationLanguage source="ISO 639.2" ref="http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php" annotation="Algonquian languages">alg</instantiationLanguage>

VOCABULARIES:

  • PBCore recommends use of the ISO 639.2 or ISO 639.3 3-letter language codes.
  • If the media item has more than one language that is considered part of the same primary audio or text, then a combination statement can be crafted, e.g., eng;fre for the presence of both English and French in the primary audio. Separating three-letter language codes with a semi-colon (no additional spaces) is preferred.
  • Alternative audio or text tracks and their associated languages should be identified using the descriptor instantiationAlternativeModes.

2 responses to “instantiationLanguage”

2 Comments
  1. Dave Rice
    Dave Rice
    August 8, 2011 at 8:20 pm |

    The strange formatting of this field makes handling these values really challenging. Since PBCore is expressed in XML, I recommend that instantiationLanguage simply be maxOccurs = unbounded. The odd manner of handling language expressions as semicolon-delimited strings is inconsistent with the rest of the standard and a hassle to manage when building or parsing a PBCore document.

    For example, having:

    <instantiationLanguage>eng</instantiationLanguage>
    <instantiationLanguage>spa</instantiationLanguage>

    would be a lot more convenient, then having to deal with the string parsing inside:

    <instantiationLanguage>eng;spa</instantiationLanguage>

    Dave

  2. Jack Brighton
    Jack Brighton
    October 14, 2011 at 4:33 pm |

    I second Dave’s motion.

    Martina McGinn added this on the PBCore Talk listserv:
    “I agree and suggest that instantiationAlternativeModes could also
    warrant multiple occurrences (e.g. a film dubbed in English and sub-
    titled in Spanish). And it seems logical that if instantiationLanguage
    allows multiple occurrences then so should essenceTrackLanguage.”

    Seems like a minor schema tweak would iron out these rough spots. But of course there are others, and we need to follow through on identifying them, like this one.

    Jack

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