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From: eijkhout@s41.csrd.uiuc.edu (Victor Eijkhout)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: \language (was TeXBook 3.0)
Keywords: \language
Message-ID: <1990Oct18.230710.25463@csrd.uiuc.edu>
Date: 18 Oct 90 23:07:10 GMT
References: <9010080451.AA09100@june.cs.washington.edu> <1990Oct14.024309.8657@maths.tcd.ie> <38270@ut-emx.uucp>
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myers@ut-emx.uucp (Eric Myers) writes:

>In article <1990Oct14.024309.8657@maths.tcd.ie> tim@maths.tcd.ie
>(Timothy Murphy) writes: 
>>The new primitive \language is dealt with

>Could you (or someone) summarize what this does?  

There is a 'current language' and there is the parameter \language.
The cl determines what hyphenation table is used. Whenever a
character is added to a horizontal list TeX compares the cl
to \language, and if they differ a whatsit node is inserted
switching the cl.

Changing \language in IniTeX is used to add \pattern or
\hyphenation (also outside IniTeX) for several languages.

Victor.