language

language is an open-ended system variable that records the most recent language used in the survey. The data collection varies between software versions:

• In r8, the data reflects both the language and regional variant, for example 'english_au' for Australian English.
• In r9+, only the language is stored, for example 'english'. The country information can be obtained through additional variables such as base_country or locale.

See List of languages and abbreviations for a full list of possible values for language.

Creating a quota based on 'language'

Programmers often create a secondary survey variable to convert open-ended language data into closed-ended data, enabling further data analysis and variable creation, like building quotas.

In r8 software versions, you could reference the language variable directly in a quota. For example, the quota below tracks which respondents took the survey in English versus those that took it in Arabic. 

LANGUAGE. QUOTA | Language
type: quotas
1. English    {if $language eq 'english'  }
2. Arabic UAE {if $language eq 'arabic_ae'}