[SOLVED] LDAP attribute to encode the language of human users mother tongue?

LDAP attribute to encode the language of human users mother tongue?

What would be the canonical attribute in an LDAP schema to encode the mother tongue (first language) of a user?

Interop with default/existing administration tools for Windows Active Directory would be a big plus.

Solution

The 'preferredLanguage' attribute of the inetOrgPerson (and AD's user) object class is what you are after.

As far as I know this field is not exposed by the default Windows admin tools. You would need a lower-level tool such as adsiedit.msc.

2.7. Preferred Language

Used to indicate an individual's preferred written or spoken
language. This is useful for international correspondence or human- computer interaction. Values for this attribute type MUST conform to the definition of the Accept-Language header field defined in [RFC2068] with one exception: the sequence "Accept-Language" ":" should be omitted. This is a single valued attribute type.
( 2.16.840.1.113730.3.1.39
  NAME 'preferredLanguage'
  DESC 'preferred written or spoken language for a person'
  EQUALITY caseIgnoreMatch
  SUBSTR caseIgnoreSubstringsMatch
  SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.15
  SINGLE-VALUE )
)