Hoi,
As far as I understand it, for an anonymous user the message is first the language of the Wiki, then the fall back language for that language and then English. When a user has set a preference, it is this language then a potential fall back language and then English.

You always get a message, whether or not you get the message.
Thanks,
     GerardM

On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 3:10 PM, Brianna Laugher <brianna.laugher@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,

AFAIK there is no document on mediawiki.org which says this
definitively yet. what order are the following things consulted in, in
finding a relevant system message?

XX - wiki's default language (not en, for argument's sake)
YY - user's language preference (not en or XX)
ZZ - language code specified in the URL as uselang=ZZ (not en, XX or YY)

A MessagesEn.php
B MessagesXX.php
C MessagesYY.php
D MessagesZZ.php
E MediaWiki:Message
F MediaWiki:Message/XX
G MediaWiki:Message/YY
H MediaWiki:Message/ZZ
??? any others???

(assume also for interest's sake that a particular one may not be
defined, so it has to keep looking)

Is this the order?
H
E
D
B
A

thanks,
Brianna

--
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
http://modernthings.org/

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